Ohio lawmaker wants to teach the Holocaust ‘from the perspective of the Nazis'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
www.jpost.com /international/article-702341
Ohio lawmaker wants to teach the Holocaust ‘from the perspective of the Nazis'
By ANDREW LAPIN/JTA 4-5 minutes
A Jewish lawmaker in Ohio is deriding legislation to restrict race education in the state’s schools as the “draconian Holocaust censorship bill” after one of the bill’s Republican sponsors suggested that it is appropriate to teach about the Holocaust from the perspective of the Nazis.
State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, who co-sponsored the bill, made the comments when explaining to a local news station why she believes that “divisive concepts” should be taught from multiple points of view.
“Maybe you’re going to listen to the perspective of someone from Poland when they were undergoing similar displacement, or when they were being incorporated into the war and to some of these camps."
"Or maybe you’re listening to it from the perspective of a Jewish person that has gone through the tragedies that took place,” she said, describing how a hypothetical lesson that complies with the law could unfold. “And maybe you’ll listen to it from the perspective of a German soldier.”
Fowler Arthur also mischaracterized how many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and why they were murdered in her remarks, originally made to News 5 Cleveland in early March but not publicized by the station until Tuesday.
“What we do not want is for someone to come in and say, ‘Well, obviously the German government was right in saying that the Aryan race is superior to all other races, and therefore that they were acting rightly when they murdered hundreds of thousands of people for having a different color of skin,'” she said.
Fowler Arthur’s comments, which she said were informed by “some audiobooks on the Holocaust” she had been listening to, are the latest in a series of comments that have implicated Holocaust education in a wave of Republican-led legislation aimed at dictating how race is taught in public schools.
An educator in Texas and an Indiana lawmaker have apologized in recent months after suggesting that teachers should remain “impartial” or offer multiple perspectives while teaching about the Holocaust.
Fowler Arthur quickly drew firm rebukes from Jewish leaders in Ohio as well as from Rep. Casey Weinstein, a Democrat who is one of two Jews in the state legislature, and from members of Fowler Arthur’s own party.
James Pasch, director of the region’s Anti-Defamation League arm, told the station that Fowler Arthur’s remarks showed “no baseline of even education there that 6 million Jews were systematically murdered, and millions of others.”
Weinstein, who has been the target of anti-vaccine protests that invoke the Holocaust, reportedly offered to accompany Fowler Arthur to the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage outside Cleveland.
Republican House Speaker Bob Cupp called Fowler Arthur’s comments “inappropriate” and “uninformed remarks.”
In a statement responding to the criticism, Fowler Arthur defended her bill and disputed others’ interpretations of her comments. “I want to apologize for the unconscionable position that has been wrongfully attributed to me,” she said in the written statement. “Those views are not who I am or what I believe.”
Her statement did not elaborate on how she was mischaracterized but continued to defend the bill.
“What began as a sincere effort to end state-sanctioned bullying and harassment has been turned on its head, with politicians and left-wing special interests advancing a false narrative to kill the bill and raise money,” she said.
Fowler Arthur’s office did not respond to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment. Reporter Morgan Trau, who conducted the initial interview with her, said on-air that she had brought “direct concerns from the Jewish community” to the representative “a full week before the piece aired.”
Fowler, whose Northeast Ohio district abuts Lake Erie and the Pennsylvania border, previously served on the Ohio Board of Education.
Her bill as written would prohibit state teachers from teaching “divisive concepts,” such as that “one nationality, color, ethnicity, race, or sex is inherently superior to another nationality, color, ethnicity, race, or sex,” in nearly identical wording to other state bills seeking to ban “critical race theory” — an academic and legal concept that has become a rallying cry for Republicans across the country.
Tags
Who is online
384 visitors
John, did you read her comment?
"Do not want", do you need it repeated? How many damn times?
Ever read "All Quiet on the Western Front"? It is a recount of the hardships German Soldiers had to endure during WWI. We had to read that for history class. The Germans were our enemies in that war as well. Also had to read Mein Kampf to get a perspective on Hitler's world view. As well as several books that were rather harsh in their assessment of the allies and the Treaty of Versailles; and how it directly lead to WWII. I suppose that the professor that forced us to read all of that was trying to convert us into Nazis? Even though he never once condoned anything the Germans did?
Also, she did not state "from the perspective of Nazi's" like the BS headline suggests. She said, “And maybe you’ll listen to it from the perspective of a German soldier.” Do you really think all German soldiers were Nazis?
"Those that don't study history are doomed to repeat it?" That also includes those that don't study all sides of history.
There it is. You weren't exposed to that until you were much older and slightly less dumb. Everything you stated we read/discussed in my history/polisci classes, in depth, but we did it at a much older more experienced age where we could talk about it without becoming attached to anything.
The press should shame her until she resigns.
So you think the press should be activists for liberal causes?
ALL perspectives of history, no matter how diverse, contradictory, or offensive and repelling they might be, should be taught, so that students may form their own assessments and opinions about their truth or relevance.
But some should not be taught until students are much older and not so stupid. I do not think fascism or the Nazis should be taught in depth, frankly, until the college years. I think that because it is a complex topic that can quickly direct people towards extremism without proper context.
I think that because teaching fascism carry's a very real public security threat because of the nature of the beliefs/doctrine and the vulnerabilities of people.
I think I've seen it all now. The article says she would like to see the Holocaust taught from the perspective of the German soldier. What exactly would that perspective be? They were only following orders?
It might include the economic and social conditions in Germany following WWI and the Great Depression. How Hitler's and the Parties easy answers seemed so promising to many at the time while others thought they could control Hitler and the party after seizing power. The step by step decisions and propaganda over ten years that set up the Holocaust. What was the attitude as the war turned the the German war losses both military and civilian grew.
I know all about Germany's travails between the wars. That sort of history is NOT a German perspective on the Holocaust, which was ordered by Hitler in Jan 1942, well after world war 2 began.
Yes, I was talking about the conditions that led to the holocaust.
Jesus Christ.
What did she say about him?
That he probably should have had a number on his arm and been in a camp.
I don’t think that they did that 2,000 years ago.
The sentiment remains. Or rather, anti-sentiment....
Not funny, well fuck you all I thought it was pretty good.
Have you tried stand-up on amateur night at the comedy club?
I have, told them the same thing lol
Breaking news from March.
very timely.
It is sad that the democrats have seen the pushback regarding CRT and seem to have decided to try the same tactic against Republicans with some made up stories regarding teaching about the holocaust
Didn't some in texas recently want to start calling slavery "involunatry relocation"? Maybe the holocaust will be "involuntary moving on" in the future.