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esistance. Ukrainians, Poles, Italians and Japanese people are mentioned in the role as
collaborators. No mention is made of female protagonists or of homosexuals.
Interpretative paradigms
The event is defined as ‘Holocaust’, ‘crime’, ‘mass extermination’, ‘genocide’, ‘racial
genocide’, ‘antisemitic genocide’ and ‘massacre’. Thematic foci are on military and political
history, diplomatic relations, with a focus on killing and on Hitler (T5). The narratives are
not comprehensive, but limited largely to discussions of camps and racial laws (T1, T2, T3
and T4) or simply to racial laws (T5). None of the books address the history of antisemitism
or the life of Jews before 1933 or after 1945. References are made to ‘Auschwitz’ (T1),
‘concentration camps’ (T4) and ‘extermination camp’ (T5) without any information about
the function of the places referred to. In addition, T2 and T5 refer only to ‘transit camps’
(kampet e perqendrimit). The narrative is largely factual, and the only identifiable historical
paradigm is that of ‘upheaval’, as prescribed by the national curriculum. The aims of
perpetrators are defined as the wish to gain profit from forced labourers (T1), the wish to
establish a superior race (T2), and to ‘free society from the Marxist and democratic illness’
(T2), while the main named causes are racism (T1, T2 and T5), and antisemitism (T2 and T3).
References to the legal discrimination of victims in terms of the ‘deprivation of liberty and
of civil rights’ and references to concentration camps as ‘institutions for the re-education
and salvation of the Volk’ and as ‘transit camps’ (T2 and T5), and to mass killings without
reference to the identity of those killed (T4) all effectively trivialise the event by not stating
explicitly the consequences of the Holocaust. With the exception of T5, which states that
the Holocaust was ‘singular’, the books present the Holocaust as one part of the Second
World War. T1 compares the Holocaust to Soviet POW camps, albeit without referring to
totalitarianism. Each book contains one or two images pertaining to the Holocaust: two of
camp prisoners, one of a mass grave, one of barracks in a camp, and one of the entrances
to Auschwitz. Two images differ by showing the boycotting of shops and a still from Charlie
Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator (the fact that this is a film still is not mentioned in the
caption). Visual materials are poorly anchored and explained briefly. The narratives contain
no metanarratives or explanations of documents.
Narrative structure and point of view
The texts contained in these books have been written exclusively by the textbook authors,
and do not therefore cover multiple perspectives. The passive mode is used in all books,
which downplays agency and gives the impression that the events unfolded of their own
accord. The only documents reproduced are historic photographs. The inconsistent use of
inverted commas in the discussion of racial prejudice and quotations of related materials
in T2 points towards a lack of historical detachment.
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