What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

Who were the perpetrators and who was responsible?
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Holly: The speeches, it would be like small amounts
of people coming and then start building up and like
eventually people that were friends with the Jews
would even like turn against Jews.
Fahima: He was charismatic.
Holly: Those speeches he just like brainwashed them
and he made them think that Jews were bad people
(Year 10, LON5).
Similarly, a number of students reported seeing film
footage of Hitler speaking and were impressed by its
apparent dramatic impact on the German people:
I think all in all they were quite convinced and
persuaded by him. Because we watched one of his
speeches and like after every three sentences the
whole crowd would cheer. Like he kept referring to
Germany as the motherland I think it was and it just
seemed like everyone was agreeing with him and
everyone was convinced that what he was doing
was right (Una, Year 8, LON5).
Through speeches I guess. I mean when you watch
… we have watched a couple of them or at least
one of them anyway, in History, and when you listen
to what he says, or with subtitles in this case, it is
like you think why is he saying all this stuff. I mean
half of it is just his views but he puts it across in a
way that it seems as if they are facts and like other
people agree with him. So he tries to … he repeats
himself but like trying to get it into people’s heads
that a certain race is not good for the world and I
think most of it is just through manipulation
(Juliette, Year 9, LON5).
Referred to in virtually all interviews, ‘the
speeches’ (Fahima, Year 10, LON5) clearly imprinted
them selves on students’ consciousness. For many,
these speeches served as the main conduit through
which Hitler communicated his ‘thoughts’. Crucially,
they are also perceived as the principal means
through which Hitler persuaded and manipulated the
German people.
Various ideas emerged as to how precisely this
‘persuasion’ occurred. Some students implied it just
happened, in an osmosis-type fashion: ‘He gave
speeches to a mass crowd of people so he started
saying his beliefs and then the people in the crowd
were agreeing with him’ (Una, Year 8, LON5). Others
suggested he was more tactful and tactical in his
approach: that he would ‘just sort of stand on a
balcony and give really powerful speeches; and he
just addressed his people like equals and made them
feel like they are all sort of all equal together’ (Bianca,
Year 10, SE1). Anthony (Year 9, SE1) depicted Hitler
as mindful of his audience:
…say[ing] things to people he felt would be with
him; like if someone hated the Jews he would focus
on telling them how much they would do to get rid
of them. But if someone like supported them he
would try and move on to something else.
The question of how Hitler’s ideas translated
into action also revealed some interesting changes
and continuities among different age groups. As
seen above, younger students placed considerable
primacy on his speeches – less as a means of
disseminating ideas, and more as a transformative
means of affecting action. By contrast, students in
Years 12 and 13 generally made far less mention
of this approach, although where they did they
displayed familiar views. One student emphasised
how ‘he was a very, very inspirational speaker. He
was really great at public speaking’ (Will, Year 12,
LON7), just as another suggested ‘due to the fact
that he was such a good motivational speaker …
he could use people at will’ (Joe, Year 12, EE1).
Other students shared these sentiments but
also emphasised more directly Hitler’s skill as a
communicator: ‘When he like stood up and spoke
to people, people really understood what he was
saying, he could tailor what he was saying to groups
of people’ (Cassie, Year 13, EE1).
A larger proportion of students took this idea
of Hitler tailoring his approach in a slightly different
direction, emphasising that he made ‘promises’
to people. For some, this effectively ensured
support for – or at least acceptance of ‘his’ more
radical ‘thoughts’. As Harry (Year 9, EE1) put it, ‘he
promised them they’d get more food and money for
their jobs and people thought “well we need that,
so we’ll go along with him”’. This sense of ‘coming
round’ to Hitler’s way of thinking was also outlined by
another Year 9 student in the following terms:
He used different ways to get people believing that
that was the right thing to do. And that’s why people
kind of started to believe everything. Because it was
what he believed in and he was quite strong and
powerful, so people would believe him and think that
he was right (Amanda, Year 9, LON6).
These remarks were often made in the context
of more general comments about the economic
condition of Germany in the years before the
Third Reich. As noted in Chapter 5, students often
demonstrated at least a basic level of awareness
that times were especially tough during the Weimar
Republic, although detailed historical knowledge did
often prove to be distinctly shallow. Nevertheless, in
suggesting that Hitler employed a strategy of making
promises and tailoring his speeches, students were
consciously (or more often, unconsciously) pointing
to two significant implications: first, that some people
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