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.

The British were responsible for concentration camps during the Boer War.
Whilst they didn’t actively murder the internees conditions were such that survival was unlikely.

As its Holocaust Memorial Day I won’t add a link as I don’t want to derail the thread too much.
I just think it’s important to remember that democracies too are capable of evil actions.

My Y9 daughter is currently covering the Holocaust in history as per the curriculum. However the high school as a whole have a lot students attending several events today in our county in rememberance https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70kzpll8pjo

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk did a pretty good job with Turkey.

I think she’s also forgetting who raised and taught this generation 🤨

When I was in my early 20s I also thought a benign dictatorship would be the best as people cant be trusted to make decisions that are in the best interest of everyone. Now thst I'm much older I can see why benign dictatorships pretty much never remain benign and why a representative democracy is probably the least of all evils. I think it takes life experience to realise that.

Op, if what you say is true that is shocking. There is so much misinformation these days fuelled by social media. It's so easy for people to.just learn whatever confirms their views. I'm not sure what to do about that. The only thing I can think of is that this is why it's so important to teach history in school (and as parents).

I can name quite a few and was taught very little about WW1/WW2 at school.

What I feel most sad about is that we again and again create a world and society there a lot of people struggle.
Struggling people are easy victims of politicians telling a lie about immigration, people with another faith an so on. Combine with a lot people from other cultures (Islamic mostly) being allowed to take the piss in Europe. Look to UK, France, Sweden. It's toxic.

I can only name Auschwitz and I’m 35 so probably not ‘young’! If someone mentioned another i would probably link it but dont have any other names off the top of my head. Pretty certain we didn’t study the holocaust at school. I only did history up until year 9, did world war 2 I’m sure but more about evacuees etc.
I guess as time goes on we will forget, which makes sense. There will be countless atrocities that have been forgotten from centuries ago. Hence it keeps happening.

It was 80 years ago... I think it's ok not to be able to name the concentration camps.

This is very easy forgotten. Thank you for mention it.

I think the most important of these is curiosity. If you have curiosity about other people's lives, opinions and experiences , you are less likely to have to have polarisation and misinformation that leads to conflict. After all, there would be no echo chambers if people were curious about what the 'other side(s)' thought.

One change that has really struck me in society is that I often find when I am talking to one side in a polarised debate, they often clearly aren't aware of the arguments or evidence on the other side. They often argue against points the other side isn't making. They have clearly never gone to the original source for any of their arguments, but only hear the 'other side' through critiques from 'their' side. They often cannot defend their own points if challenged or questioned.

Curiosity means that you get a fuller picture of a situation or issue from all angles. And when you do that, you fend off developing polarised, extreme opinions and prejudice.

Instructions to ' be kind' are often used now to tell people not to have legitimate boundaries or concerns. Its not so much kindness we need as curiosity about each other.

Apologies, not read the full thread but I'm really surprised at this:

"A stark proportion of young adults aged 18-29 had not heard of the Holocaust in France (46%)"

My History education in and English grammar school in the 1980s went from the Stone Age to the Industrial Revolution. I didn’t learn anything about WW2. I do know however that Auschwitz is in Poland not Germany. I’ve taken my kids there to ensure they are educated too.

Remembering the names of camps is not important, understanding how people were isolated and vilified so the government could set them up and murder millions is. Remember that Hitler was democratically elected.
Fascists and Communist states are experts at brain washing many of their citizens and terrifying others, they do it through lies and division, History lessons need to promote Critical Thinking, especially with the impact social media is having.

And yet France has the third highest Jewish population.

However I think we forget that the Jewish population worldwide is quite low at 15.7 million or 0.2% of the world population.

I worked in schools for many years and it was always included in the Curriculum. For teenagers there were Holocaust Memorial Day assemblies, and even when I worked in FE there was a commemorative display put in the main atrium.

Sadly I've come to the conclusion that many, many children and young people are very disengaged from education, don't listen, don't think much beyond what their friends are doing, revise superficially for exams and are more interested in what the boy or girl across the classroom is doing. I taught maths and science and find the science knowledge of most people shocking, they don't even know things taught pre GCSE . I know they were taught it but it doesn't seem to register anywhere in their heads. I think its the same with Holocaust education.

All state schools in English and Wales teach about the Holocaust.

What astonishes me is how many people take no responsibility for ever educating themselves about things that matter.

History (and most other humanities and science subjects) teach an evidence and research based approach. Children are taught how to use ICT- many are experts . Yet so many people never educate themselves about what has and is happening in the world. They live in ignorance or accept anything as truth which is really dangerous.

I think there's a difference between not being able to name them & not having heard of them at all.

I couldn't name many 4 or 5.

I'd be surprised if people hadn't heard of Auschwitz for example.

Or Bergen-Belsen where Anne & Margot Frank died.

On paper my state school taught a lot of things. It was quite different in real life.

Remember that Hitler was democratically elected

Only in the way that Robert Mugabe was 'democratically elected'. There were running street battles between the nazis and their opposition at the time the Nazis were gaining momentum. There was mass voter intimidation by the Nazis at the election that brought Hitler to power. The defeated leader gave his final speech in parliament with a cyanide capsule in his mouth whilst surrounded by jeering storm troopers. If when people say ' Hitler was democratically elected' they are imagining a situation anything like modern day elections in the UK, they are sorely mistaken.

I suggest reading Richard E Evans absolutely brilliant book ' The rise of the Third Reich' ( he was the historian who gave evidence against David Irving (the Holocaust denier) in his trial.

Yeah I don’t think benign dictatorships can exist!

I also think humans fundamentally want to make choices for themselves and generally want to feel they have degree of control/ responsibility. So I don’t think people in general would enjoy it even if we had one.

I was at secondary school late 90s-early 00s and didn’t take history at GCSE. I remember one lesson in year 9 about it and it stuck with me because our teacher was upset because I think his parent or grandparent had been involved in the war.

I can only name auschwitz and know it’s not in Germany.

I know about the horror of it but if I’m honest I don’t want to read more and find out more as it’s very upsetting. That might make me ignorant but life isn’t sunshine and roses so don’t see why I’d make that worse for myself.

Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew, sometimes described as 'benign dictator'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeeKuann_Yew

However I think we forget that the Jewish population worldwide is quite low at 15.7 million or 0.2% of the world population

Yes, when I recently read how few Jewish people there are in the world, it really, and shockingly, brought home to me just what an absolutely huge proportion of the world's Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. I don't think people realise this when they 'just' hear the ' six million' figure.

And? What has that to do with many people not taking responsibility for continuing to educate themselves about the world, past and present?

Thank you for these suggestions. My 8 year old was asking about it on the school drive this morning and I was struggling to explain it in a child appropriate way at 7:30 after a bad night with my 7 month old. I will find some resources from those sites and have a proper conversation later.