What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

188
When and where did the Holocaust take place?
Indeed, most took a pragmatic view of events,
suggesting that, for the most part, Britain’s primary
objective was not to stop the Holocaust but to
defend Britain and defeat the Nazis:
I think it wasn’t a priority, I think winning the war was
more of a priority, however awful it sounds (Aimee,
Year 13, EE1).
I think they were more focused on defending their
country than helping the German Jews
(Nikki, Year 13, EE1).
Britain would have struggled to do more. We fought
a world war, and it wasn’t as if we were like putting
half effort into it (Patrick, Year 12, LON7).
They prioritised other things, the British were putting
more effort into bombing German industry, whereas
they could, if they really wanted to, try to bomb the
railways or whatever to stop the Germans getting
the Jews to the death camps, but it wasn’t hugely
prioritised (Anton, Year 12, EE1).
I think they were kind of reluctant to really intervene,
like go full throttle and try and save the Jews. They
wanted to try and win the war (Joe, Year 12, EE1).
According to these Year 12 and Year 13 students,
Britain’s pre-eminent consideration was winning the
war and, as Jamie (Year 12, LON3) explained, the
Holocaust ‘wasn’t a primary concern for the Allies’.
He approached the question with clinical reasoning:
I think with Britain it would have been a secondary
measure to sort of aid the Holocaust, because
you are in a full-scale war with a nation. I mean,
30 years ago you beat them in a war and now
they are starting a war again, and it’s sort of OK,
first we must defeat these in the war, because the
implications of losing are far too great to consider,
over sorting out a domestic issue in Germany.
I mean if you were that concerned about the
extermination of the Jews in Germany then you
were probably approaching a wartime effort in the
wrong way. If you are dedicating resources, troops,
time and sort of everything that you have in your war
economy towards liberating these camps it doesn’t
make too much sense (Jamie, Year 12, LON3).
Other students shared similar views, although
many made the important observation that winning
the war and preventing the Holocaust were not
mutually exclusive. As Patrick (Year 12, LON7)
explained, ‘The war was a big effort towards
stopping Hitler’s Germany and the Nazi Germany
system, and that was our biggest commitment
towards stopping genocide.’
In this respect, it was clear in all the interviews
conducted that most students who spoke on this
issue believed that the British did not become directly
involved in preventing the Holocaust because it was
‘all too far away’ and/or that it ‘had nothing to do
with them’. In fact, the prevailing sentiment was one
of deep sympathy and sadness for what the Jews
had to endure. However, the overriding perspective
strongly held by many students was that there simply
was not much the British could do in practical terms
during the Second World War.
In sum, then, survey and interview findings
revealed a complex and diverse picture of students’
knowledge and explanation in relation to Britain’s
response to the Holocaust. Unquestionably, the
survey findings point to some serious causes for
concern. Strikingly evident was that many students
were not clear about Britain’s response to the
systematic mass killing of the Jews by the Nazis. For
example, significant numbers of students across all
age groups erroneously believed that Britain went
to war to save the Jews and/or drew up rescue
plans to ensure their safety. Similarly, many younger
students and more than a third of Year 12 and Year
13 students mistakenly believed that the British
government did not act because they did not know
about the Holocaust.
Fundamentally, interviews with students confirmed
the principal findings from the survey data. At one
end of the spectrum many students, particularly
those in Year 12 and 13, appeared to have a
reasonable grasp of Britain’s wartime relationship
with the Holocaust. Some, but not all, of these
students were able to provide relevant contextual
information and intelligently consider the constraints
under which the British government operated.
At the other end of the spectrum, student
knowledge and understanding was limited and
inaccuracies, uncertainties and misconceptions
were commonplace.
Furthermore, although not a prominent feature
of the interviews, very few students appeared to
know about the Kindertransport (the rescue of up to
10,000 young people, most of whom were Jewish) or
Britain’s general policy towards Jewish refugees both
before 1939 and after 1945. Similarly, many students
were confused about who liberated the camps and
the distinctive roles played by the USSR, the USA
and Britain in the final months of the war in Europe.
As evidenced in Chapter 3, student responses to
question 31 of the survey also showed that only
15.2 per cent associated Bergen-Belsen with the
Holocaust and, revealingly, no student mentioned the
liberation of this concentration camp by the British
Army in April 1945 during group interviews.
Overall, then, while there were exceptions, it was
very apparent that most students did not possess
sufficient contextual and historical knowledge to