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25% of Brit Kids Don't Know Auschwitz From Beer Brand

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 9, 2009 2:47 PM CDT
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(Newser) – A quarter of British schoolchildren aged 11-16 don’t understand the purpose of the Nazis’ Polish concentration camp Auschwitz, the Telegraph reports. 10% of kids surveyed were unsure of what Auschwitz was, while 8% think it was a country on Germany’s border, 2% each think it is a beer or a religious festival, and 1% think it’s a type of bread.

Just a third of the youngsters surveyed understand that the Holocaust claimed 6 million Jewish lives; 60% don’t know what the Final Solution was, and 20% think it refers to peace talks that ended World War II. While 97% could identify Adolf Hitler from a photograph, those who couldn’t mistook pictures of Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein for the German dictator.

SS officers socializing on the grounds of the SS retreat, Solahutte outside of Auschwitz, Poland, in 1944.
SS officers socializing on the grounds of the SS retreat, Solahutte outside of Auschwitz, Poland, in 1944.   (AP Photo)
The barracks in the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, southern Poland.
The barracks in the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, southern Poland.   (AP Photo)
Railway tracks lead to the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, southern Poland.
Railway tracks lead to the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, southern Poland.   (AP Photo)
Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1941.
Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1941.   (AP Photo)
People walk behind the slogan To Each His Own above the entrance gate of the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eartern Germany.
People walk behind the slogan "To Each His Own" above the entrance gate of the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, eartern Germany.   (AP Photo)
People place memory plaques on rails in Birkenau during the annual March of the Living
People place memory plaques on rails in Birkenau during the annual March of the Living   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 4 comments
northeast
Mar 10, 2009 8:04 PM CDT
If you ask kids leading questions (see the Peace Talks question) then you get stupid answers. Sweet, though...now I don't feel so bad about the fact that 64% of high schoolers in the USA can't find Iraq on a map! Suck it, limeys!
Guest
Mar 10, 2009 3:19 AM CDT
Maybe civilization, philosophy and thought have not made as much progress in humanity as we thought.
Guest
Mar 9, 2009 4:43 AM CDT
That, with all the current hysteria over European socialism, right wingers should take comfort in the fact that, whatever the form of government, ignorance is always an option.

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Holocaust • England • children • Nazi • Auschwitz • survey • historical memory

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