Random How WWII Is Taught In Various Countries (12 items)

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  (#6) The Dutch Emphasize Heroic Tales Of Resistance

  From a former Redditor:

  [W]e learn about concentration camps, how lots of [J]ews were deported by train to [E]astern [E]urope from here (the [N]etherlands) to eventually die/be killed there. [W]e learn about the resistance movements here. [T]here are multiple children/youth books starring resistance members, and overall people involved in the resistance are seen as heroes.

  [W]e don't talk about the people who were members of the NSB (the [D]utch [Right Wing] party); we learn they existed but most people wouldn't admit someone in their family was a member of the NSB.

  [W]e learn about several common actions by the resistance. [H]iding people ([J]ews, but also [D]utch young guys pressed for military or industrial service for [G]ermany, [A]merican/[C]anadian/[E]nglish pilots who crashed, and even [G]erman deserters) is a big one.

  [A]nother well-known resistance action was destroying registration. [A]pparently the [N]etherlands had a relative good registration of citizens, including information on who was [J]ewish, which made it easy for the [G]ermans to locate [J]ews, so destroying paperwork saved a lot of lives.
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  (#2) Japan And South Korea Have Been Embroiled In A Long Dispute About History

  For years, the education ministries of Japan and South Korea have engaged in a sort of proxy conflict, escalating claims against one another in textbook descriptions of WWII. Among the points at issue is the ownership of the Liancourt Rocks, a group of islets in the Sea of Japan, which South Korea claims were ceded by Japan along with other offshore possessions after WWII.

  More remotely, but still in living memory for some, is the fate of the Korean "comfort women" who were impressed into sexual servitude for Japanese soldiers. In 2015, only one of the history textbooks approved by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, and Technology even mentioned comfort women. That same year, Japan offered reparations to former comfort women who still survived, but the issue wasn't put to rest, as this dark chapter of history continued to be a bone of contention in diplomacy between the two nations.
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  (#5) Polish Education Emphasizes The Civilian Struggle

  From Redditor u/DamaHam:

  First of all, it of course is highly concentrated on the conflicts in Europe. From what I remember there was emphasis on the everyday lives of the civilians such as those found in the ghettos created in Polish cities.

  My history teacher described situations where starvation was rampant throughout these ghettos and... some people were so desperate as to eat their pets, especially dogs or cats.
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  (#12) Russian Education Views Normandy And The Pacific As Sideshows

  From Redditor u/Maccabeus07:

  1941: USSR is cowardly attacked by [...] Germany... Allies don't do... jack sh*t on the Western [F]ront.

  1942: Empire strikes back. Allies toying with [German Gen. Erwin] Rommel in Africa.

  1943: [Germany] is on the verge of collapse. Allies hunting down already highly-unpopular-among-Italians Mussolini.

  1944: Empire marches towards Berlin. In panic, Allies open Western Front.

  1945: USSR wins war and proceeds to kick Japanese [butt] in Manchuria. Allies stuck somewhere on Elba.

  Minor points: Stalin is [a] homicidal maniac who almost single-handedly killed USSR. Molotov-Ribbentrop [P]act was a necessary evil. Bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden were unnecessary evil. Pacific Front was insignificant for victory... We save the world. The end.

  Redditor u/RRRusted adds:

  [We learn] [t]he whole thing since [the] early 1920s (rise of [Third Reich]) until Stalin's death in 1953 (I shall consider Stalin's efforts to reanimate the country after the devastating war as a part of WWII since it definitely is an aftermath).

  We learn mostly about Soviet-German relationships and, obviously, the stress is kept on our side of the war, but definitely we touch [on] western relationships with [the] Reich a bit, and get a closer look on the [W]estern [F]ront after [D-Day].

  Still, it depends on [the] person teaching. Our teacher was extremely biased and pro-Soviet, so she told us some extremely strange things from time to time. Firstly, she was... sure that in [the] USA everybody believes that their country by [it]self won WWII and saved the whole world ([I] have never seen any American who would think that way). Lastly, and that still makes me cringe, she was sure that Swastika is a symbol made of four Cyrillic Gs (Г) standing for four Nazi leaders (Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Göring — their surnames begin with Г in Russian). This makes so little sense that I still wonder how did that person end up teaching history in schools.
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  (#10) Norwegians View The British As The Real Heroes

  From Redditor u/mflbach:

  Norway: Holocaust, England is heroes, and USA joined [at] the last second to drop the bomb, and a big focus on the [German] invasion on Norway... USA not heroes here.
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  (#7) Italian Education Stresses Social Trends Over Battles And Is Broadly Anti-Fascist

  From Redditor Klesk_vs_Xaero:

  WW2 is studied in the last class of Scuola Media and Liceo which is to mean 13-14 years of age and 18-19 years of age. In both cases there is some separation between the period of unified Italy, culminating with Giolitti's age and leading to WW1 wich is studied in the first part of the year; and the interwar period, leading to WW2.

  [...]

  [A] book of exercises, catered to the 11-14 years old, groups the events in three chapters: The beginning of 20th century (from the belle epoque to WW1); The age of Totalitarian Regimes (from the Russian Revolution to 1929); The Short Century (from WW2 to 1989).

  Looking further into it, if you jump to page 61, the student is asked to comment on the famous Discorso dei Manipoli which inaugurated Mussolini's tenure as Presidente del Consiglio. The questions include wether the March on Rome could be considered a coup and whether his government was made up only of fascists.

  They are later asked to explain the causal relations between certain events during the entirety of the Fascist Regime, including te racial laws, the creation of MinCulPop (Ministery of Popular Culture - the propaganda ministery), Matteotti's [slaying].

  In page 63 they are tasked with explaining the causes of the rise of [the Third Reich], thus grouped: Weimar's weakness, economical crisis... lack of reaction of the [E]uropean powers. Later they are asked to find analogies between [German and Italian fascism], for example putting together MVSN (Voluntary Militia for National Security) and Gestapo or comparing the youth organizations. And then they even have to comment on an excerpt from Mein Kampf.

  Page 65 deals with the war, and Mussolini's speech after the declaration of war. Those poor kids have two lines to explain what [Germany] and Mussolini wanted from the war.

  A graph shows the human casualties during the war. The student should comment on that.

  Moreover they are expected to know the meaning of 'parallel war', 'Resistenza', 'partisan', 'Shoah' and the difference between a concentration camp and an extermination camp.

  [...]

  Of course you should expect much more variety of topics for the 18-19 years old. But the examples given are quite representative of the global attitude, which no longer stresses over events and chronologies but rather on the ability to make connections and understand the development of major social and political trends.

  In this context the [military events] tend to be less relevant than the great phenomenons which marked the first half of the 20th century.

  To add to this; Fascism is presented in textbooks in an entirely negative way (perhaps lacking some subtlety) and, while revisionism certainly exists within italian society, it is generally confined out of the educational system. Large attention is given to the crimes of the Totalitarian regimes and the nature of the regimes themselves; the analysis of italian colonialism is quite lacking, as is with traditional historiography on the subject.

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