Hitler...wasn't he a soccer coach?

[MikeyT]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/138483...a-soccer-coach-

ONE in 20 schoolchildren thinks Adolf Hitler coached Germany’s football team and one in six thinks Auschwitz is a Second World War theme park, a survey revealed yesterday.

Twelve per cent even believe Mc­Donald’s Gol­d­en Arches are a symbol of Remembrance Day and 40 per cent don’t know it falls on November 11.

A study by war veterans’ charity Erskin asked 2,000 children aged nine to 15 about both world wars.

A quarter thought a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor, one in 20 said the Holocaust was the celebration at the end of the war and one in 10 thought the SS was Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven.

One in 12 believed the Blitz was a huge clean-up operation in Europe after the Second World War.

[stez]

well, it's hardly the kid's fault. i never knew anything about anything until i was taught about it, and as i got older, discovered stuff for myself.

[Jay]

I did GCSE History in the 90s and although we covered the first world war in relative detail we didn't even touch the second world war and instead jumped over it to the cuban missile crisis, I have learned almost everything I know after leaving school.

I personally think every school should visit the IWM especially the holocaust section

[davieG]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/138483...a-soccer-coach-

ONE in 20 schoolchildren thinks Adolf Hitler coached Germany's football team and one in six thinks Auschwitz is a Second World War theme park, a survey revealed yesterday.

Twelve per cent even believe Mc­Donald's Gol­d­en Arches are a symbol of Remembrance Day and 40 per cent don't know it falls on November 11.

A study by war veterans' charity Erskin asked 2,000 children aged nine to 15 about both world wars.

A quarter thought a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor, one in 20 said the Holocaust was the celebration at the end of the war and one in 10 thought the SS was Enid Blyton's Secret Seven.

One in 12 believed the Blitz was a huge clean-up operation in Europe after the Second World War.

That sort of history is no longer taught I presume and the parents of these kids probably know very little either.

My recollection of growing up early 50's / 60s most adults wanted to forget about these things and to start living a 'normal' life. As others have said remembrance was pretty much just the one day. By the time we got to the 80s / 90s the culture was pretty much self, self, self!

[Benji]

That's the national curriculum for you, it becomes more of a farce every year.

I've never studied either of the World Wars and the impact on our country or the events that happened. Yet I've studied the Weimar Republic and Hitler's Nazi regime from the German people's perspective. It's a massive joke really.

Thinking about it, I've studied every BUT the most important period of our modern history. Industrial/agricultural revolution, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Nazi's, Napoleon but no WW. Maybe it never happened?

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Surely that report is scued towards the sensationalism of the peice - lets face it kids have no concentration span at the best of times and just sitting and telling them facts may not be the best way to get these things across.

As someone suggested, a trip to the Imperial War Museme, a trip to the local old people's home with war veteran's, a trip to the local army base is surely the way to go on this one.

[davieG]

Surely that report is scued towards the sensationalism of the peice - lets face it kids have no concentration span at the best of times and just sitting and telling them facts may not be the best way to get these things across.

As someone suggested, a trip to the Imperial War Museme, a trip to the local old people's home with war veteran's, a trip to the local army base is surely the way to go on this one.

Trips to anywhere seem to be off the agenda as they require an army of administrators and swathes of documentation it would seem.

[Guest Bilo]

I did GCSE History in the 90s and although we covered the first world war in relative detail we didn't even touch the second world war and instead jumped over it to the cuban missile crisis, I have learned almost everything I know after leaving school.

I personally think every school should visit the IWM especially the holocaust section

Totally agree, I'd advise anyone who can get to Newark to visit this place as well. It really is wrong that some children are so ignorant of the Holocaust and world history in general, as the quote on the site I've posted a link to says 'He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it.'

The saddest thing is that some schools have pulled teaching of the Holocaust because of widespread denial in some Muslim communities. If there really is widespread Holocaust denial among Muslims (which is something I doubt) then it should be nipped in the bud, education is the only way to achieve that.

[davieG]

My History lessons consisted of a small part on Ancient Britain and the Tudors & Stuarts we never went near 'modern' history or politic and my Geography was of USA and Canada, nothing of note on GB.

[Fosse Boy]

I did A Level history but not GCSE. We covered French history from the reign of Louis XIV up to the point of the French revolution (although not the revolution itself oddly), the Tudors , and a bit of Russian history (Peter the Great and Catherine the Great). Apparently at GCSE you study the years up to the First World War, then the years between 1918 and 1939, but skip anything to do with the actual wars. Some of the people in my class had such a lack of knowledge of major world events that it made me want to cry. Unsurprisingly, these were the people who came out with the highest marks at the end of the course. Ridiculous.

[Bellend Sebastian]

It's as much about teaching kids to take an interest in the world around them and how it came to be how it is, rather than just teaching them facts.

I was about 7 when there was an assembly at school, and the teacher asked for a volunteer to point out Great Britain on a big world map. I was incredulous when the kid didn't know where it was. I don't think I'd ever been shown, but we had an atlas at home and I'd found it myself

[Guest]

Shambolic. Were any of these multiple choice questions where the kids were presented with a selection of ridiculous answers, or are they actually widely held misconceptions within younger people? It is the Express after all

[shen]

That looks like one bad survey it does. Besides, if you were 9 years old and you went to Auschwitz, wouldn't you think it was a WWII 'theme park'?

[Daggers]

Bitching about not being taught the full details of World War II in History is like griping no one taught you how to make an atomic bomb or carry out brain surgery in Science.

Damn. No one taught me how to skin a rabbit during my residential camp.

[AoWW]

Strikes me as a bunch of kids taking the piss out of the Express for asking them such condescending questions.

[TrickyTrev]

Shambolic. Were any of these multiple choice questions where the kids were presented with a selection of ridiculous answers, or are they actually widely held misconceptions within younger people? It is the Express after all

Exactly, you can only get these answers by having multiple choice surveys specifically designed to get stupid results.

I didn't know what Auswitchtz was when I was 9 years old either.

[MPH]

I blame Raj.

If he wasn't so successful at being a Div, then we wouldn't need to change the curriculum so the kids didn't need to be taught how to be one...

[DB11]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/138483...a-soccer-coach-

ONE in 20 schoolchildren thinks Adolf Hitler coached Germany’s football team and one in six thinks Auschwitz is a Second World War theme park, a survey revealed yesterday.

Twelve per cent even believe Mc­Donald’s Gol­d­en Arches are a symbol of Remembrance Day and 40 per cent don’t know it falls on November 11.

A study by war veterans’ charity Erskin asked 2,000 children aged nine to 15 about both world wars.

A quarter thought a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor, one in 20 said the Holocaust was the celebration at the end of the war and one in 10 thought the SS was Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven.

One in 12 believed the Blitz was a huge clean-up operation in Europe after the Second World War.

:laugh: !

That sort of history is no longer taught I presume and the parents of these kids probably know very little either.

My recollection of growing up early 50's / 60s most adults wanted to forget about these things and to start living a 'normal' life. As others have said remembrance was pretty much just the one day. By the time we got to the 80s / 90s the culture was pretty much self, self, self!

At GCSE history we learnt about the end of WW1, causes of WW2, Weimar Republic, Rise of Hitler, Life in Nazi Germany.

At AS Level we are learning about totalitarianism, and Nazi Germany is one of the topic things but we haven't started that yet so I don't know what exactly it entails.

[BoneDog]

I don't understand why people are saying that schoolkids should be taken on a trip to a Holocaust Museum! What would that have to do with education, apart from teaching them an exaggerated version of true events?

As for the so-called 'Holocaust deniers' (including some Jewish people), they don't deny that there were death camps or that alot of Jews were gassed and starved to death. I think they just don't believe the 6 million version. So I wouldn't call them deniers as they know that these things happened. A 'denier' is someone who says that between 600,000 to 1,000,000 were exterminated and not the 6,000,000 that is so often taught.

There have been bigger genocides in recent times that are never mentioned and they didn't happen long ago compared to WW2. Why not take kids on trips to learn about all of these aswell then? (I personally wouldn't, but I think that recent genocides are much more relevant in our times)

Why is the Holocaust over-exaggerated? Because it helps justify the massive crime that was committed and has not halted for 60 years since. The same leaders who stole a country actually helped Hitler exterminate hundreds of thousands of their own people in order to achieve their goal. And if you don't know that I can't blame you because we were all taught quite alot of false history when we were growing up (especially on this subject).

[BoneDog]

The saddest thing is that some schools have pulled teaching of the Holocaust because of widespread denial in some Muslim communities. If there really is widespread Holocaust denial among Muslims (which is something I doubt) then it should be nipped in the bud, education is the only way to achieve that.

It's not a Muslim thing, I'd say there are more Christians who are 'Holocaust deniers' than anyone else. The USA is full of them. White Christians and non-Christians, especially in the south Texas etc. Muslims, Jews, Christians, Atheists and other religions all have people who believe the numbers of people killed in camps was 600,000-1,000,000 and not 6,000,000.

Wasn't there a bishop in England who got in big trouble a month or so ago for saying that only 1million were killed?

[davieG]

I don't understand why people are saying that schoolkids should be taken on a trip to a Holocaust Museum! What would that have to do with education, apart from teaching them an exaggerated version of true events?

As for the so-called 'Holocaust deniers' (including some Jewish people), they don't deny that there were death camps or that alot of Jews were gassed and starved to death. I think they just don't believe the 6 million version. So I wouldn't call them deniers as they know that these things happened. A 'denier' is someone who says that between 600,000 to 1,000,000 were exterminated and not the 6,000,000 that is so often taught.

There have been bigger genocides in recent times that are never mentioned and they didn't happen long ago compared to WW2. Why not take kids on trips to learn about all of these aswell then? (I personally wouldn't, but I think that recent genocides are much more relevant in our times)

Why is the Holocaust over-exaggerated? Because it helps justify the massive crime that was committed and has not halted for 60 years since. The same leaders who stole a country actually helped Hitler exterminate hundreds of thousands of their own people in order to achieve their goal. And if you don't know that I can't blame you because we were all taught quite alot of false history when we were growing up (especially on this subject).

Why are you so sure what you think is true is in fact true and so damning of those who believe differently.. Perhaps what you believe is also false history.

[shen]

I don't understand why people are saying that schoolkids should be taken on a trip to a Holocaust Museum! What would that have to do with education, apart from teaching them an exaggerated version of true events?

As for the so-called 'Holocaust deniers' (including some Jewish people), they don't deny that there were death camps or that alot of Jews were gassed and starved to death. I think they just don't believe the 6 million version. So I wouldn't call them deniers as they know that these things happened. A 'denier' is someone who says that between 600,000 to 1,000,000 were exterminated and not the 6,000,000 that is so often taught.

There have been bigger genocides in recent times that are never mentioned and they didn't happen long ago compared to WW2. Why not take kids on trips to learn about all of these aswell then? (I personally wouldn't, but I think that recent genocides are much more relevant in our times)

Why is the Holocaust over-exaggerated? Because it helps justify the massive crime that was committed and has not halted for 60 years since. The same leaders who stole a country actually helped Hitler exterminate hundreds of thousands of their own people in order to achieve their goal. And if you don't know that I can't blame you because we were all taught quite alot of false history when we were growing up (especially on this subject).

It could well be that the number of jews killed in concentration camps is not around the 6 million mark. I believe that even the leading Jewish organisations have admitted such. Still, even IF it were 'just' 100.000 people, it doesn't detract from the horrific actions and mindset at the time. Those actions by the Nazi regime as well as all the other antisemites around Europe and the rest of world (who tend to be forgotten) have rightfully been condemned.

I'd agree with you that a lot of genocides have by-and-large gone under the radar during recent times when they shouldn't have, but that doesn't mean we should forget or ignore the holocaust.

Saying that the Jews brought on the holocaust themselves for their own benefit is just despiccable though.

It's not a Muslim thing, I'd say there are more Christians who are 'Holocaust deniers' than anyone else. The USA is full of them. White Christians and non-Christians, especially in the south Texas etc. Muslims, Jews, Christians, Atheists and other religions all have people who believe the numbers of people killed in camps was 600,000-1,000,000 and not 6,000,000.

Wasn't there a bishop in England who got in big trouble a month or so ago for saying that only 1million were killed?

Only? 'Only'?!

[Sirloin]

No one part of history is more or less important than any other. If they had learnt about that then people would just piss and moan about them not knowing the difference between Gladstone and Disraeli or something. The teaching of history is about giving out the techniques that allow you to look at the past with a critical eye rather than repeating facts and others opinions by rote.

[Sirloin]

I don't understand why people are saying that schoolkids should be taken on a trip to a Holocaust Museum! What would that have to do with education, apart from teaching them an exaggerated version of true events?

As for the so-called 'Holocaust deniers' (including some Jewish people), they don't deny that there were death camps or that alot of Jews were gassed and starved to death. I think they just don't believe the 6 million version. So I wouldn't call them deniers as they know that these things happened. A 'denier' is someone who says that between 600,000 to 1,000,000 were exterminated and not the 6,000,000 that is so often taught.

There have been bigger genocides in recent times that are never mentioned and they didn't happen long ago compared to WW2. Why not take kids on trips to learn about all of these aswell then? (I personally wouldn't, but I think that recent genocides are much more relevant in our times)

Why is the Holocaust over-exaggerated? Because it helps justify the massive crime that was committed and has not halted for 60 years since. The same leaders who stole a country actually helped Hitler exterminate hundreds of thousands of their own people in order to achieve their goal. And if you don't know that I can't blame you because we were all taught quite alot of false history when we were growing up (especially on this subject).

I have no idea what you are on about here, but it doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to reality.

[AoWW]

I have no idea what you are on about here, but it doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to reality.

In fairness, that's never stopped him before.