IMPACT-se report details German textbook gaps on Israel

German secondary school textbooks provide thorough instruction on the Holocaust but present a skewed view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a report released on Tuesday. The findings come from a review of educational materials in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany. The study assesses how students in the final three years of school learn about Jewish history and modern geopolitical issues.

The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, known as IMPACT-se, conducted the analysis. This report is the final part of a series examining curricula in seven European countries. Researchers reviewed twelve textbooks used in Gymnasien, the academic track that prepares students for the Abitur university entrance exam. The evaluation covered history, religion, and social science classes, using standards derived from UNESCO declarations.

Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, noted that antisemitism levels in Germany are alarmingly high. He stated that German textbooks do an excellent job confronting the horrors of the Holocaust and the country's antisemitic past. However, he argued that this commitment to accuracy must also extend to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sheff warned that equating Israeli soldiers with Hamas fighters risks distorting young people's understanding of the war.

The report highlights that German classrooms treat Judaism as a living part of society rather than just historical context. One textbook cites former President Christian Wulff, who stated that Judaism belongs to Germany as part of its Judeo-Christian foundation. Curricula also include internal Jewish debates and ideas from Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel, such as his description of Shabbat as an escape from daily pressure. However, the study flagged one problematic comparison that placed Jewish circumcision and Christian baptism alongside an asserted Islamic prerogative for husbands to discipline spouses.

Historical sections cover the roots of Christian antisemitism and the medieval period. Textbooks note that Jews lived as protected second-class subjects under Muslim rule and faced persecution during the First Crusade in cities like Worms, Mainz, and Cologne. Holocaust chapters trace the evolution from Christian prejudice to Nazi racial theory, explaining that six million people were murdered. Advanced materials stress that the genocide wiped out European Jewish culture, noting that nearly a third of German Nobel Prize winners before 1933 were of Jewish origin.

Students work with primary sources including diaries by Victor Klemperer and speeches by Heinrich Himmler. Jewish resistance is presented through examples like the rescue of Danish Jews and armed revolts in the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, and Sobibor. This approach counters the idea that Jews were passive victims. Postwar content includes trials at Nuremberg and Frankfurt, as well as religious studies exploring theodicy through the works of Elie Wiesel and Hans Jonas.

The report criticizes the curriculum's handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for showing structural imbalance. Textbooks often use matching headings for opposing narratives, placing the War of Independence beside the Nakba, the Arabic term for the 1948 displacement. Similarly, the Six-Day War is presented next to the Naksa, the displacement following the 1967 war. The study argues this blurs the line between acknowledging different memories and treating them as equally valid causes of events.

The review found that religious attachments are often narrowed to extreme groups. Palestinian religious claims are linked almost exclusively to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, while Jewish claims are tied primarily to national-religious settlers. One textbook placed photos of Israeli military operations in the West Bank beside an armed Hamas fighter under the heading Mutual threats and violence, without identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization. The report also faults textbooks for detailing Arab objections to the 1947 UN Partition Plan while reducing the Jewish perspective to international legitimacy, ignoring security vulnerabilities and territorial fragmentation.