“I no longer agree with Hitler to exterminate them…”. Teaching The Holocaust to Malaysian BA German-Students Through Selected History Films

Schaar, Torsten; Chang, Shi Wen

doi:10.11606/1982-8837275142

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Original Article • Pandaemonium ger. 27 (51) • Jan-Apr 2024 • https://doi.org/10.11606/1982-8837275142 copy

“I no longer agree with Hitler to exterminate them…”. Teaching The Holocaust to Malaysian BA German-Students Through Selected History Films

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract:

The article describes experiences in teaching the sensitive topic of the industrial extermination of European Jews during World War II (the Holocaust) in the BA German programme at Universiti Putra Malaysia. The topic was covered in a history course and supported by the use of international feature films. Based on a summary of Malaysia-Israel relations, the relevance of the topic in the teaching of German as a foreign language is highlighted, and the teaching objectives, pedagogical approach and results of a film project are presented. The article aims to answer the questions of how Malaysian students perceived history films on the Holocaust and whether it was possible to achieve a more differentiated view of the Holocaust, at least among some students. As part of a comprehensive history film project on the Second World War, three history films dealing with the persecution and extermination of European Jews were screened and analysed in class. The film 'The Grey Zone' (USA, 2001) was selected for this article and students' responses and attitudes to challenging questions, provided as qualitative data, are discussed. Three historical literacies – Content Knowledge, Historical Empathy/Perspective Recognition and Narrative Analysis (Metzger 2007Metzger, Scott A. Pedagogy and the Historical Feature Film: Toward Historical Literacy. Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies, v. 37, n. 2, 2007, 67-75.) – provided the theoretical framework for the history film project.

Keywords:
Holocaust; BA German Programme; Universiti Putra Malaysia; history films

Expected answers	Answer given in % (N=17)
Ghettos were places to concentrate Jews	47% (8)
Ghettos were places to isolate Jews	29.4% (5)
A constant shortage of food, which led to hunger and starvation	70.6% (12)
Barter economy: Jews sold their jewellery, clothes to pay for food / Overpricing of food by Germans and Poles (from outside the ghettos)	47% (8)
Shortage of accommodation / overcrowding	47% (8)
Jews as slave labourers in factories	29.4% (5)
Death as a common occurrence / mostly by starvation and diseases	47% (8)
Abuse of power by German officials – rape, murder, extortion of money, profiting from slave labour	29.4% (5)
Ghettos were places of constant suffering, punishment and random killings	29.4% (5)

Questions	Expected answers	Answers given in % (N=17)
What was Treblinka?	Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland (1 of 6)	94% (16)
Why did the Nazis imprison Jews in ghettos?	Ghettos were regarded as a temporary measure until the fate of the Jews was decided	88% (15)
Why did the Nazis persecute the Jews?	Jews were seen as racially inferior but dangerous; Nazi ideology believed in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to destroy Germany / Jews were “carriers of Bolshevism”	70.5% (12)
What did the Nazis intend to do with the Jews in 1940?	No plans for a systematic killing / deportation of Jews to the island of Madagascar	82% (14)
How was the war against the Soviet Union different from other wars?	a close connection between Judaism and Communism (the ideological enemy of National Socialism) was assumed / a war without mercy / mass murder of Jews	70.5% (12)
What was the role of the SS-Einsatzgruppen and who were their targets?	Special units of SS and Police to exterminate the Jews in the occupied territories⁸ 8 At this point, the author referred to the Sook Ching (purge) massacre(s) in Japanese-occupied Singapore and British Malaya (18 February – 4 March 1942), during which several thousand Chinese were killed by the Japanese Imperial Army’s secret police “Kempeitai” as “anti-Japanese elements”. The number of victims is unknown; it varies between 5000 and 25,000, depending on the source. “At the behest of Masanobu Tsuji, the Japanese High Command's Chief of Planning and Operations, Sook Ching was extended to the rest of Malaya. […] Specific incidents were Kota Tinggi, Johore (28 February 1942) – 2,000 killed; Gelang Patah, Johor (4 March) – 300 killed; Benut, Johor (6 March) – number unknown; Johore Baharu, Senai, Kulai, Sedenak, Pulai, Renggam, Kluang, Yong Peng, Batu Pahat, Senggarang, Parit Bakau, and Muar (February–March) – estimated up to 25,000 Chinese were killed in Johor; Tanjung Kling, Malacca (16 March) – 142 killed; Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan (15 March) – 76 killed; Parit Tinggi, Negeri Sembilan (16 March) – more than 100 killed (the entire village); Joo Loong Loong (near the present village of Titi) on 18 March (1474 killed, entire village eliminated by Major Yokokoji Kyomi and his troops); and Penang (April) – several thousand killed by Major Higashigawa Yoshimura. Further massacres were instigated as a result of increased guerilla activity in Malaya, most notably at Sungei Lui, a village of 400 in Jempol District, Negeri Sembilan, which was wiped out on 31 July 1942 by troops under a Corporal Hashimoto.” The Japanese also killed thousands of Tamil Indians in Singapore and British Malaya. Sook_Ching. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sook_Ching\.	82% (14)
Why did the SS also kill Jewish women and children?	To exterminate the Jews as race entirely / to prevent future acts of revenge	88% (15)
What did the Nazis mean with “more humane killing methods”?	humane for the murderers not the victims / many executioners were traumatized by shooting women and children at close range / experiments with poisonous gas	82% (14)
What happened for example in Lithuania? / How were local people involved?	German Wehrmacht was greeted as liberators from Soviet oppression / Pogroms against Jews who were blamed for collaboration with the Soviet oppressors / Jews were rounded up and beaten to death by civilians / organized cleansing of Lithuanian towns and villages of Jews, Lithuanians as active executioners in Einsatzgruppen	94% (16)
What did Hitler blame the Jews for?	For bringing the USA into the war	82% (14)
The mass killings of the European Jews were the end point of certain developments. What happened / what was decided at the following dates?	September 1941: Jews were marked with the Star of David 18. December 1941: Hitler and Reichsführer SS Himmler met to discuss the “Jewish question” / Himmler’s diary entry: “extermination as partisans” January 1942: Wannsee conference, the deportation and the extermination of 11 million European Jews is decided	88% (15)
Describe the fate of the European Jews in 1942/43.	Liquidation of the ghettos, deportation of Jews and mass killing of in death camps	94% (16)
Name the infamous death camps.	Treblinka, Chełmno, Majdanek, Belzec, Auschwitz	82% (14)
How many people were killed in Treblinka?	750.000-800.000	100% (17)

Summarized Statements	Students (N=21)
Scene represents the confusion of SK, their moral dilemma of helping Germans to kill/sacrifice Jews in order to prolong their own life / achieve a better life, food, treatment, Helping to kill their own people is a betrayal of their humanity, of their conscience, Hoffmann killed the Jew out of frustration, anger, stress, guilt about his own doings / the elderly Jew is correct: SK are liars and collaborators, “Nazi Jews”.	16 similar statements
SS man awards H for killing the elderly Jew, It shows the dehumanization of SK, Jews killing Jews over a possession (stereotypical Jew), SS man seems to indicate “You are guilty and fighting it won’t undo the guilt.” SK become murderers on their own, SK doing SS work, the killing, SS man is proud of him for killing a Jew, amused that Jews hate and kill each other.	10 similar statements
relates to title, a place where there is no black and white, normalcy does not apply any longer	4 similar statements
long time bottled-up outburst, Hoffmann lost control, he beat up the guilt in himself,	4 similar statements
Scene shows the desperate attempt to survive, human nature, survival tops moral, decency and humanity, SK are mentally tortured, they have to give false hope to Jews who thought the really will take a shower, every day they see people die and suffer.	4 similar statements
Hoffmann killed the elderly Jew to stop causing a panic, which interrupts the killing process, keep the machine running	3 similar statements
the only scene which shows an active killing of a Jew by a SK, crossing a line, a breakdown of humanity, Hoffmann steps into his grey zone	1 statement
The Jewish SK Hoffmann is not only a victim, but becomes a perpetrator	1 statement

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