What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?

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When and where did the Holocaust take place?
the 1930s (e.g. the April 1933 Boycott, the
Nuremberg Laws of 1935, the so-called ‘Night
of Broken Glass’ (Kristallnacht) of 1938). Survey
data revealed that most students did not even
recognise that some key events were connected
to the Holocaust (e.g. only 36.1 per cent
associated Kristallnacht).
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Very few students appeared to fully grasp the
significance of the relationship between the
Second World War and the Holocaust.
Revealingly, only 7.4 per cent of students correctly
understood that the event which primarily
triggered the ‘organised mass killing of Jews’ was
the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June
1941. The understandings of some (although not
all) students in Years 12 and 13, however, proved
more sophisticated than those of their younger
counterparts. Many older students, for example,
were also more likely to appreciate the significance
of, for example, Operation Barbarossa, the
Wannsee Conference and the ‘Final Solution’.
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Students typically had a very limited and often
erroneous understanding of Britain’s role during
the Holocaust, with 34.4 per cent incorrectly
believing that the Holocaust triggered Britain’s
entry into war. This perspective improved with
age, but approximately a quarter of students in
Years 12 and 13 also held this view. For the most
part it appeared that many students did not have
the necessary contextual information to accurately
explain Britain’s response to the Holocaust.
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More than half of the students surveyed (50.7 per
cent) incorrectly believed that the largest number
of Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust
came from Germany. Typically, the accuracy
of student responses improved with age. For
example, whereas only 20.2 per cent of Year 7
students selected Poland, 47.0 per cent of
Year 13 students did so.
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More than half of the students (54.9 per cent)
incorrectly thought that the largest number of
killings of Jewish people took place in Germany,
and just over a third of students (35.2 per cent)
correctly identified that the largest number of
killings of Jewish people took place in Poland.
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The very strong focus on Germany as the central
place from which victims of the Holocaust both
originated and in which they were murdered
was a common feature of student interviews.
It was evident that many students held the
erroneous belief that Jews constituted a significant
proportion of the German population during
the 1930s. For example, whereas only 8.8 per
cent correctly identified the pre-war Jewish
population to be less than 1 per cent, 73.9 per
cent of students grossly overestimated the prewar
Jewish population by 15 to 30 times. These
findings further suggest that many students
potentially see the Holocaust as a consequence of
the perceived Jewish ‘threat’ within Germany that
Hitler and his collaborators sought to extinguish.
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Very few students in Years 7, 8 and 9 reported
that the Holocaust occurred in locations or
countries other than Germany and Poland. In
contrast, some older students interviewed were
able to name other countries involved, particularly
those in Eastern Europe.
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A majority of students across all age groups
(60.6 per cent) were able to correctly define what
ghettos were but, generally, students in Years 7 to
10 had a limited understanding of why they were
established and where they were located. Fewer
than a quarter of students in all year groups (24.3
per cent) recognised that the term Einsatzgruppen
was connected to the Holocaust and very few
students beyond Years 12 and 13 knew about
the estimated mass killing of more than 1.5 million
people – the overwhelming majority of whom
were Jews – following the invasion of the USSR
in June 1941.
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The primacy of Auschwitz in students’ Holocaust
consciousness was evident in most student
interviews, and large numbers of students (71.0
per cent) recognised that Auschwitz was explicitly
connected to the Holocaust. However, knowledge
of other camps was severely limited. For example,
only 14.9 per cent and 15.2 per cent of students
recognised Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen,
respectively. Furthermore, many students were
unable to differentiate between different types of
camp or to identify their geographic location.
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A total of 46.1 per cent of students across all
year groups correctly knew that the end of
the Holocaust came as a result of the Allied
liberation of lands occupied by the German army.
However, a broadly similar proportion (41.5 per
cent) incorrectly thought that the organised mass
murder of Jews ended because Hitler committed
suicide. Accurate responses improved with age
and a wide discrepancy existed between Year
7 students (26.4 per cent correct) and Year 13
students (79.6 per cent correct). Significantly, a
majority of students in Years 7 and 8 believed that
the Holocaust ended because Hitler committed
suicide. This finding suggests a Hitler-centric view
of the Holocaust remains common among many
students in Key Stage 3.