Schools obsessed with Hitler, says Church of England report

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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Schools obsessed with Hitler, says Church of England report

Telegraph Media Group / 27/06/2007


Schools are perpetuating damaging stereotypes of Germans because of 
their "obsession" with Hitler and the Second World War, it was 
claimed yesterday.

The vast numbers of pupils who choose to study the Nazi period in 
history is fuelling anti-German feeling, the Church of England said.

This undercurrent is reinforced by the large number of war films 
shown on television and the "drip feed" of anti-German comments in 
the media, a report said.

Its authors said that they had received letters from German 
Christians living in Britain who had experienced "shameful treatment".

"A teacher of German in a secondary school reported being repeatedly 
confronted with a 'Heil Hitler' and with swastikas on history books," 
said the report.

"The grandchild of another person found herself excluded, on a school 
trip to France, from visiting a British war cemetery 'as she was a 
Nazi' - this despite the fact that her grandfather came to Britain as 
a Jewish refugee."

It said that the role of Britain in defeating the Nazis had 
reinforced "a sense of moral righteousness" and inhibited 
"soul-searching" over our own history.

The Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nicholas Baines, said that the 
Church had written to the Department of Education urging schools to 
focus more on modern Germany.

"If you bring up children and their only images of Germany are of 
Fritz in a helmet, that is going to have an effect," he said.