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.

I’m early 60s. Was not taught about the war in school, did history up to O level. But I knew something of it, it was recent history in the 60s and 70s when I was at school. I can name 4 camps - Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and Treblinka (Belarus).

ETA Treblinka was in Poland sorry. I knew of it because of the trial as a war criminal of John Demjanjuk, who’d been a guard there, in the 80s.

That is the 'minor' (disgustingly vile) atrocities look up the full scale of the depravity.

I did my GCSEs in the 1990s and we studied WW2 and the Northern Ireland conflict as part of the Modern World Studies element of History. We'd also read Anne Frank's diary in English and Drama so were well aware of the Holocaust.

DDs were at primary school in the 2010s and they did WW2 as a topic in about Y4 I think. Also came up a fair bit at secondary school.

I’m surprised that it took several pages for someone to spot this!

Off the top of my head, I could name six of the Nazi concentration camps, but I wasn’t sure where some of them were. That’s not very good considering there were about 1,000 of them (although they didn’t all exist at the same time). Perhaps most of us could do with learning more about the Holocaust?

The migrants who work building Dubai are treated shockingly. Their passports are removed and they essentially find themselves trapped - its a form of modern day slavery. Their employers have to remove them from work if the temperature gets above 50 degrees - but this leads to manipulation of the publication of the temperature so that it is reported as being below 50 degrees when it is not.

I would never visit Dubai as it is built on such exploitation and modern day slavery. To visit it, would be to reward this system.

I’m sure.
I obviously didn’t ask any questions, the patient volunteered the information.

I could probably name a couple off the top of my head but a list of concentration camps is not really something I choose to commit to memory, as I have enough things to remember as it is. Being able to reel off a list of names is not important.

I don’t think abuse of migrant labour is limited to Dubai.

which is all the survey asked. Can you name any, not can you name all of them.

My dc did a program in sixth form with Holocaust education trust. After visiting they did a presentation to whole school. It’s open to state school pupils.
www.het.org.uk/lessons-from-auschwitz-online

I have to say on reflection that most of my knowledge about WW2 and the Holocaust came from my grandparents who lived through it plus media. I'm in my mid 50s and can't specifically recall it being studied in any depth at my grammar school, and certainly not at primary school.

I recently watched a film called Number 24 on Netflix about the activities of a heroic Norwegian resistance writer couched from a perspective of him going into a college or high school to talk about his experiences.

Of course the numbers of those with lived experience are dwindling though I believe some survivors do still go out and do this.

I remember a few years ago seeing on Facebook some reels / videos with the perspective of "what if a teenage girl then had social media" and that seemed to me to be an interesting way to engage with today's young in terms of emphasising the humanity of those living under occupation and seeing friends and neighbours rounded up and persecuted. I found it quite impactful.

It's definitely about the lessons and the process in my view. If someone explained it to a person who was a "blank slate" as it were, I imagine it would be met with utter disbelief - "They can't do that!" Etc. Which is why it should still be taught with full fact and analysis.

No, but it was named specifically, and it has a strong tourist economy. Immigrants are treated as modern day slaves to build the infrastructure that attracts tourists. That's enough to ensure I won't reward that by going there.

Far more worrying is the proportion of people who cannot recognise a Nazi salute when they see one.

I'm not sure I'd have been able to name any had you asked me when I was at school in the 1990s, even in spite of learning about the Holocaust, unless I needed to know it for an exam and had just been revising.

My DM was a baby/small child in WW2 and learned quite a lot about the atrocities from me and more recent coverage. So it isn't necessarily the case that older people know about it and younger people don't.

I'm sure if you asked at lot of boomers what really went on to achieve the British Empire some of them were so proud of, they would be ignorant of it. My silent generation parents certainly were as they were not taught history in any other way than glorifying it.

the article doesn't mention any baseline research, there is no evidence of whether this is a decline, increase, or no change.

@Agapornis this is a fair observation; however I think the words "First Ever" in the survey title do indicate that there have not been any previous iterations of this particular survey. Which is perhaps in some ways surprising, and does of course mean we have just a single data point to work from. I quite agree that it would be very instructive if we had this over the past few decades to assess how awareness and understanding had changed over time.

I am pretty sure it is taught LOADS in English schools and probably Scottish etc. as well.

The trouble is, some kids don't listen or pay attention. Some are also just not very clever or good at remembering stuff. I don't think this is schools' fault!

I grew up in Scotland in the 60s and 70s and knew nothing about it - either from my parents or school. My kids went through school in the 90s and 99s and I can't remember them talking about it although they only did history in S1 and 2 so maybe it was covered later.

I finished school in 1973 and didn't learn anything about either WW1 or WW2. I may have gleaned my information from old films but I am fully aware of the atrocities although only in more recent years become aware of the other groups who were exterminated. I am embarrassed to say I can only name Auschwitz and Belsen and was totally unaware of just how many other camps there were.

I grew up in England and wasn't taught anything about it in School (1980s')
My children were in Scotland (5 years in England aged 9-14) then Scotland.
Not taught it in either country (during the last 10 years)

I spent time in Malta in 1997 with a lovely young German couple who wondered why some areas had 'new buildings'. They had no idea of the extent of the bombing, but, more importantly, siad they'd not been taught about the Holocaust at school. It was a singular event of course, but history shows that as a species, we achieve levels of horror repeatedly in war so the 'final solution' should be taught to everyone as a thing to avoid at all costs & never come near repeating.

I couldn't name all the camps. I also believe it is important that we realise that ALL extremism is dangerous. For Jewish people, travellers and the disabled as in Nazi Germany but for any group which is 'othered' by another group right now.

Thomasina79 is right to worry about the rise of the far right in the UK. Look at this statistic. 17% of those surveyed in the UK were basically Holocaust deniers.

Survey participants who disagree that the Holocaust happened and the number of Jews who were killed has been accurately and fairly described are 25% in France and Austria, 24% in Germany, 23% in Poland and Romania, 19% in Hungary, 17% in the U.K., and 16% in the U.S.
www.claimscon.org/country-survey/

These are the specific UK findings from the survey:

K nowledge and Awareness

• 89% of respondents said they had definitely heard about the Holocaust, some three quarters knew that it involved the mass murder of Jewish people, but there are significant gaps in knowledge and understanding.
• 52% of U.K. respondents did not know six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Nearly one quarter (22 %) believe two million or fewer were killed.
• Nearly one-third of U.K. respondents (32%) were unable to name a single one of the more than 40,000 camps or ghettos established during World War II. While a high percentage were able to name the notorious Auschwitz (63 percent), just 14 percent were able to name Bergen-Belsen, 10 percent named Dachau, while a mere six percent named Treblinka and four percent named Sobibor. Still, this is much stronger than the results of the U.S. adult survey showing 45 percent were unable to name a camp or ghetto and 48 percent of U.S. Millennials and Gen Z unable to do so.
• A majority of U.K. respondents (56%) believe something like the Holocaust could happen again. On a concerning note, seven out of ten respondents in the U.K. say at least a few people in the U.K. believe the Holocaust did not happen, and nearly one-quarter (22%) of respondents say a “great deal” or “many” people in the U.K. believe it did not happen.
• 57% of U.K. respondents agree that fewer people seem to care about the Holocaust today than they used to.

The U.K. During the Holocaust

• U.K. respondents did not know what happened when the U.K. government was made aware of the mass killings of Jews, significantly overestimating the strength of the British response. 67% of U.K. respondents wrongly believe that the government allowed all or some Jewish immigration during the war.
• When asked about Kindertransport – a British effort to rescue Jewish children from Nazi Germany – 76% did not know about this heroic effort.

Neo-Nazism and Antisemitism

• U.K. respondents believe that neo-Nazism is more prevalent in the U.S. than in the U.K. 15% say there are a “great deal” or “many” neo-Nazis in the U.K. while comparatively, 39% say there are a “great deal” or “many” neo-Nazis in the U.S.
• 65% of U.K. respondents believe there is antisemitism in the U.K. today.

Holocaust Education

• U.K. respondents overwhelmingly (83%) believe that all students should learn about the Holocaust in school.
• 88% believe that it is important to continue to teach the Holocaust, in part so it does not happen again; and 72% of respondents say that schools in the U.K. should be given more resources from the government to teach about the Holocaust.

Constituent Countries Survey: England, Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland

• A majority of citizens in all four regions of the U.K. – Wales (66%), Northern Ireland (61%), England (55%), and Scotland (54%)— believe something like the Holocaust could happen again today.
• When polled about education, 91% of respondents in Northern Ireland believe it is important to continue to teach about the Holocaust, in part, so it doesn’t happen again. The numbers were similar in the other regions, with 88% in England and Wales, and 86% of respondents in Scotland sharing the same belief.
• Across the four constituent countries, Holocaust denial is relatively consistent, with roughly 1-in-10 saying that the Holocaust is a myth or has been greatly exaggerated. Wales (10%) has the highest percentage of respondents who believe this form of Holocaust denial, whereas Northern Ireland (6 percent) has the lowest percentage.

and for the UK element

Survey Methodology and Sample:
The U.K. Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey was commissioned by the Claims Conference. Data was collected by Schoen Cooperman Research, with a representative sample of 2,000 interviews with adults aged 18 and over between September 29 through October 17, 2021 across the United Kingdom. The margin of error on the United Kingdom sample of 2,000 is +/- 2%. The number of interviews conducted in England is 1,680. The margin of error of the England sample is +/- 2%. Additional interviews were completed in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to achieve 700 interviews in each nation. The margins of error on the Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland samples is +/- 4%. The number of interviews conducted in total for this study is 3,780.

You must know very ignorant youngsters because WW2 including holocaust is taught at school and there is loads on the TV and internet about it. I haven't come across such lack of knowledge in young people that I know.

If anything, those of us born post war knew less, it was not taught in school then and parents generally wanted to leave the war behind. We knew some things and there were plenty of old war time films on television but it wasn't until later we learned about the horrors. The Diary of Ann Frank, book and film, was an eye opener. I remember my mother didn't want me to read it would you believe. The idea was, worldwide, that the next generation should grow up without prejudice and the burdens of knowledge, which I do understand. However a lot of time has passed since then and history is very important.

It is up to adults to encourage their children to learn about such things and discuss them. Not obsessively or to the detriment of anything else but as part of history of the human race. It is just as important as the Tudors, Stuarts, the American Civil War and the French revolution.

https://www.claimscon.org/millennial-study/ focuses on the US survey responses

The states with the highest Holocaust Knowledge Scores are: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maine, Kansas, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Iowa, and Montana. a few of those surprised me

as did a couple of these, though most less so
The states with the lowest Holocaust Knowledge Scores are: Alaska, Delaware, Maryland, New York, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas.