A German's Revisionism

Today was the second day of my introductory seminar with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Today we visited the Museum of Modern German History – my third time. You may remember that I previously wrote about my experience there.
Danielle and I opted for the English tour to maximize the amount we could understand. Our guide began walking us through the exhibits, but breezed right past the part about the Holocaust. She stopped us in front of some footage of ruined German cities in the aftermath of the War and explained that places like Dresden were up to 80% destroyed. We continued right past the display about the Nuremberg Trials (our tour guide still not uttering a word about the “difficult German past”) but she made sure to mention the hardships of food rationing upon the German populace in the years following the end of World War II. I leaned over to one of my Jewish friends and asked, “Hey, what about the Holocaust?” to which he blithely remarked, “It must not have happened.”

We headed to the second floor of the museum and, once again, flew right past the display about Israel being one of the few countries objecting to the reunification of Germany in 1990. Instead, our guide chose to focus on French opposition to a unified Germany based on economic reasons.

However, we were not ready for what came next. When we arrived at the section discussing the fall of the Berlin Wall, our guide told us that it happened on her birthday. But, she explained, November 9 was also a tragic date in German history. This was also Kristallnacht, the night that many “Churches” (yes, you just read the word church) were burned down by the Nazis in 1938. Our guide was fluent in English, so I’m not sure if she had a slip of the tongue.

At this point, we were not surprised that our guide made no mention of the huge displays about Adolf Eichmann or the growth of the National People’s Party – the successor to Hitler’s Nazi party.

We felt horrible after the tour. When Danielle asked our guide why she skipped this important piece of German history, she simply turned to me and asked, “What are you doing in Germany this year?”

Since being here, we have only encountered Germans who are very open about the Holocaust and are willing to discuss it. This came as an unwelcome surprise especially since our tour was led by an employee of the museum. We are writing a letter of complaint and will post any further development.