Nearly Half of Britons Unaware of Auschwitz

[A_Wanderer]

Fools, there is a large quotient of morons within all populations.

LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of Britons in a poll said they had never heard of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in southern Poland that became a symbol of the Holocaust and the attempted genocide of the Jews.

The results of the survey conducted by the BBC were released on Thursday as Britain’s public broadcaster announced it will show a new series next January to mark the 60th anniversary of the concentration camp’s liberation.

“We were amazed by the results of our audience research,” said Laurence Rees, a producer on the series, “Auschwitz: The Nazis & the ‘Final Solution.”’

“It’s easy to presume that the horrors of Auschwitz are engrained in the nation’s collective memory, but obviously this is not the case,” Rees said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041202/tv_nm/media_auschwitz_dc_3

imbeciles.

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

 

[deep]

but they are in the coalition killing Moslems

are we tired of bashing the French and calling them names?

perhaps they should have asked about "the holocaust'.

 

[A_Wanderer]

to the nth degree. Firstly I did not use any names in that last thread and made the clear distinction between the French people and their government. Secondly is it too much to expect people to know about Auchwitz? This is of course a poll and I am certain that simmilar proportions of people are unaware in most countries.

 

[deep]

All i am saying is that if the question was

What was the Holocaust?

I believe most could answer, that's all.


buchenwald
triblinka
Auschwitz
daucau

these are camps i can think of without looking up,

forgive my spelling

 

[A_Wanderer]

Bergen belsen as well.

I wonder how many know about the Battle of Trafalgar or other things that should be considered general knowledge. I know that the teaching of history in high school was pretty poor when it came to such things. Also this is a poll and rule of thumb don't trust the statistics but still - rather scary.

 

[anitram]

Majdanek.

 

[deep]

here is a list


it looks like Maly Trostenets was in the top 3, number of deaths.

i can't recall hearing it's name before.

 

[deep]

Bergen belsen as well.

Reagan put that one on the map for many.

 

[U2democrat]

Auschwitz was the most notorious of the camps. To not have heard of it is just sad. When I was in 8th grade one of my teachers mother was an Auschwitz prisoner. She still had her number imprinted on her wrist. with ignorance.

 

[dandy]

a couple of my good friends, whom i consider to be smarter than the average bear and reasonably well informed on matters, did not know who anne frank was until i told them. i thought they were messing with me, but they weren't. they really didn't know who she was.



i'm always shocked to hear how little people know about the holocaust, especially in light of the extensive media coverage on it over the past couple of decades, not to mention the movies--sophie's choice, schindler's list, life is beautiful, the pianist...

 

[Liesje]

We were talking about this at work. I'm not sure how I feel. I don't like to call people stupid based on a broad survey statistic. My grandpa was part of the group that found Nordhausen and it's 2000+ corpses. I've seen his pictures of the rows and rows and stacks of decaying bodies. They freed the few left and forced Germans who lived near by to help take care of the bodies. Our family is quite familiar with the War and the Holocaust but it's mainly b/c of my grandpa's participation and the many relatives and friends that still lived in the Netherlands at that time. I'm sure I wouldn't know nearly as much if I didn't have this family history.

 

[Liesje]

here is a list


it looks like Maly Trostenets was in the top 3, number of deaths.

i can't recall hearing it's name before.

Hm....I'm skeptical. First of all, the Wikipedia is info that anyone can change. I'm sure no one's intentionally skewing the numbers, but just the fact that I could login and change all of those numbers doesn't lend it much credibility. I can list off-hand and have read about most pretty much all of those camps on the Wikipedia list and in the books I've read, I don't ever remember the above mentioned camp in the top 3 as far as deaths. I always knew it as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, and then Sobibor. This was from a chart in a book I read once, I wish I had it here so I could double check.

 

[Liesje]

a couple of my good friends, whom i consider to be smarter than the average bear and reasonably well informed on matters, did not know who anne frank was until i told them. i thought they were messing with me, but they weren't. they really didn't know who she was.

Likewise, I wonder how many people don't know who Josef Mengele is.....*shudder*

 

[dandy]

*shudder*

 

[indra]

It always amazes me that people aren't interested in the Holocaust. It was horrifying, but how can you not want to know about it? How can one not want to remember those who suffered and died because of it.

I guess I was lucky as we actually were taught about it in school -- even had a whole day devoted to the subject...complete with a couple of documentaries with newsreel footage. Very grim stuff, but I think everyone should have at least that much exposure to it.

 

[U2_Muse]

Auschwitz was the most notorious of the camps. To not have heard of it is just sad.

Exactly what I was thinking. I remember only getting a very cursory overview of the holocaust in high school, but we still learned about the concentration camps, and we all knew what Auschwitz referred to.

 

[Liesje]

It always amazes me that people aren't interested in the Holocaust.

I'm glad to see you post this b/c often I'm embarassed b/c I've read so much on the Holocaust and I don't want people to think I'm some kind of sadistic freak! And I'm not talking your basic testimonials like Anne Frank, I once read this book on Auschwitz over 600 pages and it explained and charted in every detail how the camps were designed and how the chambers and chemicals all work.....what was efficient and what lacked efficiency.....I remember thinking that if the people who built the camps had made anything other than an extermination camp, they'd probably have won some famous prizes.

I think this is the book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...102-4626682-7448166?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

 

[anitram]

I've read Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi and Viktor Frankl - wonderful, heartbreaking stories from survivors and I'd recommend them to anyone.

 

[ImOuttaControl]

Uh oh, if this were "50 percent of Americans don't know about Auschwitz" it'd be a world story about how ignorant americans are. This is why I find the attacks on awanderer for this thread so amusing.

On that note, I'd doubt 50% of americans know what Auschwitz is. It's not that everyone is ignorant, it's just that some people just dont' give jack or shit about the past (which is painful to say, because I'm a history teacher.)

 

[Flying FuManchu]

Uh oh, if this were "50 percent of Americans don't know about Auschwitz" it'd be a world story about how ignorant americans are. This is why I find the attacks on awanderer for this thread so amusing.

On that note, I'd doubt 50% of americans know what Auschwitz is. It's not that everyone is ignorant, it's just that some people just dont' give jack or shit about the past (which is painful to say, because I'm a history teacher.)

Ain't that the truth...

 

[A_Wanderer]

I saw this great German movie about a hypothetical trial of Mengele? does anybody know about that one.

 

[meegannie]

I saw this great German movie about a hypothetical trial of Mengele? does anybody know about that one.

Nichts als die Wahrheit?

 

[A_Wanderer]

Excellent, thanks.

 

[Mildred]

ignorance and lack of knowledge aren't the same things.
but
let's ignore this
and enjoy our artificial superiority.

 

[A_Wanderer]

I beg to differ

ignorance

ig·no·rance

noun
1. lack of knowledge: lack of knowledge or education

2. unawareness: unawareness of something, often of something important

http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861620070/ignorance.html

 

[AcrobatMan]

i didnt know it..i knew there were death camps in Poland..

and I had a good estimate of number of people who were killed in DEATH CAMPS..

thanks for all the link

 

[verte76]

Gosh, I can't believe there are so many people who've never heard of Auschwitz. This stinks.

 

[dandy]

I'm glad to see you post this b/c often I'm embarassed b/c I've read so much on the Holocaust and I don't want people to think I'm some kind of sadistic freak! And I'm not talking your basic testimonials like Anne Frank, I once read this book on Auschwitz over 600 pages and it explained and charted in every detail how the camps were designed and how the chambers and chemicals all work.....what was efficient and what lacked efficiency.....I remember thinking that if the people who built the camps had made anything other than an extermination camp, they'd probably have won some famous prizes.

i know how you feel--i first read anne frank's diary when i was 10, and it changed my life. when we hit on the holocaust in high school history, i became obsessed with learning everything i could about it, because i just could not believe that people would intentionally set out to harm other people in such a brutal and systematic way. when i went off to university, the bulk of the work i did for my history degree was about the holocaust. my bookshelf has alarmed and confused a few visitors who didn't know me well.

i think it's essentia that people know at least the basics about the holocaust, and ideally other similar horror stories--cambodia under the khmer rouge, kosova, armenia, rwanda, sierra leone, guatemala, native populations in north america and australia... i guess a lot of people don't want to be bothered hearing about such *unpleasantries* or think that it doesn't impact them in any way--silly arrogant fools.

 

[U2Kitten]

I can understand it if they didn't know during the war, because there wasn't the media there is today. But now? I've also seen that there are Americans who can't even put a correct year on the Declaration of Independence or the Civil War! I can't understand this, being a history buff, but still you'd think at this point it would be common knowledge.