Alberta pulls document recommending students learn about Nazi economic policies | Globalnews.ca

Alberta’s education minister says she “categorically denounces” a guidance document that recommended the province’s students learn about how the Nazi regime “strengthened” the German economy in the lead-up to the Second World War.

The document, published in January 2020 by the province’s education department, recommended teachers consider whether educational materials revealed “both the positive and negative behaviours and attitudes of the various groups portrayed.”

“For instance, if a video details war atrocities committed by the Nazis, does it also point out that before World War II, (the) German government’s policies substantially strengthened the country’s economy?” the document, titled “Guidelines for Recognizing Diversity and Promoting Respect,” read.

The document went on to note that most history books “dwell on the mistreatment of (First Nations) peoples by Caucasians and do not include any examples of non-(First Nations) individuals or groups actively opposing this type of treatment.”

The document, which surfaced on social media Friday morning, was denounced by anti-hate campaigners.

“It is shocking that the Alberta Ministry of Education would consider the genocidal Nazi regime as a good example of a group that had positive behaviours, given Nazis murdered six million Jews and millions of others, in addition to completely destroying their country because they initiated a war,” Michael Levitt, the president of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, wrote in a statement.

In a statement posted to Twitter, Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said she “immediately” instructed the department to remove the document from all Alberta Education materials when it came to her attention Friday.

“The wrongheaded views outlined have no place in our society and I categorically denounce what is written. There is not a ‘positive’ side to tell of the murderous Nazi regime, as this document wrongfully suggests,” LaGrange wrote.

LaGrange said the document has “nothing to do with the curriculum process” and that “under no circumstances would (her) office approve horrendous content like this being taught to Alberta students.”

More to come.