Learning with Digital Testimonies in Germany: Educational Material on Nazi Forced Labor and the Holocaust

Abstract

Interviews with Holocaust survivors, former forced laborers, and other victims of Nazi persecution have been pivotal in disseminating oral history in German schools and memorials. Yet, the conceptualizing of interview-based educational material for formal and informal education in Germany faces some specific challenges. This chapter describes the learning environments developed at Freie Universität Berlin, and reflects on their approach, realization, and reception. To contextualize these considerations in a transatlantic debate, we discuss the specifics of Holocaust Education in the perpetrators’ country and the educational possibilities of an “encounter” with video testimonies in classrooms.