Interview with
Johanna Sophie Richter (Community Manager and ZK/U Fellow as Catalystas Collective︎︎︎)
Email interview on 24. Jan. 2022
Interviewed by
Jeeyoung Lee
Translated by
Seolhee Park
Email to Johanna on 6. Jan. 2021
Dear Johanna,
Hope you are doing great :)
I’d like to know how you learned about the Holocaust in school. Could you please tell me about it?
In Korea, the May 18th People’s Uprising in Gwangju and the massacre of innocent people at the hands of dictatorship in 1980 are just starting to be taught in schools nationwide. I don’t know the way students are taught now, but I’ve heard they learn about the history briefly. In the past, people in other cities did not acknowledge the reality of May 18, so schools even seem not to teach May 18 but only those in Gwangju. Many people had to learn about May 18 through exhibitions in memorial sites and in commemoration museums. But the problem is that they only saw some photos and documents but not the full picture of the uprising.
In addition, no person in charge of the crime was punished, and the truth about alleged massacres was not revealed until a short while ago. A significant number of people thought the uprising was just a riot, so the sentiment around it was very grim and bitter. That is why you can still hear that some people started avoiding encountering of May 18 because of the photos of crushed dead bodies in memorials.
This year marks the 42nd anniversary of May 18, and so it is a piece of history that is much more recent than the Holocaust. Thus, I believe that Holocaust education is already different among different generations in Germany. Now in Gwangju, there are some elementary school teachers who are trying to come up with a new approach to teaching about May 18, so if you tell me what and how you learned about the Holocaust, I think a lot of people, including school teachers, will be interested in reading your answer.
Also, when I was in Berlin, I saw a lot of memorials for the dead, such as Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust or people from East Germany who died while escaping to West Germany. I wonder what you feel or think about it.
Shall we get started?
Interviewed by
Jeeyoung Lee
Translated by
Seolhee Park
Email to Johanna on 6. Jan. 2021
Dear Johanna,
Hope you are doing great :)
I’d like to know how you learned about the Holocaust in school. Could you please tell me about it?
In Korea, the May 18th People’s Uprising in Gwangju and the massacre of innocent people at the hands of dictatorship in 1980 are just starting to be taught in schools nationwide. I don’t know the way students are taught now, but I’ve heard they learn about the history briefly. In the past, people in other cities did not acknowledge the reality of May 18, so schools even seem not to teach May 18 but only those in Gwangju. Many people had to learn about May 18 through exhibitions in memorial sites and in commemoration museums. But the problem is that they only saw some photos and documents but not the full picture of the uprising.
In addition, no person in charge of the crime was punished, and the truth about alleged massacres was not revealed until a short while ago. A significant number of people thought the uprising was just a riot, so the sentiment around it was very grim and bitter. That is why you can still hear that some people started avoiding encountering of May 18 because of the photos of crushed dead bodies in memorials.
This year marks the 42nd anniversary of May 18, and so it is a piece of history that is much more recent than the Holocaust. Thus, I believe that Holocaust education is already different among different generations in Germany. Now in Gwangju, there are some elementary school teachers who are trying to come up with a new approach to teaching about May 18, so if you tell me what and how you learned about the Holocaust, I think a lot of people, including school teachers, will be interested in reading your answer.
Also, when I was in Berlin, I saw a lot of memorials for the dead, such as Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust or people from East Germany who died while escaping to West Germany. I wonder what you feel or think about it.
Shall we get started?
Jeeyoung
Tell me about your name, age, nationality, current dwelling, what you do, and what you are interested in.
Johanna
My name is Johanna. I'm 30 years old and I'm currently living and working in Chemnitz (Germany, Saxony). Currently I'm working as a community manager in a small neighbourhood in Chemnitz. For me the most interesting is to empower and activate the community/citizens.
Jeeyoung
When did you first have an education about Holocaust? How old were you?
Johanna
The first time I learned more about the Holocaust or Shoah was at school. Or at least now that I think about it the most vivid memory is in high school at the age of 11 or 12 years.
Jeeyoung
Which subject do you think teaches Holocaust?
Johanna
At school the topic was addressed in the history class. It was also a topic, which has been addressed repeatedly over the years. Our teachers sometimes changed but I remember two teachers who addressed the topic very intensively. The subject at school was framed and addressed around the Second World War. Looking at it from today, I would say it was addressed from a German perspective not really looking at it from different points of view or at least from the perspective of the Jewish community.
Jeeyoung
Can you tell me how you learned about Holocaust in class?
Johanna
Unfortunately we never had an eyewitness talk (Zeitzeugengespräch) and within school we had even never visited a concentration camp or a memorial. But one movie I remember quite vivid: "Night and Fog (1956)” a French film, is a documentary about the German concentration camps and the Holocaust during the Nazi regime. We watched it during history class in the 7th or 8th grade. It was a horrifying and frightening movie. Of course we also learned about concentration camps, what happened at what time, but it was also mainly about the time between 1933 and 1945. For example, everything after 1945 we did not really address. Especially the perspective of the Jewish community or the famous ‘Eichmann’ process we never discussed at school.
Jeeyoung
There are many Holocaust memorials and museums here and there in German cities. What do you feel or think about when you see them?
Johanna
In a lot of German cities there are the so-called Stolpersteine︎︎︎. It is a project of the artist Gunter Demnig. With small memorial plaques laid in the ground the fate of people who were persecuted, murdered, deported, expelled or driven to suicide during the National Socialist (Nazi) era are remembered. When I walk through Chemnitz or any other city it makes me thoughtful when I see those Stolpersteine. To me those signs are very important, because they make the past more present. It reminds you to take care that this does not happen again.
On the 9th of November 1938 the ‘Reichsprogrammnacht’ organized thugs set fire to Jewish stores, houses of worship and other institutions. Nowadays in Chemnitz on the 9th of November local initiatives organize the ‘Lichterweg (light-walk)’ and put little candles next to the Stolpersteine to remember the terror during that night and to the people who were killed. I think this is a lived and active way of collectively remembering, what happened. Unfortunately at school I had never learned about that active way of remembering and dealing with our history.
On the 9th of November 1938 the ‘Reichsprogrammnacht’ organized thugs set fire to Jewish stores, houses of worship and other institutions. Nowadays in Chemnitz on the 9th of November local initiatives organize the ‘Lichterweg (light-walk)’ and put little candles next to the Stolpersteine to remember the terror during that night and to the people who were killed. I think this is a lived and active way of collectively remembering, what happened. Unfortunately at school I had never learned about that active way of remembering and dealing with our history.