How comes when history is mentioned the first thing that comes to most peoples mind is hitler?

Question

Hitler alone does not make history. what about slavery what about the europian settlers of america?

Answer 1

Because when schools teach history, they want it to be "relevant", so they often choose to tell the kids about Hitler. So most young people's experience of history is mainly Hitler.

Answer 2

Hitler did very evil things such as sending Jews, Romas, Gypsies, Homosexuals, among others into concetration camps. He and his Nazi cronies murdered six million Jewish people along with millions more. Stalin regime actually killed more people but most people focus facism on Hitler. Maybe it is due to the presence of Neo-Nazis.

Another theory that I have is Hitler and History both start with "hi" and have a "t" in the middle. This helps to overshadows other history in people's mind.

There is so much more in history than WW2 and Hitler.

Answer 3

I guess most folks who watch the History Channel regularly are convinced that Hitler was an important historical figure because that channel really plays up his role in WW II. I never regard Hitler as being that important. In fact, I never even think of him in those terms. There are other, far more important people who have contributed to the good of our country, and those are the ones who come to my mind. Also, historical events that you mention. As for Hitler, he was a blight on mankind, and doesn't deserve the constant replays of his life on the History Channel. I would say good riddance to bad rubbish.

Answer 4

What comes to mind depends on who is polled. Probably many less educated will think of Hitler because his name is like a bell ringing to those who have little knowledge of history. More educated people will have a wider range of what comes to mind when history is mentioned. Hitler is not the first thing that comes to my mind, he's down lower on the list of what comes to my mind and history.

Answer 5

Your two comparative subjects were many, MANY years ago. The important thing here is 'Living Memory'. Hitler is still in Living Memory of many people that fought and lived through the war and as such, as a history subject it is much more 'mentioned' than slavery and settlers...

Answer 6

History = History Channel = WW2 = Hitler

Answer 7

In my case Hitler isn't the first individual to come to mind - but then I've read a lot of Solzhenitsyn.

The cases you both cite are social phenomena - not individuals.

For views on history over the ages...


http://hnn.us/articles/1328.html

Answer 8

Because he was possibly the most evil man in modern day history and what he stood for should never be forgotten so that it can never again be repeated. However, I would have thought a lot of people instantly think of 1066, and the signing of Magna Carta in 1215 as being notable dates in history.

Answer 9

'Hitler' is not the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word history. Perhaps that is what YOU believe, but he did do a terrible thing to many people.

Answer 10

I think it depends upon who you are, where you are from, and what your high school teachers emphasized the most. I think the holocaust is emphasized pretty strongly, sometimes with graphic pictures and video, in schools, therefore, it is what people remember most vividly out of their history classes.

Here in the South, most people think about the Civil War when you bring up history. I teach in a school with a high African American population and when you bring up history, they all immediatly thing of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.

It all depends on what you are exposed to and what is important to you.