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ashleyb Posted Mon 20 Oct, 2008 2:28 PM |
| I'm currently working on a research paper on the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. I'm curious to know, for those of you who grew up in Britain, what exactly you are taught about the Holocaust and your different perspectives on it. I'd like to get an idea of how much emphasis is placed on the Holocaust in your education and specifically, Bergen-Belsen (and it's liberation). Thanks. |
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spid Posted Mon 20 Oct, 2008 8:05 PM |
| for both my different courses in History (two different schools) i did presicely zilch on the Holocaust. First i did pre 1918 and then i did post 1945. This was a good 25 years ago mind, so things might have changed. goodluck! |
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ashleyb Posted Mon 20 Oct, 2008 9:20 PM |
| Very interesting. Did they not even touch on the interwar period or World War II? |
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varz Posted Mon 20 Oct, 2008 9:53 PM |
| I never did history past 2nd year at school (so since I was 12-13yrs old) but we were never taught about the holocaust at all. |
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ashleyb Posted Mon 20 Oct, 2008 10:21 PM |
| For those who never received formal schooling on the Holocaust, where do/did you get your information and ideas? Pop culture, movies, etc? |
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varz Posted Mon 20 Oct, 2008 10:45 PM |
| I read a book on the history of Auschwitz which was pretty interesting. Also went there this year when I was travelling... Was pretty scary, you just don't understand the sheer scale of the place until you're there, wandering around. |
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kiwi Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 1:32 AM |
| I did schooling in NZ/Ireland so this is probably completely pointless... but we had a surviver of Bergen-Belsen come in for a talk, and we were allowed to ask questions, he didn't like to say too much really... and we did role plays (when we were 14) in social studies. |
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mili Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 6:26 AM |
I asked my English hubby about this, and he said there was hardly anything about Holocaust at school. He studied history later, and knows about the era quite a bit these days.
I studied in Finland, Holocaust was mentioned, but Bergen-Belsen was not. After school I've seen films and tv documentaries, read books, and visited Dachau.
I remember the first time I heard about Hitler. I was quite small, but could read already (5-7 years old). In an old farmhouse next to a forest there was a Finnish copy of Mein Kampf. I asked my cousin about it (she's four years older than me) and she gave me an obviously impressive description of A.H., as I was afterwards afraid that Hitler might be coming from the forest. |
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Moray Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 1:05 PM |
In primary school we all read the Diart of Anne Frank. I'm pretty sure that would have been my first exposure to the Holocaust.
After that, would have been 2nd year at school when I read Schindlers List.
Can't remember touching on it at History at school, specifically. I don't thing we ever covered WW2 history during school. Everything we covered was the socio / economic reasons that lead to both world wars, but never specifically studied the wars themselves.
Most of my knowledge of the subject has been from personal interest, so reading / watching things like the Pianist & Life is Beautiful. |
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weirdmom Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 4:57 PM |
I am really surprised to learn that the wars and the Holocaust aren't covered in British schools. That strikes me as really odd.
Here there is a lot of emphasis on the war. I remember even learning about how much England was affected and the London bombings.
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Lizzie b Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 5:14 PM |
weirdmom wrote: I am really surprised to learn that the wars and the Holocaust aren't covered in British schools. That strikes me as really odd.
Here there is a lot of emphasis on the war. I remember even learning about how much England was affected and the London bombings.
yeah, i was thinking that too. i think the English school system has failed it's children... although, we never ever got past WWII in history in the US, so i am pretty ignorant on modern history. |
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Lemon Grinner Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 5:15 PM |
| We learned about the first and second world wars in school, touched on holocaust in lessons and had assemblies about the holocaust every year. But I think it was more the people that chose to study history over georgraphy were the ones that learned most about it. |
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weirdmom Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 5:21 PM |
Lemon Grinner wrote: We learned about the first and second world wars in school, touched on holocaust in lessons and had assemblies about the holocaust every year. But I think it was more the people that chose to study history over georgraphy were the ones that learned most about it.
This makes me feel better. |
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Moray Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 5:46 PM |
weirdmom wrote: I am really surprised to learn that the wars and the Holocaust aren't covered in British schools. That strikes me as really odd.
Here there is a lot of emphasis on the war. I remember even learning about how much England was affected and the London bombings.
I think we must have covered it in primary school, but I really can't remember. And maybe first or second year at school to an extent. It was so long ago! I just can't specifically remember studying it. And because I'm a bit of a WW2 geek, I can't remember if I picked up some info at school or some from my own personal interest.
By the time it came to 'actual' history in the latter years at school, they tend to focus more on topics like "Factors leading to....." as it's easier to write essays on, and write balanced discussions about. So we didn't tend to focus on the wars themselves, instead looked at political and economic motivations behind major evens. Although I do remember covering the night of the long knives as part of the appeasement of Hitler & the road to war. So anti semitism was definitely touched on.
It may surprise you more to know that I could still write you an essay about why the American Civil War happened!! |
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spid Posted Tue 21 Oct, 2008 5:48 PM |
ashleyb wrote: Very interesting. Did they not even touch on the interwar period or World War II?
not on those two courses - it wasn't going to be examined on the paper so they didn't teach it. |
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