What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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When and where did the Holocaust take place?
The work camps were built, I believe, before the
‘Final Solution’, and then the death camps were
built after (Simon, Year 12, LON7).
I know there was the death camps and there
were working camps, but I think the death camps
were specifically made to exterminate people,
and then there were the work camps which were
basically where they took the able-bodied and
political prisoners, and used them to help Germany’s
economy and the war effort
(Samuel, Year 12, LON7).
Other Year 12 and Year 13 students appreciated
that there were a limited number of ‘death camps’
situated in Poland. Danielle (Year 13, EE1), for
example, remarked that, ‘there were about five big
ones and loads of little ones’.
Generally, these older students knew that largescale
killing did occur in death camps that were
primarily situated in Poland. However, uncertainties
remained. All students struggled to name the
camps and even older students found it difficult to
adequately differentiate between the different types of
camp. Certainly, references to ‘concentration camps’
and not ‘death’ or ‘extermination’ camps dominated
the discourse. Furthermore, many students in Years
12 and 13 argued that, as these camps were hidden
away from the German people, very few knew about
the horrendous crimes committed. One student,
apparently frustrated by an apparent lack of detailed
knowledge about the Holocaust and the camp
system, declared:
Usually people, when you speak of a concentration
camp, the ones that come to mind are Dachau
and Auschwitz, because they are sort of infamous,
I think Dachau was the first one they created, and
Auschwitz was the most potent in how many people
were actually taken there and wiped out, [but] it’s
not taught enough in schools about the Holocaust
… you don’t get a full spectrum of knowledge on
what actually happened (Brendan, Year 13, LON3).
The ‘end’ of the Holocaust
Both the survey and the interviews attempted to
find out more about students’ understanding and
knowledge of when and why the Holocaust ended.
Question 66, for example, asked students, ‘Why did
the Nazi-organised mass murder of the Jews end?’
As Figure 7.7 shows, students mainly thought that
the organised mass murder of Jews ended either
because Hitler committed suicide or, more accurately,
because the Allied armies liberated the lands
controlled by the Nazis where the Holocaust was
taking place. Thus, while 46.1 per cent provided the
most accurate answer, a broadly similar proportion
(41.5 per cent) incorrectly selected Hitler’s suicide.
Significantly, fewer than half of students in Years 7,
8, 9 and 10 provided an accurate answer. Many
of the students in these year groups believed that the
Holocaust ended because Hitler committed suicide.
For example, more than 50 per cent of students in
Years 7 and 8 held this belief. This finding further
confirms the Hitler-centric view of the Holocaust
internalised by many students, particularly those in
Years 7 to 9.
In historical terms this understanding is, of course,
grossly inaccurate. By the time of his death in April
1945 the vast majority of concentration and death
camps had been liberated. Simply, Hitler’s suicide
had no direct bearing on the end of the Holocaust.
Rather, it was the Allied military advance, especially
to the east and west of Germany, that led to the
end of the mass extermination of Jews and other
victim groups.
The development in knowledge and
understanding evident in Figure 7.7 is striking,
with a year-on-year decline in incorrect answers
mirrored by a steadily increasing appreciation of the
military defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies as a
decisive factor. Even so, many students did not fully
understand this important explanation, confusing
the fact that the Allied advance ended the genocide
with this being the reason why the Allies waged
war against Nazi Germany in the first place. During
interviews, several students harboured the belief
that the Allies fought the war primarily ‘to rescue the
Jews’. As Catherine (Year 9, EE1) explained, ‘Well,
we won the war, because we didn’t want the Jews
to be in that state so we stopped it’. Another student
similarly asserted:
Other countries realised what was happening [to the
Jews] and they pushed forwards through Germany
and found the concentration camps. And then loads
of countries joined in the fight and just destroyed the
Nazis (Jacob, Year 9, SE1).
By contrast, a few students recognised that Allied
attempts to defeat the Nazis were not motivated
by the desire to save the Jews. As Jacob (Year 9,
SE1) noted, ‘Russia was defending itself from the
Germans because they got to Stalingrad’, and the
primary goal of the Red Army was ‘to take down
Hitler’ (Kayley, Year 9, SE1). Of those students who
did appear to understand the primary reason for the
end of the Holocaust, knowledge was often patchy
and uncertain as the following example illustrates:
I think it, I’m not 100 per cent sure how it ended,
but some people from, like, other countries, like the
big countries like France, the UK, the USA and they