When I lived in Germany (in '87 and '88), the discussion was only just then getting serious and being brought into schools. And I never did figure out if it was harder for my teachers or harder for my classmates. It definitely wreaked havoc on my first host family's nerves. They were deeply ashamed of their own HJ memberships.
I'm sure my presence in the classroom - and the knowledge of my family history - did not make things any easier for either of them. Certainly my teachers were...I don't want to say antagonistic, because that isn't quite right, but my Politics teacher especially had the attitude of "Say something. I double dog dare you." My classmates were deeply, deeply uncomfortable with all of it, and were terribly scandalized that I took it upon myself to visit KZs. (Even knowing why I was visiting.)
Since the end of the 90ies there's an increasing amount of defensiveness or even anger, and people essentially saying that everyone should already get over it already, which is all kinds of problematic in entirely different ways.
There was some of this sentiment amongst many of my classmates. I'm sure most of it stemmed from their deep discomfort regarding the subject. We did talk at the time about the difference between letting go of guilt that they did not earn themselves and pretending that it just didn't matter any more. Those were hard, hard discussions.
no subject
I'm sure my presence in the classroom - and the knowledge of my family history - did not make things any easier for either of them. Certainly my teachers were...I don't want to say antagonistic, because that isn't quite right, but my Politics teacher especially had the attitude of "Say something. I double dog dare you." My classmates were deeply, deeply uncomfortable with all of it, and were terribly scandalized that I took it upon myself to visit KZs. (Even knowing why I was visiting.)
Since the end of the 90ies there's an increasing amount of defensiveness or even anger, and people essentially saying that everyone should already get over it already, which is all kinds of problematic in entirely different ways.
There was some of this sentiment amongst many of my classmates. I'm sure most of it stemmed from their deep discomfort regarding the subject. We did talk at the time about the difference between letting go of guilt that they did not earn themselves and pretending that it just didn't matter any more. Those were hard, hard discussions.