This German TV documentary from 1958 exposed how little students in West German schools knew about Nazi history, triggering a public debate. When several synagogues were smeared with swastikas in Christmas 1959 and it became known that some of the perpetrators were teenagers, politicians reacted. School curricula and teaching content became more focused on the country’s Nazi past.
The interview explains why people in both East and West Germany did not wish to discuss Nazi crimes or their own responsibility. A family from Dresden reflects.