People are forgetting the Holocaust

[Hobgoblin]

66% of Millenials don't know what Auschwitz is, and 41% for other Americans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

 

[Schlosser85]

That’s pathetic.

But some people didn’t know Titanic isn’t just a Leo DiCaprio movie either.

 

[KevanG]

The blame that 'alternative facts' are allowed so much. Everyone is allowed to be 'right' and you can find thousands with identical opinions supporting you online.

See Anti-Vaxxers, Flat Earthers and so on.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Well, this news ****ing sickens me.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

A world wide network giving all alive access to all kinds of information... And yet in nation after nation it seems all it's really been good for is the spread of mass disinformation or misinformation.

 

[Aximili86]

Millennials are naive & clueless? Whoa, newsflash man.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Millennials are naive & clueless? Whoa, newsflash man.

This doesn't excuse the 41% number for Americans.

 

[2kt09]

That's just the basic nature of history. We can peddle the same few events every generation as much as we deem necessary, but ultimately the further people are removed from those dates, the obviously less relevant they get.

 

[squeekness]

66% of Millenials don't know what Auschwitz is, and 41% for other Americans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

That number seems kinda high. They did go to school, right?

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

That's just the basic nature of history. We can peddle the same few events every generation as much as we deem necessary, but ultimately the further people are removed from those dates, the obviously less relevant they get.

This is still unsettling for a combination of reasons. I mean... It's not the Napoleonic Wars. There are still Jewish Concentration Camp survivors and children of survivors among the living.

 

[BrollySupersj]

Do schools just ignore teaching WWII?

Seriously, with how well it's been documented, I just don't get how it can fade from memory. 250 years from now it should absolutely be a commonly known piece of history.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Do schools just ignore teaching WWII?

I think students are the ones doing the ignoring as is the rest of the culture at large.


For a good number of, oh... DECADES now there has been a free floating "cult of authenticity". We all have to ascribe to the most "authentic" version of whatever group or subgroup we are a nominally a part of.

For the longest time, and this picked up pace by the late 90's, the supposed best and most authentic version of the "average" American is a person that is frankly, a moron. Really. Look at popular culture. Apparently knowledge of history, familiarity with science, paying attention to world event? All something presented in popular culture as being out of the wheel house of the "average" American. This "average" American isn't just someone lacking in a degree or specialized acumen. No, they are morons. And if they aren't well, then they are caricatured as "nerds/poindexters" and the like. Look at the horror show that is THE BIG BANG THEORY.

Popular culture isn't just sending a message that being informed (forget accredited education or degrees... Just being informed) is out of the norm and will cut into your "coolness", it's also somehow a betrayal of your authentic self.


Yes... One can say that the masses have never been as informed as they should or could be. Fine. But the trend to glamorize being stupid frankly, or remove the stigma of being uninformed about the world has been building and building and I think it is not just us noticing it more due to media but it is actually increasing.


And for a Democratic Republic... That's dangerous.




I say all of this as someone without the benefit of a college education.

 

[C. Lee]

That number seems kinda high. They did go to school, right?

When I was in school (and I think maybe when you did too)....this stuff was taught to us in general classes (all students). Now days you have to take specialized history classes to learn about it.

 

[2kt09]

Do schools just ignore teaching WWII?

Or kids being kids don't care outside of those exams.

There are still Jewish Concentration Camp survivors and children of survivors among the living.

That most folks likely don't come in contact with or are aware of in their day-day.

 

[Immortalfire]

Do schools just ignore teaching WWII?

Probably. History is offensive these days.

 

[Immortalfire]

That’s pathetic.

But some people didn’t know Titanic isn’t just a Leo DiCaprio movie either.

God help

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Or kids being kids don't care outside of those exams.


That most folks likely don't come in contact with or are aware of in their day-day.

That may be but my point was... This isn't the War Of The Roses. People are alive still today from that period or are the children of that generation. This is not even close to ancient history.

 

[Hobgoblin]

In high school, and even before, our history classes ALWAYS ended on WW2. The war was pounded into our heads. When I got into college, I really hoped that my history classes would go past 1945. They didn't. It was maddening, I was so tired of that war.

A German exchange student in high school told us that the Second World War was so drilled into their heads that she was tired of hearing it. People not knowing this part of history is inexcusable.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

In high school, and even before, our history classes ALWAYS ended on WW2. The war was pounded into our heads. When I got into college, I really hoped that my history classes would go past 1945. They didn't. It was maddening, I was so tired of that war.

A German exchange student in high school told us that the Second World War was so drilled into their heads that she was tired of hearing it. People not knowing this part of history is inexcusable.

This has been going on for awhile now. I remember during the election between Clinton and Dole that there were college age (meaning voting age) students that didn't know that Dole was a WWII vet. They thought he was a Vietnam vet.

He was the top of the Republican ticket during a presidential election. His biography was plastered all over the media, and yet...

 

[Roose Bolton]

This is one of the reasons why I'm not too keen on the notion some people are putting forth of the MCU discarding Magneto's origin in an eventual reboot of the X-Men series....keep it in people's mind, even if it's in pop culture. The holocaust was such a systematic and horribly efficient mass slaughter that we shouldn't ever forget and the dangers of fascism are far from over.

 

[Silvermoth]

It’s horrible news. I was at a party once when we were playing cards against humanity. I had to explain to them what auschwitz was.

It’s horrible to think people don’t know and they vote. Last year they got a slip of paper asking them if I count as human or not and to tick a box. Could you imagine your fate being dependent on people who, as far as they’re concerned, couldn’t imagine any negative consequences of extreme right wing ideology?

 

[Brutikus]

This survey being US-centric does not mean of course that it's not important/valid though with all the decades since World War II,even the sacrifices and the struggle of the "Greatest Generation" will be fading or as I observe has faded significantly.

In more than just the subject of the geo-political, as time goes on the following generations do not appreciate fully what kind of times came before them.

Example for USA - the Crash of 1929 was all encompassing and makes the 2008 GFC a footnote when you compare the scale and dollar value losses incurred in 1929.

Back to the horrific and most evil Holocaust this is also an effect that will come along in countries like USA or say my country of Australia where there's generations of people who have not had to suffer losses anywhere near the like of it.

It can be a blessing and curse when this happens as on the one hand the generations see peace and prosperity which is good but they lose sight of the lessons of the past.

Humans have done this many times before World War II sadly in many countries and cultures.

History as we think across the board is less accurate if you're relying on non empirical evidence such as the official records of the governments of the day.

"History is written by the Victors" is alarmingly true and here in the age of the World Wide Web and the digital revolution we see disturbingly "fake news" in the form of agenda laden news networks and undisciplined/unscrupulous so called journalists.

In Germany itself and the surrounding EU nations I would say it's a much different result for the people as to what they know about the Holocaust.

The other quote that has proven to be a truth is -

“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Sir Winston Churchill.

 

[Marvolo]

Just because they don't know what Auschwitz is doesn't mean they don't know what the holocaust is. Not everyone is going to remember or care about camp names.

 

[Teelie]

On a similar note, how many of you ever heard of the Armenian Genocide from World War 1? That is a smaller scale of what the Holocaust was and it is even less recognized than this one.

What I am bringing it up for is that as time goes on, the details fade, the very memory of it fades. And this was only around 20 or so years prior to the Holocaust. The Holocaust has the benefit of being remembered in a bigger part of that war but look back even further at the US Civil War and even more details get washed away.

It isn't an excuse and it isn't right, especially because these atrocities could be better remembered but education being the way it is these days it is only going to get worse. The attack on education (in every field) is perverse. Look at how science is attacked because it inconviences the reality of what is going on, or that history's ugly reminders are being rewritten if not written out. Math has gone off the rails, arts and music are defunded and unless you are athletic (football or basketball especially), there is little funding left for anything else.

I have no point to add beyond that. Society is moving forward and in this era it is deciding what is and is not important until it comes back again to repeat itself.

 

[Greens]

On a similar note, how many of you ever heard of the Armenian Genocide from World War 1?

Yup. It reaches the news here in Europe every once in a while because Turkey still denies it.