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!

@londonrach Mao Tse Tung, aka Mao Zedong, aka Chairman Mao, author of The Little Red Book, and murderer of millions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong

Basically, the founder and leading light of Chinese Communism.

Through school I never learnt a thing about either war except for the cultural impact of the wars on the arts.
I learnt about Anne Frank from a father of a Dutch friend but never at school.

I'm 40 and I learnt about her at high school. So early 1990,s.

BananaTaffy have you read the book? i think the film is good if you want to seek it out.

QueenOfTheFae would you recommend it? as a book lover should i read it? is the title evas story.

One evening DH was reading some article that mentioned Anne Frank, and he turned to me and asked, “Anne Frank... was she Hitler’s wife?”

Im the same age as your husband and it was Blue Peter who taught me about her. Then i went and found the book. I do not remember learning about her or WW2 at school. It was all crop rotations and industrial revolutions.

Yes i think most people should know who she is but there is bound to be the odd few who don't. Even if people have not read her diary they should have a at least a vague idea of who she is!

I learnt about Anne Frank in English in the 80s. No doubt came up in History too but I remember reading the book. DS is in Year 9 and says he hasn't been taught about her at school.

I've been twice to Anne Franks house. Took the children ages 11 and 13 in October. That was very emotional. Managed to hold it together until I saw a photo of Anne on the journey to hide in the warehouse.

We managed to get tickets by logging on on the day 5 minutes before they put the tickets on. They have a certain amount available each day. It's difficult but not impossible especially if you don't mind going late in the day.

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?

One I hadn't heard of.m, plus one I'd heard of but didn't know what he was famous for.

I agree, Anne French was on Blue Peter (several times?). Although we weren’t taught about Anne Frank, her story was widely known.

I’m similar age to op’s dh. WWII wasn’t studied until o-levels, and not in junior school like today. As someone said above, The War was recent history, my dad was a child during it and used to tell us about it.

Actually my judgement is reserved more for what happens after you’ve said you don’t know something.
Gerald Durrell once said something like “Never be ashamed to say ‘I don’t know‘. There will always be someone happy to tell you.” When they do, you now know. It would be worse if people were ashamed and so wouldn’t admit to not knowing something because it would make it harder to find out.
There’s that speech (Rumsfeld?) We know what we know and we know what we don’t but we don’t know what we don’t know.” which I get, and which applies. If you know there s a hole in your knowledge it’s easy to fill. If you have never even heard of Anne Frank you can’t even google - you don’t know you should.
But if you know there’s a gap in your knowledge and you do nothing, or worse, brag about it, then I judge.
There’s loads of gaps. In DHs knowledge. He comes from another country, and there was no value placed on education beyond basic schooling. No books in the house- there were farm jobs to get on with. Now though, if he realises there is something everyone else seems to know, he will find out - read a book, watch a documentary, ask me, google..
That, I respect.

I have a friend like this. Il name people who are household names\well known people from the past and she just doesnt have a clue who I’m talking about. She’s an intelligent woman but I think some people just don’t have good general knowledge.

Anne was just a normal young girl that's why her story is so poignant she could be anyone's daughter ,but she just happened to live through the holocaust and sadly lost her life because of it she wasent perfect or a war hero just a regular teenager I think her story brings home the horrors of Ww2 to a lot of people .

YANBU
I learnt about Anne Frank because Val Singleton visited the house for Blue Peter, and Otto Frank himself was also on the programme with Lesley Judd, and he brought the real diary, it was fascinating to me, and when we visited Amsterdam a couple of years ago the house and the Van Gogh gallery were the two places that were a must to visit.
It was amazing and moving to see it, and walk though the hidden door, just as Anne and her family did.

I did History at school but I don't remember actually learning about her, her name must have come up during the lesson at some point because I read her diaries. My husband who is 49 didn't do history but he knew who she was went we visited her house 16 year ago.

@CreekIsRising don't be obtuse! I very clearly said in my post that I was a similar age to the OP's husband (early 50s) so obviously I was AT SCHOOL at the same time! I'm quite bright...but even I wasn't ready to graduate as a teacher by the end of Year 10 🤷‍♀️ I had to follow the crowd and get my degree first...which took a few more years 😉

I know there was no 'National' curriculum, but of course children were taught 'a curriculum'! There were 'set' exam courses geared towards O levels and CSE exams...how else do you think we passed these tests? Whilst nothing was actually 'compulsory' in terms of content, schools would have had to have been completely insane not to 'teach to the test'! They picked their pathway though, so chose a 'period' in history to study dependent on the exam board the school went with...which is why some schools went down the Jethro Tull path and the Industrial Revolution. But...prior to what is now Year 9 (then would have been 4th year high school) children had a much more generalised education and WWII most definitely would have come up at some point...and, you know...the war was relatively well known, even 'back then, before Google' 👍

And for heaven's sake...even if, by some amazingly bad stroke of luck (broken leg, sepsis, extended family holiday to Bognor Regis age 12!) someone missed it...it would still take a massive lack of cultural/historical/political/self-awareness, to be so completely ignorant. As others on here have said many times, it just shows a lack of intellectual curiosity. 🤷‍♀️

One I hadn't heard of.m, plus one I'd heard of but didn't know what he was famous for.
Uhoh, and all those figures are apparently more prominent that Anne Frank. Welcome to the 'horrifically thick' club for not knowing one!

(Again, I think there were about 5 I didn't know )

My (otherwise v. Intelligent ex) didn't know who she was. Well other than her being "some kid in ww2."

He had apparently never heard of Dunkirk either.

For the record he's 28 now.

I think he just genuinely isn't interested in the war at all. He loves Ancient History though. I was always amazed at the (I thought) general knowledge things he didn't know. But then he was amazed at the maths/science things I didn't know. Horses for courses and all that.

I am mid 50s and did not learn about ww2 at school at all. We did the Romans, the elizabethans, and the industrial revolution. There was no national curriculum in the 70s and 80s teachers taught the history they were interested in.
WW2 almost seemed not to count as history then, it was my parents childhood, it would be like children now being taught about the 70s and 80s as history. I do however know about Anne Frank as they talked about her on Blue Peter.

Yes Blue Peter was good in those days isnt it amazing how things do stay with you from the telly And have such an impact on you.

I am sure we had "The Diary Of Anne Frank" as part of English Literature at Grammar school back in he 70's. Whichever way it was one of my favourite books as a teen probably due to my part Jewish ancestry.

@kateandme I know I'm not the op of the post about Eva's Story, but I would definitely recommend it.

I’m mid 40s and we learned about WWII at primary school. The thing to remember though is that it was very much living memory. I’m guessing for someone a few years older then even more so, so possibly not taught as it was recent.

That aside I can’t understand how he hasn’t heard of her.

I'm British, born in the 80's and we never learnt about Anne Frank at school despite me studying history for 4 years.

I did know of her because there was a kids drama on CBBC - I didn't read her diary until I was in my 20's.

Uhoh, and all those figures are apparently more prominent that Anne Frank.

There's a lot of Americans on there but I did American history A level. I 'm sure a lot of people wouldn't know many of the early American Presidents for example, or even Prussian philosophers (Immanuel Kent, the one I didn't know).

Not that I did WW2 at school (am too old ) but I read a lot and have a good general knowledge.

A lot of it is to do with curiosity, I think. If someone or somewhere I've not heard of is mentioned, I will look it/them up.