History is crucial to understanding what is going on in the world now, and yes economics is also a crucial subject.
As for the comment "I have a job/life" well bully for you! It's not an excuse! If you're running a business you need to understand the world in which it is functioning in order to ensure its success surely?
I'm unfortunately not able to work currently due to ill health. I have at various points (job history very mixed due to being an army brat and then an army wife) worked in hospitality, retail, manufacturing, chemical production, nursing, civil service and civilian administration. From entry level to middle management.
In every role I've had, my own curiosity led to me finding out more than I really needed to do the jobs, it made them more interesting and occasionally helped in gaining promotions (that wasn't the aim it was simply noticed).
I learnt French at school, but made the effort to also learn Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch because I was visiting or going to live in countries where these were spoken and even if only a fortnights holiday at the time I felt it was good manners to at least learn enough to manage basic communication. This was built on with practice. My personal experience has been that even though tourists/visitors who haven't made this effort get perfectly adequate service, making the effort led to a better experience all round but particularly better service in cafes/restaurants and shops. Again, not why I did it but a pleasant outcome.
"I think if more people had a better understanding of some aspects of history, such as Hitler's rise to power, politics might not be in the state they are today - and that affects us all." Totally agree.
"so it's not put me at any disadvantage" do you vote? Did you vote on brexit? If so then I and many others would say that actually you did so without the full information to hand.
"Just because I didn't learn about them doesn't mean I'm going to repeat the actions." By not knowing you could well be voting for people who hold the same views as the perpetrators of these atrocities, who are just as prejudiced against a different sector of people, who are just as likely to create the conditions that led to these atrocities.
"I'm no worse off for not knowing these things." Do you get that you're better off because of people that do and did understand? Who fought against it happening here?
"Didn't learn it in school" school cannot teach you everything. It should be (there's a whole other debate there) a foundation that equips people with the ability and skills to learn, through practice. What you should learn at school is how to think, and think critically. Not to blindly accept what politicians or msm tell you, to find out for yourself from reliable sources.
What's your job? I find it hard to believe you can possibly have a job not affected by recent history and politics.
What about your son? What kind of world do you want him to grow up in?