What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

When and where did the Holocaust take place?
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When and where did the Holocaust take place?
Key questions
1. Why is it important that young people know when and where the Holocaust took place?
2. What do students know about when the Holocaust happened and how it developed?
3. What do students understand about the relationship between the Second World War and the
Holocaust?
4. How do students understand and explain Britain’s response to the Holocaust?
5. Where do students think the Holocaust took place?
6. What do students know about ghettos, the ‘Holocaust by bullets’, the camp system and the end of
the Holocaust?
Key findings
1. Specific knowledge and understanding of where and when the Holocaust took place was often
limited among younger students (Years 7 to 9). However, older students (Years 12 to 13) were more
able to detail policies, places and events.
2. A significant 40.2 per cent of students incorrectly believed that the ‘organised mass killing of Jews’
began in 1933 when Hitler came to power.
3. Most students had limited understanding of the Holocaust and its relationship to the Second World
War. Knowledge of the Einsatzgruppen and mass killing in Eastern Europe during the war was also
very limited.
4. When surveyed, 50.7 per cent incorrectly believed that the largest number of Jews murdered during
the Holocaust came from Germany, and 54.9 per cent thought that mass murder took place in
Germany.
5. Many students believed that Britain fought the war to save the Jews or that the British did not know
about mass killing until the end of the war.
6. Most students (71.0 per cent) recognised that Auschwitz was explicitly connected to the
Holocaust, however knowledge of other camps such as Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen was
very limited.
7. Many students were uncertain about how and why the Holocaust ended and only 46.1 per cent
correctly knew that the end of the Holocaust came as a result of the Allied liberation of lands
occupied by the German army.
Why is it important that young people
know when and where the Holocaust
took place?
There is arguably a tendency in Holocaust education
to draw universal ‘lessons’ from its history; to
believe that, unless we are vigilant – against racism,
in defence of toleration and democratic values –
something like the Holocaust could happen anywhere
and at any time. This claim is clearly false. Not all
societies, at all times, are in danger of collapsing into
mass violence. But some places, at some times,
undoubtedly are. If we are to improve our efforts at
genocide prevention, it is important to recognise
warning signs and to make appropriate interventions.
Knowledge of when and where the Holocaust
took place – locating it within its historical context
– will not provide a failsafe guide to where other
examples of genocide may occur. But it may help to
deepen understanding of the patterns and processes
involved, especially if compared to other cases in
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