What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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Who were the perpetrators and who was responsible?
What do students know about key
individuals and organisations?
Respondents to the survey were not asked to name
perpetrators or to describe what a perpetrator was.
As outlined in Chapter 3, it was possible to glean
a sense of students’ general knowledge through
responses to question 31 of the survey. Here,
students were presented with the names of some
notable individuals and organisations who might be
described or understood as perpetrators. Students
were then asked to indicate whether or not these
person(s) were connected with the Holocaust or, if
unsure, to mark ‘don’t know’.
One individual named in this list was Adolf
Eichmann – the SS Lieutenant Colonel whose trial
in the 1960s famously spawned the notion of the
‘banality of evil’, and the man who has come to be
seen in popular culture as ‘a metonym for the entire
history of the Nazi persecution and mass murder of
the Jews as well as its legacy’ (Cesarani 2005: 1).
But the extent to which this characterisation is
wholly justified has been questioned. Eichmann was,
fundamentally, not part of the Nazi leadership elite, he
certainly played no part in the decision-making process
which led to continental genocide and had little direct
influence over policy. Nevertheless, he did have agency
and, through his work on emigration and deportation,
became a significant ‘manager of genocide’ (Cesarani
2005: 12). So, in the context of behaviours during the
Holocaust there is no doubt that Eichmann falls under
the category of a ‘perpetrator’ – and, within that, one
who raises elemental questions around motive, intent
and responsibility.
Figure 6.1 Percentage of students who responded
‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘don’t know’ when asked if the
name Adolf Eichmann was connected to the
Holocaust (survey question 31)
46.0
■ Yes ■ No ■ Don’t know
23.2
30.8
Percentage of students
In response to the question of whether or not
Eichmann had a connection to the Holocaust,
students responded as follows: of all respondents,
23.2 per cent indicated that Eichmann did have a
connection with the Holocaust, 30.8 per cent said
he did not and 46 per cent marked ‘don’t know’.
When broken down by age, there were similarities
in responses of students from Years 8 to 12 (among
whom approximately 20 per cent thought that Eichmann
was connected to the Holocaust), before the
proportion leaps to 40.9 per cent in Year 13.
With the exception of those in Year 13, the
majority of students simply did not know if Eichmann
and the Holocaust were linked. These survey results
were mirrored in focus-group interviews.
Among younger students (11 to 16 year olds),
Eichmann was not referred to by a single student
during interview. Discussions with students in Years
12 and 13, however, included reference to Eichmann
on a couple of occasions; indeed, in one such
instance, a student in fact credited him with ‘coming
up with the “Final Solution”’ (Phil, Year 12, LON7),
while another suggested that ‘he got the title of the
architect of the Holocaust because … he kind of
drew up these plans for mass deportations’ (Jeremy,
Year 12, LON7).
Such remarks are clearly of note. They indicate
that some students associated Eichmann with
the Holocaust and also illustrated the level of
their knowledge and understanding. Yet these
instances were very much the exception to a rule:
in the main, both the survey and the focus-groups
depicted Eichmann as a figure generally unfamiliar to
students. The same can be said of another individual
referenced in a few focus groups, Heinrich Himmler.
Himmler was Head of the SS, Chief of the German
Police and the man whom Peter Longerich (2012:
571) positions at the very centre of the transition to
‘the Europe-wide extermination programme’ in 1942.
Among discussions with younger students (11 to
16 years old) there were only rare instances where
Himmler was named or alluded to. On one of these,
Fahima (Year 10, LON5), who was unable to recall
his name precisely – described the SS leader as
‘the real perpetrator’. On another occasion, Lachlan
(Year 10, EE1) asserted that Himmler ‘was, I think,
more forward for it or more jumpy at the “Final
Solution” than Hitler was perhaps. I think he had
more of a drive in it than Hitler’. With older students
(Years 12 to 13), Himmler appeared a few more
times, usually again with remark on his relation to the
Holocaust. Of note here was Jamie (Year 13, LON3),
who commented, ‘I believe he was in charge of the
extermination camps, as opposed to Hitler, Hitler was
sort of the guy who conjured the idea’.
However simplistic these explanations appear,
and leaving to one side their historical imprecision,