WWII: Teddy Roosevelt vs. Super Evil Guy

High school students' knowledge of World War II murky at best
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 3, 2007 3:47 PM CDT
WWII: Teddy Roosevelt vs. Super Evil Guy
Two German World War II warplanes of the Me109 type are seen in the skies over Loepten, about 55 kilometers (35 miles) south of Berlin on Thursday, July 19, 2007, the day of the start of shooting of the movie 'Valkyrie'. The movie with Tom Cruise as main actor tells the story of German Col. Claus Schenk...   (Associated Press)

As San Francisco 10th- to 12th-graders tell it, the key players in World War II were President Theodore Roosevelt, Super Evil Guy Hitler, Soviet President Mussolini, and dictator Winston Churchill. In a quiz given by the San Francisco Chronicle, the students showed a startling lack of knowledge about the second world war, the Chronicle reports.

Most of the students surveyed correctly identified Hitler and knew of the Holocaust; other details of the war proved more elusive. Various students claimed that the war was fought over Boston tea, began with Zimmerman's note, and ended when the US bombed Iwo Jima. And Rosie the Riveter? Identified by one student as a "gay gang member." (More World War II stories.)

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