What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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Who were the perpetrators and who was responsible?
ranged from ‘puppets’ and ‘slaves’, to ‘determined’
and ‘obedient’; Nazis were variously ‘strategic’ and
‘strong’, ‘disrespectful’ and ‘really extreme’; they
were also ‘cowards’, ‘frightened’ and – notably
– ‘not women’. Among those words to appear
least frequently were in fact ‘evil’, ‘monstrous’ and
‘inhuman’, an interesting finding since it is commonly
presumed that these notions are dominant within
young people, and representations of Nazis in
historical culture do very much tend towards
these caricatures.
The picture was only made more intricate when
students turned to consider the perceived sanity – or
otherwise – of ‘the Nazis’. Inevitably, a few students
saw Nazis as ‘a bit insane’ (Annie, Year 10, NE1),
although some qualified this sentiment with ‘not
all of them’ (Tom, Year 10, NE1). However, a larger
number refuted any description of the Nazis as
‘crazy’, with some asserting they were ‘usually quite
normal’, ‘just people’, and ‘men who had families’
(Lara, Year 9, SE1). Notably, some went further. In an
incident further described below – where students
commented on having seen images of a Nazi officer
with his family – they believed this was evidence
that they could have been ‘nice people’, with one
remarking, ‘I think, like, individually they probably
were nice people but together, their job, they did
their job’ (Ariella, Year 9, LON6).
That so many students rejected notions of
Nazis as insane, and that some were even able
to speculate on whether Nazis were capable of
benevolence, were interesting findings. They suggest
students are able to move beyond stereotypes and
tropes which have high cultural circulation, and can
hold multidimensional, multifaceted understandings
of human behaviour. Yet, while Ariella’s reflection on
group behaviour is considerably astute, her reference
to ‘they did their job’ does gesture to questions of
agency and, by extension, responsibility.
In addition to outlining the qualities and character
traits of Nazis, students also spoke more directly
about the relationship between the Nazis and Hitler.
Among younger students there was a distinct
tendency to frame the Nazis as acolytes of Hitler.
He was their ‘ruler’ (Lucy, Year 8, LON6), and they
were ‘the believers’, or ‘people who he sent to do his
work’ (Charlotte, Year 8, LON5).
This sense of Nazis as, effectively, fervent disciples
of Hitler did become less pronounced – or at least,
more unstated – with age. For example, by Year 9
(13 to 14 years old), the initial responses of students
cast the Nazis in increasingly militaristic terms: they
were ‘his [Hitler’s] army’ (Juliette, Year 9, LON5);
‘Hitler’s personal hit squad’ (Hamish, Year 9, SE1);
and ‘a disciplined core group’ (Anthony, Year 9, SE1).
Similarly, depictions of Nazis increasingly accented
certain facets of their appearance: ‘You could say
they were like the big boys, they were like the main
people and they would dress up in army-like wear,
so they would look kind of like soldiers’ (Deena,
Year 9, LON6). Sometimes students added guns
to the Nazi kit list.
Furthermore, reference to uniforms sometimes
came with added comment about the implications
of this attire. In one interview, for instance, a student
suggested that the uniform accorded respect – ‘they
had this uniform and they were seen as like fathers of
the country I guess; like, people looked up to them
to save their country’ (Amanda, Year 9, LON6). This
student further reasoned that ‘the soldier’s uniform
was actually quite appealing to German people
because I think people were actually quite patriotic
and they liked the fact that there was a party that
really cared about Germany.’
Other students who spoke of the ‘Nazi uniform’
saw things slightly differently. In an enlightening
comment, Grace (Year 10, LON6) recalled a
religious education lesson in which students saw a
PowerPoint slide showing ‘a picture of a man’ with
his family who ‘looked really happy’. In the following
slide, Grace explained, ‘he was all dressed up in the
Nazi uniform and he looked completely different’. She
intriguingly suggested that, ‘as soon as you put them
in a Nazi uniform … they look scary no matter how
nice they could have been’.
Role and responsibility
Typically, interview discussions with students moved
from exploring who they thought the Nazis were to
examining in more depth what role the Nazis played
in German society and what, if any, responsibility they
had for the Holocaust. In general, it was evident that
there were some noteworthy age-related changes in
students’ conceptualisation of ‘the Nazis’.
For the most part, students in Years 7 to 9 viewed
the Nazis as a relatively small and powerful group
who ruthlessly carried out Hitler’s orders. As one
student remarked, ‘I think they were like robots,
because Hitler, like, controlled them. They had to do
what Hitler said. They had to follow his commands
really’ (Chloe, Year 9, LON5). What was particularly
striking in the interviews was that most 11 to 14 year
olds simply did not understand that ‘Nazi’ referred to
members of the National Socialist German Workers’
Party. Indeed, almost without exception, 11 to 14
year olds did not appear to appreciate that the Nazi
Party became a broad-based political entity that, for
example, enjoyed the electoral support of more than
13 million Germans in July 1932.
The limited understanding among younger
students (Years 7 to 9) of who the Nazis were often
contrasted with those of older students (Years 10