HITLER ; Are our children still learning about Adolf Hitler?

Question

I am 36 and learnt a lot about Hitler - his ideas, hatred and total being should never be forgotten - our generation needs to teach the next generation and so on. What is being done about it?

Answer 1

Um.. It's in the History books at school that's part of the curriculum the teachers have to cover. believe me they will know about it.

Answer 2

I doubt if any child (in the UK), at least, manages to leave school *without* learning about Hitler. If anything, they learn too much about him, and not enough about other historical subjects.

At the school where I teach (I'm a history teacher) we deliberately took Nazi Germany off the Key Stage 3 scheme of work, because anyone taking history at GCSE will do a unit on Nazi Germany. However, in Year 9 they do learn about WW2, and we specifically teach the Holocaust ... they just don't learn "Hitler", as such.

But, believe me, there are plenty of other historical topics that are just, if not more, important than Hitler.

Answer 3

These days, with what they teach in school, everything is pretty much sugar-coated to a degree. I mean, we soften the blow, so to speak. Sad to say, but as I grew older, all I learned was, 'he was racist and killed thousands' the rest i know from personal research. History class doesn't teach the whole story. It glorifies whatever country you are in. i.e. if you are in america, america is always seen as the hero. don't believe me? go to another country. See the different side of the same war/event.

So to a point, children are still learning about Hitler. But just barely. No, I agree, he SHOULDN'T be forgotton, and he wont. He will always be remembered, even if only as the 'racist' guy.

Answer 4

I am 22, we were still taught about Hitler. Also, the children in the high school that I tutor at are aware of him. He is in the history books, but in addition to that, he can stir quite a bit of questions and chatter. The teacher then has to fill things in, or even other resourceful students. Programs like the ones on the history channel are watched by more teens than you'd think.
I have to say then, its partly the media that is responsible for educating our kids well (in this case).

Answer 5

Most of what I learned about Hitler came from my own readings and from college history courses.
When I was younger, we learned about him, but not much. We were told about the Holocaust and about how he invaded Poland but nothing was really in depth.
I do agree that Hitler and what he did should never be forgotton, but I am not sure that his hatred and the horrors of what he did should be taught at a young age. That was very emotional and I don't think that children from 0-14 should really get into that history. But, once they are older, yes, it should be taught.

Answer 6

I'm more concerned that in a recent survey (2004) 59% of UK citizens between 18-25 did not know who Winston Churchill was. If the version of 20th Century history taught is so PC that it leaves out one of our national heros, how can it ever be robust enough to deal with a monster like Adolf Hitler.

Answer 7

Yes children still do learn about him-almost to the extent that other evil leaders are forgotten or seem better in comparison. Think about the fact that there is an Asian restaurant in Dublin called Mao and nobody bats an eyelid-imagine if it were called Hitler!

Answer 8

Hi, I'm 23, and origionally from Germany.
my birthplace marked me for bullies when i was a child. even as young as 7 or 8 i was called a nazi for being from Germany. everyone had 'heard' about nazism. few actually understood what it meant. one guy, attempting to quote an indiana jones movie, once stated that he knew i was a nazi, because i snored.
Now, they touch on him. for about a chapter in the history books, he is noted as the leader of the nazi party. that the nazi party was responsible for the murder of millions. the chapter continues on discussing world war two, and then ends.
Finally, in my sophmore year, i became fed up with not knowing what hitler and the nazis truely were. obviously they were bad. but why? so i read. and read. and read. every book the library had on hitler and nazism, which was a shockingly large amount. few people who try to ban books in school realize that while they're fighting to kick harry potter out of school, MEIN KAMPF sits on the shelf. this sort of book breeds nazism. it takes the stance of anti-semitism from the view of Hitler, as it was written by hitler. it shows only appealing viewpoints, and makes hitler seem like some sort of saint. obviously it would, its his biography (I'm not sure if its considered an autobiography as Rudolph hess penned the book while listening to Hitler Orate what he wanted written.)
so while it is touched on in school, i wish it would be much expanded on, with emphathis on the fact that Germans do not equal nazis. the nazi party was only a very small group in Germany, but once they were armed, there was nothing 'we' could do about it.

Answer 9

Thanks Boylie and.... I can assure you I learnt far too much about Hitler at school last year. I would much rather have studied history of other periods also, which I believe is just as relevant for my generation as the Second World War. I believe, given the mistaken comparisons of late drawn between Iraq and Nazi Germany, it is far better to get a rounded perspective on history than to over-concentrated on one man and his deluded philosophies - be that Hitler, Stalin or George Bush.

Answer 10

Children are still learning about Hitler and the sick things he did in school. so don't worry.