What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

Who were the perpetrators and who was responsible?
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6.
Who were the perpetrators and who was responsible?
Key questions
1. Why should students know about who the perpetrators were and who was responsible?
2. What do students know about key individuals and organisations?
3. What do students know and understand about the role and responsibility of Hitler in the Holocaust?
4. How do students conceive of ‘the Nazis’? What role and responsibility do students ascribe to them?
5. What do students know about the actions and reactions of the German people to the Holocaust?
How do they explain these actions and reactions? 1
Key findings
1. Very few students exhibited knowledge of the role played in the Holocaust by collaborating regimes
(such as the Vichy government), Axis allies or local populations across Europe.​
2. Students’ recognition and knowledge of leading Nazi agencies (e.g. the SS) and individuals
(e.g. Eichmann) was limited, although this improved with age.
3. More than half (56.1 per cent) of younger students (Years 7 to 9) believed that the Holocaust was
solely attributable to Adolf Hitler.
4. Many students referred to the Nazis as an elite paramilitary group loyal to Hitler. Very few students
appreciated that the Nazi party enjoyed significant, broad-based support across all sectors of the
German population.
5. With age, students increasingly appreciated that the Nazis and key Nazi leaders played a significant
role in the Holocaust.
6. Most students believed that the German people supported Hitler and his actions because they were
‘brainwashed’, ‘scared’ or they ‘did not know’ about the Holocaust.
7. Only a small number of students considered whether the German people were complicit in, or
responsible for, the persecution and mass murder of Jews and other victim groups.
Why should students know about who
the perpetrators were and who was
responsible?
The primary focus of this chapter is to explore
and illustrate secondary students’ knowledge and
understanding of two fundamental questions. First,
who do students believe were the perpetrators of the
Holocaust? And, second, who do students believe
was responsible for the Holocaust?
Regarding the first of these, the focus here is on
students’ knowledge and understanding of significant
individuals and agents – their attitudes, actions and
role in the initiation, decision-making and enactment
of persecutory and exterminatory policies. These
persons are loosely collected under the banner
of ‘perpetrators’. As to the second question, the
primary focus is on how students translate their
knowledge and understanding of individuals’ and
groups’ behaviour into assessment of responsibility.
The term ‘perpetrator’ is not neutral. Over the last
generation it has become a central component in the
tripartite division of the world of the Holocaust into
perpetrators, victims and bystanders (Hilberg 1993)
– all of which come with an array of connotations.
Each of these terms are enwrapped with political,
philosophical and legal dimensions, and charged
with moral and ethical urgency. Moreover, their
1 The term ‘the German people’ is problematic - it overlooks the
fact that some of the ‘German people’ were Jewish, as well as
the differentiation in the beliefs, attitudes and actions of the non-
Jewish German majority. Some directly carried out the crimes of
the Nazis or actively supported them; a small number rescued
their Jewish neighbours; many more were passive. So when
we discuss the ‘complicity’ of ‘the German people’ we speak in
generalisations. It is important to state that we do not mean each
and every individual living in Germany but rather the complicity
of society; and while individuals who were passive should not be
viewed uncritically, we of course do not regard them as bearing
equal responsibility as those who actively participated.
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