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!

I'm staggered that some UK posters weren't taught about WW2 at school. I did history O level in 1975 and we covered the war. I learned about Anne Frank from watching Blue Peter, and read her diary at 13 - the same age that she was when she started it. It has stayed with me all this time.

@Lockheart the Holocaust is significant so it makes sense that Anne Frank’s story is too. And of course it could be argued that people SHOULD know who she is, because it’s important to understand the horrors of the Holocaust and the impact it’s had on shaping life after WW2. I don’t think not knowing who Anne Frank is / not knowing how to do excel formula is a fair comparison.

i too am surprised at the number of people who seem to think if its not on the curriculum then how would you be expected to know?

@Ginforddinner I too had the book at age 13 and was totally fascinated and horrified in equal measures about her life.

To other PPs - DH is English through and through - I am totally bemused about all this!

Its frightening how many people don't know anything about WW1 or WW2. A lot of people don't even know the start/end dates.

Does your DP know about the holocaust/gas chambers though?

Yes I don't know it was,nt covered at my school.in the 80,s Gin I loved history still do but the agricultural and industrial revolution,s were not the most interesting periods of history tbh,we didnt cover it in earlier years either .

Anne Franks story was not taught at school but i think i learned about her through TV or books.

I think people should learn about Sophie Scholl as well. Executed at the age of 22 just for handling out resistance leaflets in Nazi Germany. Mind you there are so many stories of atrocities that humans have carried out that we should be aware of. And they still happen.

Sparklesocks I agree. Whether or not WWII is taught in schools, the diary of Anne Frank is a 'way in' for children to learn about the horror that was the Holocaust. It's important. I remember my parents telling me about her, they bought me her diary. I didn't read it until I was older though as I don't think I was interested at 8/9, but, nevertheless, I knew who she was and a little about the war which I picked up from various people, books, TV, etc.

No, never heard of her until we were planning a short break in Amsterdam. We were never taught anything about her at school, but that's not surprising as we were never taught about anything to do with WW2 and certainly not the holocaust, Hitler, etc.

Glad we went - a real eye opener. We chose the entry with a 30 minute advance session of explaining who she was, her family, the background, etc., which was fascinating and well worth the extra few pounds.

Just one point for OP - make sure you book well in advance. It gets fully booked a few weeks ahead, virtually as soon as each day is opened for online booking. They say a limited number of slots are released each morning at a specific time, but the time is very variable in reality and you can end up in a queue with hundreds of people in front so you've no chance of a ticket. My OH logged on every morning for a few weeks ahead, firstly to try to get the days we were there in advance, but they'd sold out as soon as they were put on, so he tried to work out best time for the morning release but he never even got through to the booking page. Eventually, purely by chance, he logged in mid afternoon about a week beforehand and some slots had been released (must have been a group cancellation) so he snapped them up. When we got there for the tour, there were plenty of people stood around desperately asking for people to sell their tickets. They don't have any "walk in" booking slots at all - all are booked online far in advance.

I think its daft to assume every reasonably -educated person will have heard of every person above a certain threshold of famousness. Particularly where that person doesn't touch their day to day lives.

Yes most people in Europe will have heard of Anne Frank but I dont think it shocking if a particular person hasn't. Everyone has some gaps in common knowledge, even well-educated people.

I dont recall learning about Anne Frank in school. I'm not sure that she's really an important historical figure in her own right, rather she is one of the faces given to the equally important victims of appalling moment in world history. It is one of those names and stories most people pick up though, mainly due to adaptations of her story in various media.

x2boys it's all coming back to me now...Jethro Tull and his seed sowing machine has been buried deep inside my mind all these years!

At university my flat mate studied History and a friend glanced at her topic book title and asked, "What's the Holocaust?"

I'd be surprised at anyone over about 30 not having heard of her, but I'm not going to judge people for not knowing. My brother met someone who was in her 20s when she saw Schindler's List (when it came out) and had no idea at all about the holocaust prior to that. I'm not going to accuse anyone of being stupid for not knowing about it - it's close to me as I'm Jewish and the descendent of survivors, but I appreciate it doesn't have the same priority to everyone. NB, I've never actually read Anne Frank's diaries!

I don't think there is a 'should' about it. Learning about WW2, yes. Knowing about the Holocaust, of course. But I don't think Anne Frank's story is an essential part of that. It's a good way to introduce the topic to children, a very commonly studied book in secondary or even primary school. But it's not the only way to introduce the topic. There are other people whose stories can also give that context. There are other books that are studied.

I'd be surprised that someone hadn't heard of her, but I don't think it is necessarily a 'should' - I'd reserve that for other things, like knowing about the Holocaust more generally.

@RingPiece

YABU, wtf, We can all pick a name from history and somebody will not know it.
Anne frank is not that well known tbh these days either and NO 99.9% of people would not of heard her name. Ridiculous.

The world wars have been studied in schools for years and Anne Frank is a part of that.

Not in my school it wasn't - a crap state comp in the 80s. We did French Revolution and Industrial Revolution. No UK wars at all and neither did we do any Monarchs.

Just asked my son who is in a state secondary Upper Sixth. No, he'd not been taught anything about Anne Frank in school either. He said he'd been taught about Germany/Hitler but only about Weimar, so whilst he knew about the anti-Jew movement etc., he had no idea what they did to the Jews, nor the holocaust etc. More worrying was that he'd gained a grade 9 in GCSE history! Thought he knows all about the crusades, Richard and John, warfare through time, etc - just a shame for some reason the war syllabus stopped at the start of WW2!

@LloydColeandtheCoconuts how on earth did that conversation play out??

Maybe he was absent for that lesson. Then if his family are the type to talk about crap at the dinner table rather than politics/ history etc it would have never got mentioned. I suppose in 50 years he would have also had to screen out mentions on TV etc. He sounds like a thicky. Sorry!

Jethro Tull Horse hoeing husbandry.
Gosh that was boring.

I'm currently teaching a unit on Anne Frank to Yr 9. One of my pupils said, 'miss, she was actually a bit mean to her mum wasn't she? Not mean, but snappy, like a normal teenager and her mum. I think that's why it is so sad'.

I would be embarrassed if my dh had never heard of her. Nothing to do with learning at school.

I felt a bit sorry for Justin Bieber when he was criticised for saying Anne would of been a fan - but I reckon she would of been. She was totally into Hollywood movie stars and celebrity and royal gossip. If Heat magazine had existed then she would of been begging Miep for old copies.

So did I. In a way, his observation (albeit self-aggrandising) was more respectful than many others, because it actually acknowledged she was an ordinary girl who should have had such a life. Sometimes I think she gets written about as if she was born to be a martyr, with especial strength of character and moral fortitude. We do that to make the reality of what happened a little bit easier to bear, but what happened to her was just as awful as it would have been for any other teenage girl.

ideas.time.com/2013/12/10/whos-biggest-the-100-most-significant-figures-in-history/

A list of the 100 most significant figures in history. Theres a few names on there I dont know. Is it just me or does everyone else know all 100?

That’s pretty surprising. I’ve just asked my 10 year old and she know who Anne Frank is, and knows a fair bit about her.