Holocaust und Vernichtungskrieg

When students encounter the theme of National Socialism for the first time in history lessons, they have already formed relatively strong ideas about the Nazi dictatorship through the manifold manifestations of public history and the oral traditions in the circle of relatives and acquaintances. Often, learners tend to a victimisation of the perpetrators and to an exculpation of the non-Jewish society. Etienne Schinkel examines different history textbooks whether they make discussable such unhistorical concepts. What are the narratives and interpretations of textbooks about the 'normal' Germans, their knowledge of the Holocaust, their anti-Semitic attitude and their reactions to the anti-Jewish measures of the Nazi regime?