German kids to be required to visit death camps
Following attempted murder of senior police officer by neo-Nazi in region, Bavarian government introduces program that will force school children to visit concentration camp as part of curriculum
School children in the German district of Bavaria will be forced to visit Nazi extermination camps as part of their school curriculum, the London Times reported on Thursday.
The decision came in response to the recent attempted murder of a high-ranking police officer by a neo-Nazi in the region.
The stabbing triggered a heated public debate and prompted the government to look into ways to address the situation.
"We have to take a stand against this far-right octopus, this tentacled monster," said Bavaria's Prime Minister Host Seehofer.
Seehofer ordered his ministries to come up with proposals on how to curb the neo-Nazi influence in southern Germany.
According to the new program, school children will be obligated to visit a concentration and death camp at least once, and history classes will include trips to museums and archives that present Germany's Nazi past.
The Bavarian students will likely visit the Dachau camp near Munich.
The program will also include a state-funded project to encourage youngsters not to join extreme rightists groups. The Bavarian Education Ministry believes that many youths are drawn to such groups and become members in them due to peer pressure.
Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister, said that the project's main aim is "to bring up kids so that they can resist any attempt by the far-Right to lead them astray."
