National Commemorative and Memorial Buchenwald 1989

Attitudes and history knowledge before and after trip to the
Commemorative and Memorial Buchenwald as preparation for the
Jugendweihe {ceremony of adulthood}.
Topics:
Questionnaire A:
interest in history, technology, art, science, politics, nature, sport;
interest in sub-areas of history (scale);
interest in cultural and artistic forms of presenting historical events (scale);
occupation with fascism and sources of information used (scale);
feeling of being informed about concentration camps and
sources of information for this (scale);
trip to a concentration camp before Buchenwald;
preparation for the trip to Buchenwald through various groups of persons
(scale);
expectations of the trip to Buchenwald (scale);
interest in questions on the fascist system of rule, daily life,
anti-fascist resistance (scale);
extent to which informed about this (scale);
interest in reasons for incarceration and life of prisoners
in the concentration camp (scale);
knowledge about the life of the concentration camp prisoners (scale);
knowledge about which people and groups of people primarily were held prisoner;
attitudes to and evaluations of the time of fascism (scale);
stand on personal contribution against fascism today;
knowledge about the anti-fascist resistance struggle;
characteristic of the features of German fascism (scale);
feeling as an anti-fascist;
description of behavior of an anti-fascist (scale);
model effect of anti-fascists;
effects of dealing with fascism for understanding of the present-day;
realization of anti-fascist goals in the GDR;
attitude to harshness and violence in society;
sympathy for skinheads;
evaluation of neo-fascist tendencies;
attitude to foreigners in the GDR;
attitude to impending admission into the FDJ;
reasons for membership in the FDJ (scale);
solidarity with the Pioneer Organization, FDJ, GDR, FRG, Soviet Union,
native country;
temporal classification of historical social events (scale);
school grades (scale);
social origins;
qualification of parents;
general thoughts and feelings before the trip to Buchenwald;
Questionnaire B:
feelings immediately after the trip to Buchenwald such as fear, outrage,
hate regarding fascists and neo-fascists, admiration for the prisoners;
feeling of helplessness regarding the danger of neo-fascism in the FRG;
impressions from different parts of the concentration camp (scale);
valuation of impressions during the tour and museum visit (scale);
intent to return again to the memorial;
information on different topic areas during the tour (scale);
Ernst Thaelmann as model;
interest in the life, work and person of Ernst Thaelmann (scale);
feelings at the place where E. Thaelmann was murdered;
stimuli for further occupation with fascism from the trip;
preferred form of occupation with fascism (scale);
attitudes to and evaluations of the time of fascism (scale);
stand on personal contribution against fascism today;
knowledge about which people and groups of people primarily were held prisoner;
general thoughts and feelings after the trip to Buchenwald;
Questionnaire C:
another trip to the Commemorative and Memorial intended;
frequency of conversations about the trip with other persons (scale);
more frequent occupation with fascism since the trip;
assessment of effects of trip regarding emotional impact and stand on fascism
(scale);
interest in individual topic areas of fascism (scale);
extent to which informed about the seizure of power and goals of the
fascists, about daily life, the anti-fascist resistance (scale);
knowledge about which people and groups of people primarily were held prisoner;
interest in the life of prisoners in the concentration camp (scale);
knowledge about the life of prisoners in the concentration camp (scale);
attitudes to and evaluations of the time of fascism (scale);
stand on personal contribution against fascism today;
knowledge about the anti-fascist resistance struggle (scale);
characteristic of the features of German fascism (scale);
feelings such as fear, outrage, hate regarding fascists and neo-fascists and
admiration for the prisoners;
feeling of helplessness regarding the danger of neofascism in the FRG;
model effect of anti-fascists;
realization of anti-fascist goals in the GDR;
attitude to harshness and violence in society;
sympathy for skinheads;
evaluation of neo-fascist tendencies;
characteristic of behavior of a neo-fascist (scale);
self-assessment as anti-faschist;
impressions on the occasion of admission into the FDJ;
expectations of the Jugendweihe (scale);
experiences in school and Pioneer Organization (scale);
solidarity with the Pioneer Organization, FDJ, GDR, FRG, Soviet Union,
native country;
personal identity (scale).