Jewish teacher suspended in France for teaching 'too much' about Holocaust
A high school history teacher is accused of 'brainwashing' her students, says French news agency AFP.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Holocaust Holocaust education anti-Semitism Jewish education FranceA French history teacher in Nancy, France, has been suspended for breaching the principle of secularism and neutrality after the French education ministry concluded that she was teaching "too much" about the Holocaust and spending too much time organizing trips for her students to Nazi death camps in Poland and the Czech Republic.
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1941 photo showing the railroad tracks leading to the entrance of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. |
| Photo by: AP |
Catherine Pederzoli, 58, was investigated by officials at the education ministry, who released a report about the matter in July. The report accused the teacher of "lacking distance, neutrality and secularism" in teaching the Holocaust, and of manipulating her charges through a process of "brain-washing," according to the French news agency AFP.
In December, when the French Minister of Education Luc Chatel was visiting Pederzoli's high school, several of her students staged a protest over the decision to cut in half the number of students traveling to Poland on an upcoming trip, meant to acquaint the students with Nazi camps in the region. Pederzoli was accused of inciting the protest.
The principle of secularism and neutrality in France is meant to protect the separation of church and state. The ministry's report cites that in meeting with investigators, the teacher used the word "Holocaust" 14 times while using the more neutral term "massacre" only twice.
Pederzoli's lawyer, Christine Tadic, said Tuesday that Pederzoli had been organizing trips to concentration camps for the past 15 years, but that a change in the school's administration in 2007 had led to a witch hunt against her.
Tadic claimed that "had the teacher been Christian, no one would have accused her of brainwashing." Furthermore, she asked whether Pederzoli is in fact being blamed for being Jewish.
Also on Tuesday, Tadic filed for an injunction over the teacher's suspension. According to AFP, the court has 15 days to rule on the matter.
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is perfectly sufficient to cover the Nazis rise to power, the dehumanisation of the Jews as a political tool to consolidate Hitler's hold on power. The imposition of a police state in Germany, German expansion to the East, The concept of unter menschen, The final Solution Any longer is a waste of time. As for visits to Auschwitz with the advent of the Internet it is not necessary. You can go on a virtual tour with questions for the kids to answer. I know it is different for Israelis and Jews who lost family and they probably require as much as ten hours of teaching to understand the role of Jews in Eastern Europe and how they were subject to progroms etc for political expediency But for non jews and Europeans the lessons are essentially as above.
Hipocrisy, double-standards, ridicule, cynicism and anti-Semitism, all mixed-up in a clueless move that has aboslutely nothing to do with secularism, but with an aversion of integrity.
Held for incitement and for using the term holocaust too much instead of the word massacre. . .. .. .. .. oh okay, sounds reasonable... NOT.
how much time did she spend on the subject? Was it a day? Was it a week? Was it a month? Despite whatever time she spent on the Holocaust, did she finish teaching the rest of the curriculum set out by the school board or government? Did she explain the involvement of the French in facilitating the Holocaust? Did she explain the larger lessons of the holocaust beyond the effect on the Jewish community? Did she talk about the other groups who were gassed, like the gypsies, as the Holocaust only refers to Jews? These questions need to be answered to make an informed decision about the suspension.
Imagine the same story here in Israel. An teacher of history of armenian origin teaching obsesivily of the Armenian genocide. Or an Cambodian history teacher about the Red Khmers. (Oh forgot a teacher of Cambodian origin is imposible in Israel...racism?)
Sorry, what exactly is your point?
I have nothing against teaching Holocaust, I am wholeheartedly for it but....I expect that to be supplemented by history about mass murder committed by Bolshevik Russia exceeding by far the Jewish victims of WWII. I also expect in this curriculum inclusion of Jewish role in inventing, promoting, implementing and executing that system especially in it's early, most bloody phase where Jews were most prominent forces in Bolshevik leadership. It also would be only fair if that program also commented on Jewish influence inside Young Turks organization greatly responsible for Armenian massacre. After all, when we teach history, let's teach it all, it's only fair.... P.S. Dare to post it? I have no doubts you will not! Not because it is not true what I have said here, it is because those things are "off limit" in your tightly censored country.
Such tripe. You wreak of blood libel and smell of anti-semitic propaganda. I suppose you have the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on your nightstand too. The שואה (Holocaust) is about genocide, not just numbers.
for nothing
Jews act like they are above prejudice or racism, just take a walk through Israel and see how THEY act when given the power. So please, save the self martyrdom, no one cares. You isolate yourself by your arrogance, then are shocked absolutely SHOCKED when no one stands up for your rights or is indifferent to your plight- it is almost amazing how self serving they can be, and clueless, hence, they are doomed to repeat history
The French as a people are loathed in Europe for their arrogance so it's logical that French Jews are also arrogant.
French - you may be right, but one important fact you conveniently overlooked is that Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper. Most Jews do care about this. And Jews aren't shocked by no-one standing up for their rights. That is why the State of Israel exists.
tell me, are there any countries besides Israel that you don't consider anti-semitic?
Stalin in credited with killing upwards of 40,000,000 and not much is noted in the school books regarding that. Nor is the Holodomor in Eastern Europe in which 8,000,000 perished under Stalin. Someone please explain these omissions.
Peter - please see subject above.
She used the word "shoah" 14 times and the more religiously "neutral" "genocide". only twice.. not "holocaust" and "massacre"....
They have a point if she was spending too much time and resources on the holocaust, because it is one part of European history and not all of it. It's a small period of history of history regardless of what one thinks of it. It would be like a woman in Belgium originally from the Congo spending so much time on the Congo and the millions who died when it was a small portion of Belgian history. People do treat the holocaust in some religious manner as if they must preach and preach to Europeans, and others but they won't really bring up the Catholic or Slavic victims too often. There is a problem with how holocaust history is taught. It's from a mono-ethnic point of view and is not pluralistic and overfocusing on it in a history class entails an agenda, and a teacher is not supposed to be so overt with one. They have a point. It's not anti-Semitism. Imagine if someone originally Muslim spent a long time on the Crusades or Bosnia. It's not objective.
To keep France 'secular' they should revert Dec 25th, Xmas, as a normal work day too.
... who prefer that their part in Holocaust be kept quiet.
Problem with the French Ministry of Education is that subjects must be religiously neutral. The confusion is that the holocaust is really 90% Jewish event in history. The other problem is that this teacher wanted to take 144 kids to tour eastern europe, and this proved too expensive for travel subsidy by the "department". She was evaluated to be the best history teacher of her school, and already students are behind her in her facebook page.
Israeli Jews always have plenty of criticism for others, but can never comprehend that this should also apply to them.
Palestinian will be slaughter you can compare those 2 events but not before.
...the nine Turkish thugs law breakers who attempted to break the lawful blockade on Gaza before talking about the Jews who were sent by their fellow countrymen in France to the gas chambers...??!!
'cause if you're talking about Israeli law, they were killed before they ever set foot in Israel, or even Israeli-controlled territory.
"an act of mass destruction and loss of life (especially in war or by fire)" Massacre: slaughter: the savage and excessive killing of many people this is ridiculous, over half her usage of the term referred to holocaust not the Holocaust
Time for the jews to grow a set, to act like humans instead of acting like little weak pathetic idiots who take pride at being victims. jews have a serious lack of dignity and honor. too much arab genes in them? probably...they are brothers.
Shame on you! What a racist you are! And please, tell me: what is wrong with having Arab genes? Arabs already knew that disease was caused by germs at a time when we, Europeans, still thought it was divine punishment.
for 15 years Pederzoli organized these trips. in 2007 a new administration came to the school. in 2009, she requested a trip for 144 students. she was allowed to have a trip with 80 students(cost, security etc. concerns.). when the education minister visited the school, the disaffected students demonstrated to be allowed on the trip. The ministry promptly launched an investigation into the teacher, and released a report in july. the teacher was suspended with pay. the rector insists that that is because of problems with trip organization.
Thanks for posting an accurate report.
Sounds as if this lady was not doing her job. It is OK to have convictions and burn for a cause, but do it in another forum than the classroom where you are supposed to give equal weight to all areas of the syllabus..
Very nice job, it was about time to stop this mindless brainwashing, probably the school administration was muslim, I dont think that real french had the balls to do something like this.
She used "Shoah" and not "holocaust", rather than "genocide" and not "massacre". The underlying idea being that the *legal* word in History programmes is genocide because it does not put any emphasis on the Jewish character of the victims (since not only Jews were victims in the death camps). Also, this fact is minor and the likely problem is just that the new school lead has a personal grudge against that teacher. Don't get me wrong, the whole affair is stupid, but I don't think it's the "French State" being "antisemitic".
Whats the big surprise,this after all is France. "Equality.Egalete,Fraternite". But not for the Jews.
I hope you can show France on the map of the world. Can you demonstrate the link between the article above and your post - if such was intended, of course.
We emigrated from France in 2003 following an increase of antisemitism in the country and personal threats, including Swastikas on our mailbox, and eggs and tomatoes thrown at our windows. Our twin daughters were the only Jews at their college with 900 students. France is back to the 30's and 40's, and going downhill by the day.
France today, with Europe's largest Jewish ( most of them also from the Maghreb) and Arab community is living through the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on its streets. It has nothing to do, or very littel, with Vichy or anti-semitism. Muslims have also been attacked, as have mosques and Muslim cemeteries. When I was in Paris two yrs ago I saw LePen's troops handing out soup made of pig parts for the poor, no poor Muslims wanted. 35 yrs ago Jews and Muslims had no problem walking down the Blvd Belleville. The conflict between Jewish nationalism, excessive zionism and pro-palestinian nationalism is what is taling place in France and Frances Jews as strong advocates of some of the most extreme zionist policies are being held responsible as are all French Muslims for the extreme actions of a few.
Your account of personal threats is a matter of conjecture, and not every swastika doodled on playground's wall is an anti-Semitic act, as Jewish Agency would like it to be. When Sharon declared the massive anti-Semitism in France a year after your emigration, it was not only the French gov't that put him back to his place, but especially the head of CRIF, of the top Jewish organisation of France which is conservative and pro-Israel. What does appear quite improbable is the two Jewish students in the college of 900. Firstly, AFAK most of the public schools in France are district-based, thus reflect the local "ethnic" demography. At any rate, you imply some mechanism/instance of malicious selection, and if you forgot to specify it, it's because there's none and cannot be. Secondly, compiling the statistics of "ethnic" origin of pupils would provoke a sort of hurricane in France - certainly bigger than in Israel (if that's where you escaped from the French anti-Semitism). Did you make the stats survey? Thirdly, at least in the higher education, the amount of "French Jewish" students is way bigger than of the "French" students. Besides, I did two degrees in France, and in both cases the French students (Jewish or not) were in minority, the big chunk being the students from abroad. The France of the right-wing populist Sarkozy is surely browner than that of before, but mainly because of its anti-Muslim sentiments and anti-immigrant policies.
Maybe they do not want to reveal their own French participation in the Holocaust? French were eagerly helping Nazis to exterminate Jews during the war...
Your response is reflexive and typical and yes, some of the French were indeed active collaborators. The Vichy administration were active agants for the Nazis in enforcing their racist policies and deportations. The French police also played a role. But remember, the majority was neither collaborators or resistance. They were an intimidated people who didnt want to know and just go about their lives. 75,000 Jews were deported and only a small number of them returnd to France after the War. But what was the Jewish population of France at the time of the Nazi occupation? 350,000. So, you can see that more Jews were saved or helped in some way by their neighbours than were deported and you must remember that when you condemn those who assisted the nazi beast in their barbarism.
Why the US bothered to liberate France. Expelling Romani? Anti-semitism? We should have left them to the Reich, maybe then they wouldn't be so quick to forget.
1. The US contributed to the liberation of France because the threat concerned the US too, and its military doctrine is to fight American wars abroad. 2. Recent expulsions of Gypsies is indeed despicable symptom of this right-wing gov't (you can join the immense rally against expulsions this week), but I'm sorry, it's identical to the official and practiced policy of the US regarding the illegal immigration. 3) Judging by sources, the allegation of "anti-semitism" behind this case (and many other) seems to be non-existent, although media is far from reliable source of particular circumstances. The person in question is a teacher of history, and there's a big difference between teaching Holocaust in the context of history and teaching history in the context of the Holocaust. The inspectors who compiled the report are monitored far more strictly than the teachers. By contrast, the study/teaching of Holocaust in France is, perhaps even more than in the US, subjected to the liberties taken by apologetic teachers in the vacuum of contextual, critical, scientific regard to this chapter of history. Of course, nothing obviates the reality of anti-Semitic acts in France (or the US, for that matter). Not even the fact that the very often victims of it are French Muslims.
So the French government doesn't agree with the term "Holocaust"? That's good to know...
It's a translation error. The teacher kept using the term shoah, not holocaust, instead of the more religiously neutral word genocide, not massacre as translated in Haaretz..
The worn-out trick in this kind of defense strategy is that it can be claimed but it cannot be either proved or denied, because it is a non empirical, a it-would kind of claim. For the same reason the lawyer put her other claim in the interrogative mode: "La faute que l'enseignante a commise n'est-elle pas d'être juive?" (asked whether Pederzoli is in fact being blamed for being Jewish). This teacher may or may not be guilty, but there's virtually no criminal of Jewish origin in whose defense the lawyer could not formulate the same question. The reality is that French courts indiscriminately take the "safe side" in all concerning the Holocaust subject, and this reality is proved by numerous "Holocaust denial" cases in the recent past. The lawyer's strategy is based entirely on the expectation to pass in the same expandable category. But for anyone familiar with French strictly centralized school system and program, this statement of the lawyer will appear absurd to put it mildly, for recently this system saw the major governmental projects for integrating Holocaust commemoration in classes, and in a quite religious and emotional level that disregards the official principle of neutrality without reservations. The project of the governing UMP stipulates each pupil to choose his personal "case" of a French Jewish child perished during the Holocaust and compile, through the years of the high school, the historical and emotional material and all trivia related - something in between private museum and self-made altar to be erected by a school kid in the context of his/her psychological reality.
My point is just confirmed that in Israel we cannot teach enough about the holocaust as in Europe one has forgotten already what happened to the Jews and we are ordered to shut up by the extreme right and left and Muslims as well as ordinary people who again feel free to say they cant stand 'these' Jews.
As soon as I read "we cannot teach enough about" any subject my hackles rise. Nothing is so important that it takes precedence over everything else. When you teach one thing, you take away the time that could have been given to something else. Are there no other things just as important as the holocaust which also should be taught?
I seems that the capital of France is still in Vichy... Their mentality has not changed since...