What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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Who were the perpetrators and who was responsible?
the police force, the army’ (Jim, Year 12, LON7).
Though not strictly true, the idea that different
organs of the state came within the sphere of Nazi
influence was correct and showed a more nuanced
understanding than notions of Nazis as a crack,
guerrilla force.
In a further interview example, which followed
immediately after Jim’s comment, a student
addressed the issue of uniforms as iconic shorthand
for Nazis: ‘I think that’s a result of the war’, he stated,
‘because the Nazis effectively ended up being the
German Army, and the German force, but before that
I think it’s the same as any party’ (Phil, Year 12,
LON7). Neither of these assertions grasps deeper
complexities, of course, but they do indicate that
in certain respects many students in Years 12 and
13 were able to attempt more complex approaches
to understanding Nazis and Nazism than were
younger students.
In a similar vein, older students were typically
more sophisticated in their appreciation of the
complicated issue of assigning responsibility for
the Holocaust. As noted earlier, more than half of
younger students (56.1 per cent) believed that Hitler
was solely responsible for the Holocaust. This basic
understanding, however, shifted with age. As Figure
6.6 illustrates, older students were more likely to
move beyond Hitler and include the Nazis when
ascribing responsibility.
In overarching terms, if all references to Nazis
are included (i.e. Nazis plus Hitler, SS or Germans/
Germany) more than a third of students (33.8 per
cent) believed that the Nazis were in some way
responsible for the Holocaust (see Table 6.1).
Furthermore, 10.6 per cent of students stated that
the Nazis were solely responsible for the Holocaust.
Figure 6.6 also neatly demonstrates how this
understanding developed with age. For example, in
Year 7 only 20.3 per cent of students held the Nazis
in any way accountable for the Holocaust, compared
with 33.0 per cent in Year 9 and 49.7 per cent in Year
12. This undoubtedly shows that, in the eyes of many
older students, the Nazis are central to the Holocaust
(and responsibility for it extends beyond Hitler).
By way of summary, with age students tended
to develop a more substantial, historically accurate
perception of ‘the Nazis’. It does not necessarily
follow, however, that this was accompanied by more
detailed, comprehensive outlining of what ‘Nazis’
did and did not do, and some flawed assumptions
still persisted. Nonetheless, in general it is possible
to observe the emergence of more sophisticated
understandings among older students, thanks in
large part to a greater depth of knowledge and
appreciation of context.
It can be seen that students’ knowledge of
who the Nazis were has a direct bearing upon
understandings of ‘what they did’ and for what they
were ‘responsible’. For the majority of students aged
11 to 14, the Nazis were little more than instruments
of Hitler’s will: they were generally nameless and
faceless, erroneously understood by many as a small
group of devotees who bring Hitler’s wishes and
whims to life. They ‘do’ whatever their ‘ruler’ tells
them, without question – generally either out of fear,
conviction or diligence. However, this generalisation
does not preclude occasional flashes of insight or
prohibit some students from pressing against certain
common misconceptions.
Furthermore, these general observations about
younger students should not lead to the conclusion
that those further down the age range are unable
Figure 6.6 Percentage of students who made any reference to the Nazis when answering survey
question 42 ‘Who was responsible for the Holocaust?’ (by year group)
Percentage of students
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Year 11 Year 12 Year 13
Year group