What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

When and where did the Holocaust take place?
175
These exchanges revealed that many students do
have some sense of when the Holocaust occurred –
very few suggested a widely inaccurate time frame.
Nevertheless, it was strikingly evident during the
interviews that many students in Years 7 to 11 were
far from secure or confident about the accuracy of
their responses.
In contrast, students in Years 12 and 13 appeared
much more able to provide a strong chronological
framework of the unfolding genocide. Many of these
older students, for example, recognised that the
persecution of Jews began soon after Hitler came to
power in 1933 and increased in intensity throughout
the remainder of the decade. Importantly, they
were able to distinguish between the widespread
discrimination and persecution of the 1930s and the
systematic mass killing that began in the early 1940s.
The development of the Holocaust
over time
Michael Gray (2014a) has suggested that students
often see the Holocaust as a simple monolithic
event, rather than as a process that developed,
changed and radicalised over time. Certainly
there was some evidence from student interviews
(particularly among younger students) that
suggested a number of them believed the Holocaust
started as soon as Hitler came to power and
that actions against the Jews remained the same
throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
Student responses to survey question 60
seemed to substantiate this finding, and Figure 7.2
illustrates how many students specifically connected
the ‘organised mass killing of Jews’ with the
appointment of Hitler as leader. Revealingly, 40.2
per cent believed that the mass killings began when
Hitler was appointed Chancellor in January 1933 and
more than a third of students in all year groups, from
Year 7 to Year 12, incorrectly selected this answer as
their primary choice.
However, data from the focus groups offered a
more promising story. Many students interviewed
recognised that the Holocaust was not a single
event, but a phenomenon that developed and
changed over time. Younger students’ explanations
of this change over time were often limited and
detailed historical knowledge was rare, but most
students understood, at a basic level, that Nazi policy
towards the Jews was not the same throughout
the 1930s and 1940s. Many students interviewed,
for example, appreciated that Jews were not
immediately sent to concentration camps or death
camps en masse in the 1930s. Rather, students had
a vague, but not inaccurate understanding of the
treatment of Jews in the period after Hitler came to
power. Students variously commented:
They [the Jews] were, like, bullied first; like the
Nazis would go into their homes and destroy things
and torture them maybe and then take them away
(Michael, Year 8, NE1).
I think that in their local communities where they
lived, like with the neighbours, some of their
neighbours may have turned on them. Like some
verbal abuse and maybe some physical abuse as
well (Charlotte, Year 8, LON5).
Figure 7.2 Student responses to survey question 60, ‘The organised mass killing of Jews began
immediately after a particular historical event. What was it?’ (percentage by year group)
Percentage of students
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Start of WW1
Hitler appointed
leader Germany
Start of WW2
■ Year 7 ■ Year 8 ■ Year 9 ■ Year 10 ■ Year 11 ■ Year 12 ■ Year 13
Germany invade
Soviet Union
Building gas
chambers,
Auschwitz
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