Education Ministry Discovers Nazi Symbols In WWII History Books

“We’re mystified and profoundly disturbed.”

Trigger warning: may contain gluten

Jerusalem, April 4 – Officials at the Ministry of Education expressed shock and outrage today at the presence of Nazi imagery and symbols in school textbooks on modern European history.

Section supervisors at the ministry held an emergency meeting this morning after a staff member alerted her superiors to the repeated occurrence of swastikas, anti-Jewish slogans, and imagery calculated to dehumanize Jews in the eyes of others, in books purporting to educate high school students regarding the events surrounding the Second World War in Europe. The slogans, images, and insignias might trigger severe reactions among certain readers, it was thought, and ministry Director-General Ofer Kreinautlaud called an urgent session to review the problematic books and formulate a plan of action.

All seven approved high-school textbooks covering the war and the Holocaust suffer the problem, according to a ministry spokesman. “It’s absolutely pervasive,” lamented Ofer Pitzek. “Nobody seems to have any idea how any of the books got through the approval process, either. We have the protocols of all the meetings of the committees that approved each textbook, and not only is there no record of any of the books presenting a problem, the very presence in the books of Nazi symbols and messages doesn’t even appear as an issue in the deliberations. We’re mystified and profoundly disturbed.”

Individual members of the committees that issued those approvals have been contacted, and the senior ministry staff intends to debrief them immediately, said Pitzek. “This is a debacle by any measure,” he acknowledged.

Compounding the problem, say experts, is the lack of alternatives. “There aren’t any other books out there – not of any quality, anyway – that do not include those images and messages,” explained educational consultant Amnon Atzi. “That puts students and teachers in a bind, especially the ones preparing for their matriculation exams in history. My guess is they’ll tough out the year with the current crop of textbooks for the sake of the exams, while they work feverishly to identify and review acceptable alternatives for the next academic year and beyond.” Failing that, said Atzi, an entirely new European history textbook would have to be commissioned that would not contain such obscene material.

In the meantime, said the spokesman, as a stopgap measure, all newly distributed Modern European History textbooks would have affixed to them a sticker with a trigger warning. “It’s the best we can do for the time being,” said Pitzek. “Personally, I’m still shocked that anyone would be so insensitive and, well, just plain dumb, as to put such blatantly offensive material in a high school textbook.”