How Important is it to Communicate the History of the Region during the Nazi Era and Come to Terms with it, especially When Working with Young People?

SORA's Democracy 89 Report 2024 shows that 20 % of the 2007 people surveyed in Austria would like to see a "strong leader". The Democracy Report 2024 by the V-DEM Institute (Gothenburg, Sweden) shows that, for the first time in two decades, there are more closed autocracies than liberal democracies worldwide. 71 % of the world's population lives in an autocracy, compared to 29 % in democracies.

Upper Austrian vocational schools have a dedicated subject, civic education, that is taught in 20 to 40 hours per school year, depending on the occupational group.

In this context, Josef Lindner, a vocational school teacher at the Linz 8 Vocational School, conducted a survey among 364 vocational school students in spring 2024 to gauge their specific knowledge of the National Socialist era.

The results showed that the Second World War is of great importance to young people, but that their background knowledge is only superficial. This period was marked by hunger, unemployment and, above all, no prospect of a better life. It was this social misery that led to the political discontent that paved the way for National Socialism.

On the one hand, dealing with the Nazi past enables pupils to think about and reflect on the importance of democracy and the rule of law, and on their own values. On the other hand, teachers need to interest pupils in the topic and correct their existing half-knowledge so that they develop a certain resilience to loud populist opinions and simple "solutions" to very complex problems. The past should be brought into the reality of young people's lives, not so much through facts and figures, but rather through reference to its regional origins, family history and local references.

This is precisely where the memorials come in. Here, pupils can link concrete biographies with the reality of their own lives. Their own living space is transformed from an anonymous scene into a place with which the pupils can identify. The past can be perceived in concrete terms and usually also affects them. It is not about the question of guilt, but about understanding what happened and using this knowledge to prevent something similar from ever happening again.

It is important to challenge and encourage critical thinking in young people and also to tolerate and respect critical opinions as a teacher. National Socialism and the Shoah serve as examples of our recent past to accompany pupils on their way toward becoming self-determined, independent, critical and questioning young people. The memorials make a unique contribution as places of remembrance and encounter with the past. They teach historical awareness, critical thinking, and the power of civil courage, and they try to keep the culture of remembrance alive through new digital approaches. They clarify that remembrance not only concerns the past but is also a task for the future.

"Those who do not know the past cannot understand the present and cannot shape the future"
(Helmut Kohl, 1995, speech in the German Bundestag)

Literature

• Larndorfer, P. (2021): "Die Bedeutung der historischen Dimension" - Historisch-Politische Bildung in der Berufsschule ["The importance of the historical dimension" – Historical and Political Education in Vocational Schools]. In: Dreier, Werner; Pingel, Falk: Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust. Materialien, Zeitzeugen und Orte der Erinnerung in der schulischen Bildung [National Socialism and the Holocaust. Materials, contemporary witnesses and places of remembrance in school education]. Innsbruck, Wien 2021. p. 61 - 74.
• Lindner, J. (2024). Wegbereiter des Nationalsozialismus – Soziale und gesellschaftliche Umbrüche in der Zwischenkriegszeit im Enns-Donauwinkel [Paving the way for National Socialism – Social and societal upheavals in the interwar period in the region between the rivers Enns and Danube].
• Österreichischer Demokratie Monitor 2024, FORESIGHT Research Hofinger GmbH, Wien.
• V-DEM Institute, Department of Political Science (2024). "Democracy Report 2024, Democracy Winning and Losing at the Ballot". University of Gothenburg, Sweden.