Nearly half the country unaware of Auschwitz
Discussion
Do they not teach this in Schools? I'm quite shocked as to the stupidity of some in this nation these days!
Nearly half the country unaware of Auschwitz
By Jeffrey Goldfarb
Click to enlarge photo
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of Britons in a poll say they have 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 the 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.
The survey found that 45 percent of those surveyed had not heard of Auschwitz. Historians estimate that anywhere from one million to three million people, about 90 percent of them Jews, were killed there.
Among women and people younger than 35, 60 percent had never heard of Auschwitz, despite the recent popularity of films such as "Schindler's List," "Life is Beautiful" and "The Pianist," which depict the atrocities of the Holocaust.
"The name Auschwitz is quite rightly a byword for horror, but the problem with thinking about horror is that we naturally turn away from it," Rees said.
The BBC said the research was based on a nationally representative postal survey of 4,000 adults 16 and older.
The broadcaster is marking Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, with a variety of television and radio programmes.
The Auschwitz series for BBC2 is based on nearly 100 interviews with survivors and perpetrators and is the result of three years of research with the assistance of professors Ian Kershaw and David Caesarean.
>>> Edited by vixpy1 on Thursday 2nd December 19:36
Nearly half the country unaware of Auschwitz
By Jeffrey Goldfarb
Click to enlarge photo
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of Britons in a poll say they have 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 the 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.
The survey found that 45 percent of those surveyed had not heard of Auschwitz. Historians estimate that anywhere from one million to three million people, about 90 percent of them Jews, were killed there.
Among women and people younger than 35, 60 percent had never heard of Auschwitz, despite the recent popularity of films such as "Schindler's List," "Life is Beautiful" and "The Pianist," which depict the atrocities of the Holocaust.
"The name Auschwitz is quite rightly a byword for horror, but the problem with thinking about horror is that we naturally turn away from it," Rees said.
The BBC said the research was based on a nationally representative postal survey of 4,000 adults 16 and older.
The broadcaster is marking Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, with a variety of television and radio programmes.
The Auschwitz series for BBC2 is based on nearly 100 interviews with survivors and perpetrators and is the result of three years of research with the assistance of professors Ian Kershaw and David Caesarean.
>>> Edited by vixpy1 on Thursday 2nd December 19:36
Doesn't suprise me one bit!!
However I recently went to a talk by an Auschwitz survivor and close friend of Anne Frank. That was so well attended that he had to do the talk twice as the place was too full with people!
However that was at a university so perhaps a more intelligent group??
However I recently went to a talk by an Auschwitz survivor and close friend of Anne Frank. That was so well attended that he had to do the talk twice as the place was too full with people!
However that was at a university so perhaps a more intelligent group??
Small point... but Auschwitz was a former Polish military baracks (and later a tobacco factory).
The extermination camp that most people refer to as Auschwitz (the gate with the train tracks through the middle) is actually called Birkenau, located in the woods near Auschwitz.
I visited both back in 1995 with my father, and it's true that the birds do not sing; it's still bleak to this day. We went in the February, and I remember shivering from the cold (with huge winter coats on), what happened there does not bear thinking about. It is also the one and only time I have ever seen my father cry. It was a sobering experience to say the least.
The extermination camp that most people refer to as Auschwitz (the gate with the train tracks through the middle) is actually called Birkenau, located in the woods near Auschwitz.
I visited both back in 1995 with my father, and it's true that the birds do not sing; it's still bleak to this day. We went in the February, and I remember shivering from the cold (with huge winter coats on), what happened there does not bear thinking about. It is also the one and only time I have ever seen my father cry. It was a sobering experience to say the least.
Oswiecim iansull said:
can i just ask(genuinely)why you think its important to know about this?(please don't flame me)
Because only 60 years ago in Europe, in an age when we were supposedly civilised, there were camps exterminating people by the million.
If "civilised" society can commit attrocities like this then we all need to be aware of how easily nations can be manipulated lest it happen again.
PetrolTed said:
can i just ask(genuinely)why you think its important to know about this?(please don't flame me)
Because only 60 years ago in Europe, in an age when we were supposedly civilised, there were camps exterminating people by the million.
If "civilised" society can commit attrocities like this then we all need to be aware of how easily nations can be manipulated lest it happen again.
Stalin is credited (for want of a better phrase) with exterminating more Jews than Hitler...
iansull said:
i have to say that i was never taught this at school
Me neither. And it makes me really cross. We didn't cover anything at all about WW1 or WW2 at any time during history lessons at school. I have only relatively recently realised this (doh) and thought how completely bizarre that is.
Although in my defence, I am trying to rectify the situation. I've started with Winston Churchill's "The Second World War" (an abridgement of some of his volumes) in order to gain a better understanding. It's quite hard going but that's not put me off. It seems to me that I know so little about what happened relatively recently, and that makes me really sad.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes/bad grammar, I've just had a couple of glasses of wine next door and its gone straight to my head.
iansull said:
i understand that completely.
but in defence of people like myself who have very little knowledge of this,if it has not been taught in schools then unless you go off your own back to learn this it would be very difficult to have knowledge of it.
I see your point.. but I think the point is, that this sort of thing SHOULD be taught in schools.
It's not exactly light reading, but "The rise and fall of the Third Reich" by William L. Shirer pretty much covers the events in Germany from 1930 to 45...
Podie said:
i understand that completely.
but in defence of people like myself who have very little knowledge of this,if it has not been taught in schools then unless you go off your own back to learn this it would be very difficult to have knowledge of it.
I see your point.. but I think the point is, that this sort of thing SHOULD be taught in schools.
It's not exactly light reading, but "The rise and fall of the Third Reich" by William L. Shirer pretty much covers the events in Germany from 1930 to 45...
i totally agree.
Surely the results can speak only for the target audience? If that audience happened to be all 'Hello' or 'OK' readers (regardless of age) then I'd suggest that's where the trouble lies. Try the same poll of, say, 4000 JEWISH adults, or 4000 people of Polish extraction....
I bet a survey of 4000 motoring 'numpties' would produce blank looks if TVR, Noble or Ultima were mentioned...
Podie said:
iansull said:
can i just ask(genuinely)why you think its important to know about this?(please don't flame me)
Because only 60 years ago in Europe, in an age when we were supposedly civilised, there were camps exterminating people by the million.
If "civilised" society can commit attrocities like this then we all need to be aware of how easily nations can be manipulated lest it happen again.
Stalin is credited (for want of a better phrase) with exterminating more Jews than Hitler...
Stalin is credited with the deaths of more people than any other single person or regime in history. It's a crying shame if the standards of education of recent years don't cover this period in any significant detail. I was fortunate to have a history teacher with a genuine interest in and aptitude for getting the important lessons of the wars across.
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff