Anne Frank - should people have heard about her?

[MilkTrayLimeBarrel]

Chatting with DH about where to go for a city break this spring. I suggested Amsterdam - lots to see, including tulips, canals, bikes and Anne Frank's house. He asked who she was? AIBU to think that everybody should have heard of her and what she stood for/did? I couldn't believe that he honestly had no idea who she was!

He’s early 50s and didn’t know who Anne Frank was?!?!?

I am utterly gobsmacked. How ignorant can one person be?

FYI I wasn’t formally taught any world war, 1 or 2, history at school, but it’s so ingrained in British history, books, films, popular culture, general knowledge that I genuinely couldn’t tell you how I picked up the knowledge. I haven’t read the book.

It’s disingenuous to say ‘billions of people won’t know who she is’. This person is (presumably) a British person, where as I mentioned before, WW history is ingrained in our psyche. Maybe someone in Chile might not know who she is.

I was once travelling to the Netherlands for work and got chatting to the man next to me on the plane. When I said I was going to Dronrijp, he casually replied that three of his uncles had been executed there for being in the resistance and that I should have a look at the memorial while I was there.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dronrijp_Reprisals

Agree, Hopoindown31.

It's not something peculiarly British though. There are parts of every society where people are very resistant to the dynamics involved in education.

Is it necessary to mention anything Marx wrote as part of an economics degree? Never having studied economics, I would have assumed not.
@PettyContractor, I agree. Das Kapital has had far more influence in historiography and from there to politics.

Anne Frank certainly wasn't covered by my schools. I left school in 2000 and did GCSE history.

Primary school - we learned about ww2 but only in the sense of evacuees.

Secondary - the weimar. Rise of Hitler. Wall Street crash etc. Then half a lesson that basically said "the Nazi's hated the Jews. There was a thing called the Holocaust and a camp called Auschwitz. 6million Jews were killed"

That was it. As a child/teen who had read extensively around the subject I was horrified that that was all we were told!
We didn't read Anne's diary in English lessons either.

Is it necessary to mention anything Marx wrote as part of an economics degree? Never having studied economics, I would have assumed not.

I would assume not. But to have never actually heard of Karl Marx or Marxism - yet having a degree in Economics from Cambridge?! Wowsers.

I don't think I learned about Anne frank at school (I'm 38) but definitely learned about her in general life and read the book when I was about 14.

But to have never actually heard of Karl Marx or Marxism - yet having a degree in Economics from Cambridge?! Wowsers.

I do think that’s fairly extraordinary.

www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/economics/history-economic-thought-and-methodology/economics-karl-marx-analysis-and-application

www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/economics/history-economic-thought-and-methodology/friedrich-engels-and-marxian-political-economy

1990s secondary education; we studied Anne Frank's Diary as part of a GCSE English unit on diaries and autobiographies. In the mid-nineties, the publication of Zlata's Diary will have boosted the profile, along with an increased focus on WW2 from 50th anniversaries.

The recent 100th anniversaries of WW1 and the fading of it in living memories has increased the focus on WW1. Focus on WW2 will increase again with a rise in due course.

This thread made me ask DH as experience tells me that his background often has holes in his education and general knowledge that I found surprising. He grew up in a country not directly involved in WW2, without the benefit of the BBC or Blue Peter. He didn't spend much time watching TV or reading books. Education was valued, but focused more on practical subjects. His higher education has been focused on a specific, technical field. Anne Frank vaguely rang a bell, but he couldn't apply her name to any particular context. He's more interested in the stategic side of WW2, but does have knowledge of the Holocaust from documentaries and visiting affected places such as Poland (Warsaw, Auschwitz). He is curious, just not the greatest at recalling random general knowledge.

That GCSE English unit also introduced me to Wild Swans, which was very informative about 20th Century society/ history in China. It was reading that which made me aware of the Japanese/ Chinese conflict predating the European/ empire/ world elements of WW2. Sadly going to China is very far from illuminating about modern history, or much about its history in general in the way that most places are.

It’s general knowledge.

We studied it at school in Canada. My Economics teacher was a Dutch Canadian whose family had fled Occupied Holland and although he wasn't teaching it, he would give us insights into the grim reality.

He abhorred extremism of any kind and urged us to do the same. It had a great impact on me.

I think everyone should read it at school.

taking in any information about amsterdam
Oh as an Aussie, we know something about Amsterdam
They have excellent cafes........

Tatiana, those tomes are more in the category of history of ideas than economic. Being published by the Cambridge University Press doesn't mean students reading economics would necessarily read them.

It's surprising that someone who had never heard of Karl Marx got an offer of a place in Cambridge. I would have thought people with such glaring gaps in general knowledge would be weeded out somewhere along the line in the admissions process. While it's possible that this Cambridge graduate might have dropped history after GCSEs, I would have assumed a passing familiarity with the name Karl Marx and the terms Marxism/Marxist, etc could be taken as a given as part of general knowledge.

My DD is at Cambridge and her general knowledge is atrocious. You're interviewed on your subject and admitted on grades. There are some general questions mainly aimed at thinking skills, but you're not quizzed on your general knowledge.

those tomes are more in the category of history of ideas than economic. Being published by the Cambridge University Press doesn't mean students reading economics would necessarily read them.

They’re in the Economics section under ‘history of economic thought and methodology’. To have a degree in a subject and have no grasp history of it is really odd. Any book on the history of economic thought will have chapters on William Petty, Adam Smith, Marx and Keynes.

General knowledge doesn't just come from school or university. I picked up vast amounts of knowledge just from osmosis as when I was a kid my parents would discuss stuff in front of me. They also talked to me in a child-appropriate way about current events or history. I do that with my nieces, ask them e.g. "do you know why that person is famous" or "do you understand what X news item means" if the news is on. Obviously not all the time!

Of course I have always read a lot and learned all kinds of things from the most unlikely sources. You don't have to read non fiction or serious literature to pick stuff up.

As I said before, curiosity is an essential ingredient. My grandfather left school aged 10, was self educated and according to my eldest cousin (sadly I didn't know him) "he knew everything".

@BackforGood - why is people listing what they covered in History at school in the 80s irrelevant if the OP's husband is in his mid -fifties. Depending on how you class 'mid' fifties, he could easily have been in school up until 1985/1986

I'm in the 'don't judge people for what they don't know,' club. There's such a wealth of knowledge out there it's impossible for everyone to know everything everyone else thinks is of particular relevance in the last 2000 plus years. I mean, I try not to judge anyone for lack of knowledge but I'm more likely to do so for people who don't know the pertinent current events than historical ones - I'm talking people who can't name the prime minster, for example. Now that takes a certain degree of willful ignorance to somehow be unaware of and/or uninterested in

General knowledge doesn't just come from school or university

I agree. My parents were well read and interested in all sorts of things. We were often taken out for day trips to museums, galleries, historical buildings, other cities etc. They also used to talk about events and history.

This always happens on history and particularly war threads. Loads of posters don't seem to get that a)not everyone was taught x (in this case who was Anne Frank) in school and b) some people have no interest in learning about history or the war because they have other interests. I don't call other people thick for not knowing about say bird extinctions since 1600

She's a major historical figure.

@zwellers aside from the dodo, how is extinction of birds in the 1600s comparable? Btw I guessed that then checked on wiki.

@Ginfordinner that’s very nice but you can catch culture and general knowledge from non-intellectual pursuits such as magazines, tv shows, films, just reading the tv papers when there’s a relevant tv show.

I'm in the 'don't judge people for what they don't know,' club

I’m over 50. If all I knew now what I was taught in school, I’d have had a pretty dumb adulthood.

I am dismayed the OP’s husband doesn’t know about Anne Frank but not surprised. People are ignorant and seemingly proud of it.

Take him to the house you think you know what to expect but oh my good God it's an eye opener. Anyone with a heart will cry. I am well into my 50s really can't understand how he hadn't heard of her she is in my eyes a major historical figure.

So glad it isn’t just my DP! In a conversation about Anne Frank a few years ago he turned around and said who is that, is she an actor?! We couldn’t quite believe it and it’s now become a running joke in our house. I just don’t understand how anyone can not have heard of her I really don’t.

PorpentinaScamander thankyou😊