BERLIN, March 24 (UPI) -- German history experts say the country's schools should go beyond the Holocaust to let children learn about the rich heritage of German Jewry.
They say the current curriculum gives too much weight to the Holocaust and not enough to the vast contributions the Jews made to German society, the Deutsche Welle reported Thursday.
The experts say Germany is socially, culturally and economically poorer since the Nazi's reign of terror killed or chased away most of the country's Jews.
"In German school books and classes there is a sole emphasis on the years of the Holocaust, between 1933 and 1945," said Frankfurt Jewish Museum Director Georg Heuberger. "The fate of the Jews in Nazi Germany should be studied in a much broader context. It should be integrated in 2,000 years of history of the Jews in Germany."
Heuberger was part of a panel to draft guidelines to ensure pupils learn that Jews have played a fundamental and positive role in European and German culture.
