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Interpretative paradigms
T2 and T3 use the term ‘Holocaust’. However, the event is more commonly defined as
the ‘expulsion of Jewish people’ (T4, p. 326 and T5, p. 360) or ‘discrimination against
Jewish people, sent to concentration camps’ (T1), although all books additionally mention
deportation, mass murder, massacres, concentration camps and Auschwitz. The identical
phrase (in T2 and T3), ‘Mass massacre committed by Nazis on Jewish people (Holocaust)
and other massacres are products of war’ (p. 175 and p. 177) is misleading on account of its
generality and because it defines the events as a consequence of war alone and does not
explain multiple causality and the complex relationship between the Second World War and
the Holocaust. All textbooks effectively relativize the Holocaust by naming it together with
Guernica, the dropping of atomic bombs, the forced labour imposed by Japan in Asia (T1,
T2 and T3) and the Japanese invasion of ‘China and other Asian countries’ (T4 and T5). The
books refer not to China but to ‘Asia’ in relation to this event. Motivations for the Holocaust
are ascribed to Hitler personally in T1, T2 and T3): ‘It was Hitler’s thought that, in order for
the German race to survive, it was necessary to expand eastwards…’ (T1, p. 206); ‘Hitler
concluded that Jewish people were people who destroy culture. …’ (T2, p. 166 and T3, p. 170).
Nationalism and fascist, colonial and racial ideology are named as further motives (T1, T2
and T3). In these books, causes of the Holocaust are also ascribed to Hitler personally,
to the National Socialist Party, and to exclusive nationalism (T3) and racism (T4 and T5).
The aims discussed focus not on destruction but on exclusion, related to the expansion of
territory (T1), ‘establishing an ethnic community’ (T4, 326 and T5, p. 360), ‘security’ (T4 and
T5), ‘oppression’ of communists (T2 and T3) and of Jews (all books), attacks on communists
and liberals (T1), the exclusion of ‘others’ (T3) and ‘other cultures’ (T2), and the expulsion
(T4 and T5), subjection to pogroms (T2), and persecution (T1) of Jews. Each book contains
up to ten photographs depicting the Second World War, including maps of Europe marking
the site of Auschwitz, images of deportations (T4 and T5), two pictures of Anne Frank in T1
and images of Auschwitz in T1, T2 and T3.
Narrative structure and point of view
The text contained in the books is predominantly written by the textbook authors, ranging
from 50 percent (with 40 percent images and 10 percent sources in T1, T2 and T3) to 80 percent
(with 20 percent images in T4 and T5). The narratives are all neutral and chronological, with
little expression of direct empathy with protagonists or moral bias, with the exception of
expressions such as ‘severe occupation policy’ (T1). Authors combine a rise-fall narrative
of fascist powers with a rise narrative of western powers, particularly in T4 and T5, which
explain the demise of fascist powers in terms of their particularistic appeal, in contrast to
the rise of members of the Atlantic Charter in terms of their international, universal appeal.
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