RE: Radio Times ‘Dambusters’ letter…
Steve ,
I did’nt mean to offend and apologise if I did , however I would like to point out that there is no mention of the Holocaust in any German secondary school History syllabus , I worked with a few Germans for a period of 10 years and the only real knowledge they had of the Holocaust was self learnt from books and articles they read themselves , this is probably because that most Germans of the last generation knew of the existence of these camps and German industry took advantage of the cheap labour that 14 “death ” camps and 41 Concentration camps provided – it’s also a sad fact that 2 of the biggest users of forced labour -AG Bayer and Siemens are still major employers in Germany.It’s only in the past 15 years that books such as Olga Lengyels “Seven Chimneys” and “Hitlers Willing Executioners” were even printed in German .The Japanese have the same self denial attached to their own history too – the Second World war is not even mentioned in ANY Japanese schooling – although the Japanese/Russian War is.
Britain too shows some signs of self denial , prominent Jews were interned on the Isle of Man and were not allowed to join British regiments they could only serve in “alien ” units , also , Britain was the first user of “Concentration camps ” during the Boer War , this also is barely touched apon in the British history syllabus , we tend to hear of the siege of Mafeking and other historical highlights , very rarely ( if ever ) do we ever read in any British historical literature of the thousands of Boers and native African who were starved to death or died from Cholera in these camps.
However I do appreciate that the Flypast Forum is not the place to bring up or debate European History so I do apologise , I’ll stick to aviation from now on .
Alastair
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