What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

When and where did the Holocaust take place?
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…the true extent of the concentration camps wasn’t
really realised until towards the end of the war
(Harrison, Year 12, LON3).
When invited to explain why they believed Britain
and the Allies did not know about the Holocaust a
number of students suggested that the killing was
often conducted in remote locations, kept secret
under the cover of war. For example, Lucas (Year 12,
LON7) believed that the British knew very little about
the mass killing, and further argued:
I think even if there were hints of it going on, I think
when you are in a war and there is so much at stake
that would always take precedent … I genuinely
think Hitler did a good job of keeping it quiet,
because they managed to stifle opposition so early
on that it got to the point where there [were] no
voices to hear anyway.
Many students also believed that if Britain and the
Allies knew about the mass killing they would have
acted sooner. For example, Hannah (Year 9, EE1)
argued, ‘If they did know about it you would assume
they’d do something.’ She also declared, ‘I don’t
think they knew it was on that wide a scale though.
I mean, if you knew that millions of Jews were being
murdered you would do something about it.’
A number of older students shared a similar view.
For example, Jack (Year 12, EE1) said, ‘If they’d have
known how bad it was or how bad it would have
gotten, something would have happened sooner, but
I don’t think it could have been known how extreme
it would’ve gotten so quickly.’ He also suggested,
‘If we did know we would have done something,
but that’s one thing that you can’t say to yourself,
why didn’t we do that, because we didn’t know.’
As stated above, although those who believed
that the British government didn’t know about the
Holocaust were in the majority, a number of students
did suggest that the British did know about the mass
killing at an earlier point in the war. For example,
Carrie (Year 10, EE1) said, ‘I think that the British
leaders must have known something … Because
it’s not something you can just blank over.’ Similarly,
Hannah (Year 9, EE1) stated that the British knew
‘quite early in the war’. The following brief exchange
between a group of students of a similar age
exemplifies this view further:
Marie: I think they knew.
Hamish: After a while they knew.
Marie: Yeah.
Ben: I think, yeah, because you know when other
countries would know so they would get it from other
countries to say this is going on in Germany or Poland
(Year 9, SE1).
In a similar vein, Isaac (Year 13, EE1) confidently
asserted, ‘They knew everything, Churchill knew.’
Others said, ‘I am pretty sure Churchill was aware’
(Peter, Year 13, EE1) and ‘I think they did have some
knowledge of what was going on’ (Joe, Year 12, EE1).
The realisation or acceptance that the British were
aware of the Holocaust well before the end of the
war provided the opportunity to explore in interview
what students believed the British did, or could
have done.
It was very evident that many of the younger
students (particularly those in Years 7 to 9) found this
a difficult issue to consider, primarily because they
appeared to have insufficient contextual knowledge
at their disposal. Accordingly, simplistic answers were
common. A few students, for example, suggested
that ‘killing Hitler’ offered the best way to end the
Holocaust. Furthermore, younger students seemed
to have a confused understanding of the chronology
of the war and its relation to the Holocaust.
Numerous students, for example, argued that Britain
did not act to prevent the Holocaust because this
would mean starting a war:
Maybe the British were scared that they would
create another war or something and some people
just said, ‘No we can’t do this because it creates a
war. What if things happen to our country?’ (Ariella,
Year 9, LON6).
[Britain did not want to act] because there might
be another war, like … they were trying to avoid
another war like World War I (Deena, Year 9, LON6).
They might have been scared that they would have
caused a war by getting involved (Lara, Year 9, SE1).
Going against Germany, that is quite a big pressure.
It’s like starting a whole other war, isn’t it? And
there’s no point in doing that (Hannah, Year 9, EE1).
What these comments revealed is that many Year
9 students appeared not to recognise that, when
Britain knew about the excesses of the Holocaust,
the nation had already been at war with Germany
for more than two years.
Several students did, however, offer some more
plausible reasons as to why it would have been
difficult for the British government to prevent the
Holocaust in the early 1940s. As one Year 9 student
noted, clearly the British would want to stop the
killing ‘but the problem is what would you do about
it?’ (Hannah, Year 9, EE1). Other students believed
that liberating Jews from the camps would be difficult
because ‘they were embedded deep behind German
ranks’ (Nick, Year 9, EE1) and ‘even though they
[the camps] were remote they were probably quite
well guarded’ (John, Year 9, EE1). Another Year 9
student, Hamish (SE1) further added that it would
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