To be surprised and a bit shocked

[Thomasina79]

That a high percentage of young people cannot name the concentration camps of the Second World War in Germany and some are not even aware of the atrocities committed.

in the light of the far right extremism in Europe rising up, financial instability, anti semitism/anti Muslim are we nit in danger of history repeating itself. People have poor memories.. yes sadly there have been many many wars since, some all too recently. The situation in the world is all so worrying and I fear for my grandchildren and adult children.

What’s the source on this?

If you want to add to your worries look at the results of the research by channel 4 that states that nearly 50% of under 27s think a dictatorship would be better than a democracy.

I saw it reported over the weekend here (probably also elsewhere).

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/26/uk-young-adults-unable-to-name-auschwitz-holocaust-education-disinformation

A benign dictatorship would be.
This is based on the fact that democracies get very little done for the citizens.
Look at the mess the UK is in.
A dictator who wanted the best for the citizens of their country could pump money into what mattered
healthcare
education
sanitation.
There wouldn’t be endless debate whilst nothing improved.

Of course the problem is that anyone who wants to be a dictator is probably not going to be the ideal candidate.

I think it needs to be discussed more in schools. We did a whole term on it all when I was about 15 (1995). Now they just either talk about it for an hour or don’t mention it at all as they’re so worried about upsetting children. It’s a weird world we live in now where we’re over protective and don’t let our kids see the horrors of the world in a safe, educational environment but we let them loose on the internet so they see all sorts of crap unfiltered without discussion.

There were 23 main concentration camps, how many people could name them all?

I’m more shocked that most adults are unaware of what France did to Algeria and the millions that were killed after ww2 after ‘never again’.’

In the early 2000’s a German teenager was spending a year in our area working.
I asked her about German history in schools.
She replied that her and all of her friends were indeed educated about WW1 and WW2 and they were sick of feeling somehow responsible for it all. She didn’t want to know and was not interested.

You are misinformed. It is taught in secondary schools. It isn't discussed, because there's nothing to discuss. Students are provided with sources of information and texts, and learn about the process, the steps towards a "Final Solution".

I grew up in Scotland and I wasn’t taught anything about it at school. This was the 90s

Yes, it's on the secondary curriculum in the UK. It has been for many years. I've taught it every single year! It's not an easy series of lessons, but vital.

The Guarfian link works, @Tomatobum

People also seem to have forgotten how many millions of Russians died under Stalin and the collaspe of the Soviet Union in the gulags and being deported to the outer reaches of Russia to labour camps.

No it isnt

Yes, you were. It was part of the curriculum in primary and in secondary. There were specific battles talk in S1 and S2 as part of social sciences (history). It was a part of the curriculum and taught in all Scottish school in the 90s. You did not get through primary and secondary without doing at least two topics on the wars in primary school and the war modules in history in s1 and s2.
So, even if you didn’t take history for standard cards, you did ww2.

You’d be surprised how many people do not remember whole parts of their schooling, or who didn’t pay attention at the time so have no chance of remembering.

I was looking through photos a couple of years ago and my Primary 6 class did a whole assembly (school show) on weddings in different religion and cultures. I played a bride in one of the religions… I have absolutely no memory of ever doing that or leaning about them.

I’m not misinformed. I am saying it isn’t taught in the same detail. (My son is 13 and I have a dd aged 21 so know what they were taught about it).

I was also at school in the 90's in Scotland and we definitely learned about WW2 and the Nazis in S1and 2. Then I'm sure we did it in Standard Grade and Higher in more depth.
DS1 has definitely done it for Nat5 and I know he and DS2 both did it in p7.

I remember getting frustrated at secondary school (mid 90s) because we spent such a lot of time on Nazi Germany compared to other history topics - it formed half of both my GCSE and A-level syllabus (technically dictatorships in Europe). We also covered in in PSE (racism/prejudice) and read books covering the period in English. I wonder if in part it is because it is passing out of living memory?

If people can’t name the camps (I can probably name 7-8), do they at least understand what took place there? I understand that children still learn about it, maybe the details they learn have changed.

For them it probably would be because they're such an unintelligent generation. I'm surprised they even know what a dictatorship or democracy is TBF.

One of the reasons students struggle to name camps 'in Germany' is that the most high profile ones and the ones the UCL and other research/ teaching organisations focus on weren't in Germany.
There are ways to get involved in education projects on a volunteer basis, the Holocaust Education Trust is a good place to start, if you really want to help tackle this problem.