Disregard. distort or discard : A study of the representation of jews in history textbooks

This thesis has explored history textbooks for upper secondary students in Sweden, with a focus on Jewish representation. The study aimed to address how many times, in which historical context and in what manner Jews are mentioned and described in textbooks, by employing both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis. Michael Apples theory of Official Knowledge as well as Norman Faircloughs three-dimensional model for critical discourse analysis were used to analyse and interpret the findings from the empirical data. The methodology consisted of reading all eight textbooks, noting every mention of Jews and sorting them into seven categories (ethnic group, national minority, victims of violence and persecutions, in relation to Nazi-Germany, conspiracies, Jewish state and specific Jewish people). This allowed for a comprehensive assessment of which context Jews were most often depicted within. The findings revealed that Jews are by far most often mentioned in relation to Nazi Germany, and that passive constructions are often used, suggesting that the textbooks often rehash the stereotype of Jews as victims. Furthermore, the analysis highlighted that Jewish history is told in fragmented extra parts of the textbook, not in the main narrative and that some textbooks main emphasis is the morality lessons the Holocaust can teach, rather than what happened.