The historians of the German-Israeli textbook commission met for the second time on 15th February 2012. The workshop at the Georg Eckert Institute focussed on history textbooks. The experts from the History Work Group came together to evaluate progress made so far and to plan the next steps.
The methods with which the textbooks are analysed were explained by history didactition Alfons Kenkmann for the German side and mediaevalist Simcha Goldin for the Israeli side.They drew attention to the first, at the moment still carefully worded, tendencies towards a mutual portrayal in German and Israeli textbooks for Sekundarstufe II (secondary school). Furthermore, there was a discussion on the narration and the visual representation of the Holocaust as well as important aspects of Jewish history. The Israeli and German teams will have until summer to analyse their respective books. They will then exchange books. By autumn, the reports of the two groups will have been translated into the partners language. In autumn 2012, a joint conference with the three work groups, history, geography and social sciences, will take place. The commission members can then compare and discuss the textbooks directly for the first time.
Partners 
