French President’s Holocaust Awareness Proposal Prompts Debate
Feb 18th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsAdvocates say Sarkozy’s proposal can fight racism and intolerance; critics say it will traumatize school children and blurs the division between government and religion
PARIS
A wrenching ethics debate is dominating French politics: How should students be educated about the killings of French children curing the Nazi Holocaust?
The Paris-based International Herald Tribune reports that president Nicolas Sarkozy set off a firestorm last week when he announced that during the next school year every French 10-year-old will be required to learn the life story of one of the 11,000 French children deported from France and killed by Nazis.
“This is a way of fighting all kinds of racism, all kinds of discrimination, all kinds of barbarity by reaching children through the story of children of their own age,” Sarkozy said.
The idea did not sit well with psychologists who worry that it will be traumatizing, according to the Associated Press, and the proposal revived debates about how France remembers World War II.
In addition, reports the Times of London, the move is controversial because it is being linked by critics with Sarkozy’s controversial emphasis on religious values in a nation known for imposing a strict barrier between government and religion.
Some teachers’ unions also have objected, accusing Sarkozy of meddling with education and exploiting the issue to divert attention from other political problems.
But the idea has its backers as well, reports the Independent, which notes that “most Jewish organizations have welcomed the idea, as have some of the President’s leading left-wing opponents, including his main rival in last year’s election, Ségolène Royal.”
Sources: International Herald Tribune, Feb. 16 — AP, Feb. 16 — Times of London, Feb. 16 — Independent, Feb. 16.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, July 30, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 16, 2007 — Related Newsline story, July 3, 2006 — Related Newsline story, May 1, 2006 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 7, 2005.
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