Tender Childhood Memory
>be me
>be in fifth grade
>the scholastic book fair comes to our school every year
>the kids in my class were really into “I Survived” books
>“I Survived the Holocaust” is being sold
>kids correlate Nazis being German with me being German and start calling me a Nazi
>ask them what a Nazi is, but no one will tell me
>too poor to buy the book
>ask my stepmom at the time and she screams at me because “I’m too young to know about Nazis” and gets mad at me
>too scared to ask teachers or my dad after getting yelled at
>kids keep calling me a Nazi for weeks
>get pissed
>plot revenge
>have fake cereal brand with my friend for some reason
>never actually made the cereal yet, just pretend it exists and made fake ads for it and shit
>tell people I’m finally going to make it
>mix the most vile, abhorrent shit I can find in my kitchen together with red food dye and frosted flakes
>feed it to the people calling me a Nazi, so most of my class ate it
>gave them explosive diarrhea and food poisoning
>somehow didn’t get in trouble for biological warfare and was never punished by the school
>W
>forget about it for eight years
>randomly remember
>tell my dad cause I think it’s funny
>”Anon, that’s exactly what a Nazi would do."
>InterpersonalExpectancyEffect.jpg

I guess those kids called it.

  • accideath@lemmy.world
    23·
    4 months ago

    Here in Germany, education about WW2, Holocaust and Nazis is taken rather seriously from a young age. I don’t think I knew anyone by the time I was 10-ish who didn’t have at least a rudimentary understanding that Hitler and the Nazis were the bad guys in WW2, that they tried to kill all jews and that we should strive to not be like that anymore. I can remember that in 3rd or 4th grade we visited the local Synagogue with my clsss and the holocaust certainly was a topic around that time. Child friendly of course, but nonetheless.

    Unlike many US states who still don’t teach about slavery, we in Germany try to be aware of our past and our education system reflects that.

    • Gigan@lemmy.world
      41·
      4 months ago

      we in Germany try to be aware of our past and our education system reflects that.

      If you were educated in Germany, then I don’t think you can accurately speak about what the US school system does. I learned about a lot of negative things in America’s history including slavery. Whether or not most students absorbed it is a different discussion.

      • Zachariah@lemmy.world
        9·
        4 months ago

        Since education isn’t federally managed but rather falls under states’ authority, what you learn about slavery, etc., varies extremely widely from state to state.