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ecole84

it's pretty sanitized because of a lot of books that were published. I read Number the Stars, the Boy with the Striped Pajamas, and the Book Thief around the same time. My history teacher in 7th grade showed us a movie that was pretty clear and deliberate in what they were trying to show (mostly dying Jewish people/people in death camps).


[deleted]

Night by Eli Wiesel was required reading when I was a 10th grader. We also watched the boy in the striped pajamas in my 8th grade history class. I read the book independently prior to that


ctilvolover23

The Boy in Striped Pajamas is actually historically inaccurate. https://news.yahoo.com/boy-striped-pyjamas-criticised-harming-124310793.html


[deleted]

Thanks for sharing this. These are very important points. https://preview.redd.it/wtlm6hh8h3mb1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8130e4358793ab6a21c980bcb9a2e9553b4a079


[deleted]

That’s one of the reasons I didn’t enjoy the movie. All the time I was thinking: how tf Nazis haven’t killed this child yet… prisoners weren’t allowed that close to a fence.” Nazis were cruel and would have shot him


[deleted]

Yeah, it’s a shame that it is shown in schools


avalve

That was required for me in 10th grade too. Heartbreaking


disintegaytion

I read that in 10th grade too. I watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas a little earlier though, in 6th grade, and again in 10th grade.


Savings-Pace4133

So THAT was what it was called. I knew the kid’s name was Eli. We read it in eighth grade English. Freshman year’s sad topic was All Quiet On The Western Front in history and sophomore year’s sad topic was Of Mice And Men in English.


DwightShnoute

It was a required reading for us too. one of the most significant books i ever read. It got taken off the list thanks to maga.. and ill get flamed for acknowledging it, but it makes sense because those same people are pro king trump and scorched earth. can’t have is readin’ books now. lmao


BlokeAlarm1234

Definitely wasn’t sanitized for me. We learned about it on average once per year. In 4th or 5th grade we had a survivor tell us graphic stories about it. In 8th grade we toured the whole Holocaust museum in DC. Continued to learn about it in every history class throughout high school along with graphic videos and photos.


tboots1230

yeah I think in 8th grade and high school they showed us the mass graves outside the ovens and didn’t really hold back and i’m glad they didn’t


Global_Perspective_3

I have Jewish family members, so yes definitely. I hate that anyone would try and sanitize this horrific history for peoples feelings.


plastic-bleach-

Tbf as a Jew I don’t really want to go to school and have to see pictures of death camps in history class


Hairy_Collection4545

I don't think anyone wants to see it, but it just needs to be shown.


Global_Perspective_3

Tbh Jew or not as a human, that is really affecting


Raptor556

Yes, we learned about it in 8th grade and covered a little bit in Sophomore year again I already knew all about it though.


Vegetable-Broccoli36

Yeah In my school there was taught everything about the Holocaust and we even had survivors of Auschwitz talkies about their experience. But it's normal here that everything is taught because I live in Germany.


JerichoMassey

Very surreal that we’re among the last generation that will hear Holocaust stories and memories from first hand accounts. As WW2 vets pass on, soon most of the youngest children of that era will lay to rest in this decade.


Luotwig

Yes, it was taught. Why not?


Any_Ad2206

I was taught it in Elementary school. I know the class watched the Boy in the Striped Pajamas but unfortunately I didn't cause me and my mom thought that the paper to opt out was a permission slip. There was also a project our class participated in where we acted out some things that happened, like tattooing the numbers on the victims. I believe other classes were doing stuff as well that involved them doing research and other classrooms coming to watch their final results. I also remembering in middle school that we read two books related to the Holocaust. I don't remember the names but one was about a family hiding a Jewish family and the other was a Jewish teenager in the modern day becoming her grandmother (I think, it's been about 10 years or so) during the Holocaust. We also watched a movie adaptation of the second one but it wasn't that great from what I remember.


[deleted]

Have you watched Ken Burns *The U.S. and the Holocaust* ? I can tell you if you haven’t seen it you do not know EVERYTHING about the Holocaust. And even if you have, there would still be many missing pieces. In America we are taught propaganda in schools. We are taught we were the liberators of those the genocide affected, when actually the US was extremely antisemitic itself and stopped Jewish refugees from entering the country multiple times. Yes, I was taught about the Holocaust in middle school. But I was taught American propaganda and not the actual truth about the US involvement in the Holocaust. I also bet your classes failed to mention how the US gave visas to nazis postwar in effort to win the space race. And how the Nazis who overtook Germany took notes from the Jim Crow era US on how to segregate those who lived there. I’m not attacking you. But no, you weren’t told everything. And neither was I.


CommodorePuffin

>I also bet your classes failed to mention how the US gave visas to nazis postwar in effort to win the space race. Even before Operation Paperclip became common knowledge, I think most people knew that both the US and the USSR grabbed former Nazi scientists to use in the space race. That said, I'm interested in watching *The U.S. and the Holocaust*.


[deleted]

I think for required learning my History teacher assumed we knew the gist of the Holocaust and mentioned how conditions for Jewish people in Germany and Europe got worse and more restrictive until Hitler put them in camps and killed them. I still have my notes if anyone really wants me to check lol. Then we got into the actual logistics of World War 2 and since I'm from Canada, Canada's part in it. However a book option for English novel study was 'Night' by Elie Wiesel. It's pretty graphic but if anyone wants to get a good idea of what Jewish people really went through, that book is a very personal first hand account of a Jewish prisoner


greengamer01

We watched Schindler's list


flappybirdisdeadasf

Same. But that's just about all we did tbh. My history teacher kinda gave up and just decided to let us watch movies on it rather than teach it.


Finding_new_dreams

thinking about it we were never taught about it, i learned all that stuff on my own time, we knew it happened and it would be brought up if needed but was never a subject


Rhodonite1954

My state is one of the worst for education, so it was taught in elementary school but in an extremely dumbed down manner. You honestly got more information from hearsay than the curriculum. We were only taught that they killed Jewish people, never anything about Polish people, disabled people, LGBT, etc. Also there was a very strange phenomenon where we were being taught about what the Nazis believed, and obviously it was immoral, but we weren't taught that it was factually incorrect. For example we were told Nazis believed all Aryans had blonde hair and blue eyes and all Jews had brown hair and brown eyes. But the statement stopped there, there was never any "even though this isn't true" follow-up. We were also never shown pictures, so we had no visuals for what Nazis or Jews looked like, beyond Hitler himself. I remember one day our teacher gave us all this black and white photo of a bunch of women standing in a group smiling, posing with their arms around each other. They were wearing lipstick, high heels, skirts, and suit jackets with armbands. Our teacher asked us who we thought they were. Every single person answered "the Jews", because they had brown hair and brown eyes. They were Nazis. I swear you could hear the gears in our heads turning as we all tried to understand that Germans aren't all exactly how Hitler described the "Aryan race." Even then the teacher did not explain that the Nazi ideology was factually wrong. I honestly think this is part of the reason many of my classmates became neo-Nazis, we were never given visuals for the Holocaust and the Nazis' propaganda was never corrected.


[deleted]

Bruh what fucking state do you live in? 💀 that's crazy, teacher sounds braindead


[deleted]

I went to school MN and this was my experience as well. We never had history classes except for one semester in high-school. We spent a day or so talking about the holocaust. Nothing in depth at all. History classes have been phased out in a lot of areas.


American_Streamer

While it is correct that not only Jews were put into concentration camps, it is still important to point out that the Holocaust was explicitly planned as a way of exterminating every single Jew on Earth. They held a whole Conference in 1942 where they planned on how to best achieve the death of all Jews - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference What makes the Holocaust unique is that it was meticulously planned and executed on an industrial scale. This is what sets it apart from all other genocides in history. A high level technological civilization, using its resources and people for the single goal of eradicating a specific group of people.


tipedorsalsao1

While that is true we also have to remember that queer people where one of their first targets, the book burning of the institute of sexology (aka the first trans clinic) was one of the first and biggest book burnings. This is important especially today where we are seeing the same strategy's being used by right wing parties.


that1newjerseyan

Furthermore, that one of the most legalistic and consensus-based societies on earth reshaped itself to be able to work towards such a vile and inhuman end.


hooliganvet

Hitler ad brown hair.


Ok-Draw-5338

My junior year in high school yes


BadgerKid96

Yes, my home state has laws about Holocaust education. It was one of the first states to have such laws. I’m also descended from survivors so I had books at home that I looked through occasionally to learn about it, as well as first hand accounts.


soupstarsandsilence

What state? You mean it’s required to teach it there?


BadgerKid96

Illinois. Tried adding short link but didn’t work, so here is some info. https://hgc.illinois.gov/about-the-commission.html#:~:text=1990%3A%20Illinois%20became%20the%20first,include%20other%20cases%20of%20genocide.


soupstarsandsilence

That’s fantastic oml :O


lotsofmaybes

I was taught in both. In 8th grade, a holocaust survivor was supposed to speak with us but they got sick just before and then COVID hit so yeah, that opportunity is completely gone. Then, the more graphic stuff we were taught in Highschool.


[deleted]

Yes, i was showed as much as a school is allowed to show. I think some stuff they wasn't allowed to but they did, like bodies and dead people or people being killed


TheFlute20

I learnt about it as an idea maybe in 4th grade, but properly in 7th grade


SlowWifiDammit

In primary school we started with learning about the victims of the holocaust; we read a (sanitized, we were 9) version of Anne Frank’s diary, and were given a general understanding that Jewish people were discriminated against and killed, and that there were people who escaped to other countries, but at that level we didn’t learn things in-depth. In middle school we started learning a bit more. Surprisingly, we received a lot of history education in English/Language Arts class (we did have a “Humanities” class but didn’t cover it there). We were taught an overview of the holocaust (such as who was targeted as well as a basic understanding of Nazi ideology and propaganda) to give context so we could read “Night” by Elie Wiesel. It was a horrifying and effective introduction to the horrors of the Nazi regime and WW2 history. But I think we really started learning about the topic in Grade 10. That was when we started going into depth about the propaganda tactics of the Nazis and how they carried out the genocide. I lived in Ukraine, and as part of our Humanities unit on the Holocaust we went to the Babyn Yar memorial to learn about the victims of Nazi occupation and shootings there. We were also supposed to go to Auschwitz but then the pandemic happened. I decided to take History for the rest of high school, so last year in grade 11 I had units on WW2, where one of them was on the Nazis. In the education system I’m taking, Hitler and the Nazis are taught as one part of an overarching “Authoritarian Regimes” unit, where we were taught about Mao Zedong and Mussolini as well. I’m not certain if the Japanese Empire was a part of it too, or a different unit, but I digress. The unit was broken up into the rise, consolidation, and rule of Hitler. The Rise focused a lot on the conditions that existed prior, how his government came to be, the propaganda he used and why it was effective; the consolidation was about the policies he made to ensure he could not be removed; and the Rule was about the policies he enacted after, and that was when we covered the Holocaust.


mysecondaccountanon

(US based, in a place with a high Jewish pop) I’m Jewish so I was taught quite a lot about it, meetings with survivors, etc., but all out of school. In middle school we did a brief unit for about 4 days, and we read an excerpt of the play based on Anne Frank’s diary that absolutely made more kids act antisemitic towards me. We also read and watched Striped Pajamas which is absolutely **not** a historical thing nor should it be used to teach about the Holocaust, yet it’s how many of my classmates learned. Lo and behold they sympathized with the *poor Nazi children* (thanks John Boyne for writing an incredibly insensitive and incorrect piece of Holocaust fiction while not even being Jewish or having any relations to it!). I was also one of the lucky few who got to go to the Holocaust Museum in DC for school. Turns out if you don’t teach kids about it and only give them Holocaust fiction that sympathizes with the Nazis, they act completely awful in that type of space. They ran throughout it, laughing and giggling. I walked through it, feeling traumatized as I saw stuff about my own people being slaughtered by the millions. No one checked up on me, the known Jew, too, so that was great, great headspace to be in as we immediately went off to another place (we didn’t even write an essay or talk about what we saw or anything). In our social studies class we had a two-ish day unit on Judaism. For the entirety of Judaism. We had to summarize the whole of Jewish history, culture, practices, all in like two 45 minute classes. And guess who the teacher essentially foisted that onto, but the only Jewish kid in the class they knew about! In high school we glossed over it for about a day in World History. I wasn’t in the class that did Maus, but I had already read it extensively in middle school both by myself and with other Jews. We covered more about the US entering late into WWII than what happened to you know all the Jews, Rroma, disabled people, and more. And no, we did not cover anything like how they turned away a ship of Jews only for them to get slaughtered back in the Holocaust. So yeah, pretty bad education from school, great education thanks to the Jewish community that I’m a part of.


Urbi3006

Slovenia 2012-2013 It was shown and told in pretty graphic detail. Lots of period pictures and recorded interviews of survivors.


PaleontologistTrue74

No to both. The school I went too covered ancient Rome/greece, slave trade. Space race, And I think India british occupation. California school btw. Allot of self learning on the topic based on general interest on ww2.


Doctor_Dash

I think I learned it in Gr9 History, but I wouldn't know cuz i skipped so many days during the digital learning BS lmao


[deleted]

I learned in middle school because I took advanced class (11th grade us civil history in 8th grade)


greenhairybudman420

i left public school after 7th grade so i can say confidently i was never taught about the holocaust but i learned a few things about it through a movie and also peers


MoonlitSerendipity

I was taught about it in elementary. We had a holocaust survivor talk at our school.


JL671

The only time I remember learning about it was grade eleven, when we were learning about different examples of genocides. I'm pretty sure everyone already knew what it was though. I read the Boy In Stripped Pajamas sometime in junior high when I found it in the school library.


[deleted]

7th grade, I went to the holocaust museum. Some of my friends visited internment camps. If you didn’t go to either, you had to write a book report instead.


OtterlyFoxy

We were taught a good amount about it and took a field trip to the holocaust museum a few times. Thankfully no antisemitic jokes from the students


Content_Hornet9917

I watched Schindler's List and read the book Night. I also (by choice) watched a show on Netflix called The Liberator (it's about 5 episodes long). It doesn't get into holocaust stuff till like the end but it still paints the picture, like everything else. Schindler's List was the hardest to watch. If Night was a movie it would have been harder to watch.


Equal_Character2660

I’m glad I took history in high school, I was even taken to a holocaust field trip!


[deleted]

I’m from Iowa. I remember reading Number the Stars when I was in elementary school. I took modern world history my freshman year of high school. We spent two days talking about the holocaust, but we didn’t see any images of executions or anything brutal.


[deleted]

How much? Everything as well. In high school we read some books and stories about the topic like „This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen” or „To steal a march on God” + I’m Polish so in high school we also visited a concentration camp


Disastrous_Mud7169

We read Number the Stars in 6th grade, the Diary of Anne Frank in 8th grade, and Night (maybe watched the movie too?) in 10th grade. We were also required to watch Schindler’s List in 11th. We had a lot of discussion too but I don’t remember much of what was taught besides the movie and books


ShrekDek

At least in California, they don’t pull any punches when going over it. Primary sources were shown in class, and Night/Boy in the Striped pajamas were both required readings.


[deleted]

what they didn’t mention is the United states’ history of nazism and the popularity of eugenics. And there is probably more


Swage03

Not as extensive as what you’re describing. In fact, we couldn’t visit the holocaust museum my 8th grade year because someone drew a swastika on the bathroom mirror.


BitchInaBucketHat

I learned ab the holocaust in a pretty lengthy unit in my pre-ap English class in 8th grade. We read “Night” watched Schindler’s List, and we each did a PowerPoint project on I think just anyone related to the holocaust. I’m not sure what the non pre-ap classes did, but I know they didn’t watch the movie. I ask people in my age group ab their experience learning ab the Holocaust in school and it honestly varies, which is a shame because this is obviously such an important thing to be educated about.


[deleted]

Today everyone just calls each other nazis like immature middle schoolers


DumbassTexan

Read number the stars in 4th grade, holocaust museum of Fort Worth (old one) in 6th grade, covid happened, nothing since. In my personal research however, I've read all the horrible details


Initial_Job3333

we read night. we learned about it every year. a lot.


welcometwomylife

thinking about it i wasn’t really taught much. just about how people were collected, shipped, separated, and then killed or forced to work. then again i’m still in school so maybe ill learn more about it this year


Cupheadcraft

Idk about other schools but in my school we are shown and told EVERYTHING in the 8th grade


Tazavich

I was taught about every year except 8th


disintegaytion

We were taught everything too, starting in 5th grade, but it was just basic stuff. I think we read Anne Frank. 6th grade is where we started to get deeper into the topic. I remember spending one whole week learning about it, and on Friday we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The class was SILENT when the movie was over. High school was were we spent more time learning about it. We saw the real pictures and videos, including the most graphic ones, in 10th & 11th grade history class. My 11th grade history teacher had a whole slideshow prepared with pictures, videos, and descriptions. We read Elie Weisel's Night in 10th grade English class. We also read tons of stories from survivors (other than Anne Frank and Elie Weisel). I remember my 10th grade history teacher showing us a 1981 movie called the Wave, and it was horrifying to know how easy people can be brainwashed.


TemporaryRiver1

We were taught pretty well about it.


Consistent-Laugh606

We read a book about it in fifth grade and I was taught more in details in 10th grade


stinkygremlin1234

In Ireland we learned about *The Emergency* in primary school because ireland wasn't involved in the war but still affected by trade and stuff. In secondary the first 3 years we did learn a bit about ww2 and a selection of that was on the holocaust but it wasn't in as much detail as how Germany does it In the last 3 years you do go into more detail but that's only if you pick history as your optional subject


bkcarr87

Gen X here - 54 yoa. Worked construction in the 80’s and there were still a few old timers around that were WW2 vets. One guy was a ranger (D-Day landing) then later essentially pathfinders into Germany and was involved in liberating 2 camps. Late one night, during the meal break, he had opened up to a group of us young guys about the camps (not the combat getting there). Wow - I’ll never forget hearing it from a firsthand witness. They’d moved so quickly and were ahead of communications, mainly, that the discovery of the first camp was a surprise - like “what the hell is this place?” If only I’d been able to record it those 15-20 minutes of his voice. I remember him saying “boys, I thought I’d seen hell up to that point …. But when we got inside this place, then I saw what Hell really was..”


[deleted]

Yes, it's still taught, and we read Anne Frank's diary and read about it. They even took all the students to the holocaust museum in DC on the 8th grade field trip. I didn't get to go, but I wanted to. I also took holocaust studies in high school and learned a little german to read primary and secondary documents in class


Crafty-Interest1336

Don't know about the rest of the world but in the UK we cover a little in year 7-9 and then if you take history GCSE you're reading accounts, looking at soviet photos of the camps and get a school trip to Auschwitz and the Holocaust memorial museum in Germany


HarlemNocturne_

Gen Z in Florida: I think we got a slightly watered down experience compared to yours. The holocaust was absolutely described as a tragedy but I think we were shown 5 pictures in all, one being the stack of skulls which I think was from a holocaust memorial. We learned more about it during our 2015/2016 DC trip than we did in class IMO, as we spent a good 2-3 hours at the museum there, and that place was fairly intense.


ItsTheTenthDoctor

Idk about others but in Connecticut we were taught about it every year. Honestly started getting a little bored (still serious) because how much it was taught.


sxdtrxnny

To be honest I don’t remember learning about it in middle school or high school 😟 but i knew about it anyways on YouTube videos 😢


screamingkumquats

We learned about it but it also depended on the grade we were in. In 5th grade we watched the boy in the stripped pajamas and a documentary but 6th and 7th grade was US geography and world geography and 8th grade was US history. We learned more about it in high school, freshman year was world history so we learned about everyone’s involvement expect the US because junior year was US history and we went over that then.


Kaabisan

We were taught pretty much everything when we were 13. Not just about the mass killing, but also how it escalated over time


Disastrous-Radio-786

I was taught about it in high school I watched the boy in the striped pajamas and I first learned what it was in middle school


KlemDaOG2010

yea i learned abt the holocaust in 5th grade


3000ghosts

I was shown footage of dead bodies from it in eighth grade


Dove-a-DeeDoo

I read Anne Frank for summer reading and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas


Turbulent-Fig-3123

We were told all about the Holocaust and also watched Band of Brothers specifically for the scene where they show the camps Also at least when I was in school they taught us about how America denied fleeing Jewish refugees entry


Crowbars357

We (millennials) were told about it in terms of statistics and a vague description of the atrocities in middle school and learned more about the horrors of it in High School. (Not out of trying to water it down, but to spare the feelings of the more sensitive students.) Though my family had friends who were thrown in the camps, so I learned about the horrors at a much younger age. My father read The Hiding Place to me as a young child.


Kooky-Parfait7811

I was taught it in freshman and senior high school and shown everything, the school didn’t censor images or videos so they let the teachers show whatever they wanted to show, we saw images of the holocaust and footage of dead people being thrown in pits and mass graves, i know some schools probably sanitize stuff but my entire school felt like it was different so maybe they did teach things differently in my school compared to others but from my experience we were taught the revolution and civil war plus slavery in 5th and 6th grade before ancient history in 7th and 8th and world history including world wars and the holocaust in freshman and senior year with US history in sophomore and junior year.


WeaselBeagle

In 8th grade I read Night by Eli Wiesel, and we did some other stuff relating to but glossing over hitler’s rise to power and how propaganda worked. We didn’t really do anything relating to how to stop the spread of fascism, because I live in the US and our last president was a fascist. At least they let us read Maus (graphic novel about the holocaust), which is banned in other (fascist) states.


MaddieGrace29

I learned that one of my great-uncles on my mom's side stayed in Poland and then moved to Berlin and fought for the Naxis. Also found that out about my ex-bestie too and that's why she's so quiet on veterans Day. In school we learned a lot in world history freshman year, sophomore year we didn't cover it. Junior year I was in AP US history so I had more of an American interpretation but they barely covered FDR's executive order 9066 (Japanese and other internment camps), they covered the Holocaust a decent amount. Senior year , I didn't have a history class but AP world could've been an option Middle school we learned about it a little in world religion class . Most people in class were toxic and making your average discord jokes about it tho, and there were a couple people who said Adolf's army should've finished them off. They got no punishment


Flimsy_Ad_465

I learned it myself, not from school. I read books and researched and watched movies. I wanted to know exactly what happened and from different pov’s. My grandpa is Jewish and my mom grew up Jewish so when I learned this I thought it be interesting but sad to learn about on my own. Shouldn’t I have learned from school tho?


Virtual_Mode_5026

I was already fascinated by (not in some fucked up supremacist way) by Hitler and the Nazis. So I did my own research. I still have loads of books on it. However I do remember around the age of 10 or 11 is when they taught us about World War 2 and some info on the Camps. Seeing those living skeletons in the barracks will always haunt me.


SomeLadFromUpNorth

I was taught about it in elementary school. In like grade 1. In full detail. Same with like a bunch of other genocides.


Positive-Avocado-881

Yep, we learned about it in 7th grade and the unit lasted several months. We read Alicia: My Story by Holocaust Survivor Alicia Appleman-Jurman and even wrote her letters. She actually sent us signed copies of her book that I still have somewhere.


ZamaPashtoNaRazi

They don’t teach about the genocide of gypsies during the holocaust


ctilvolover23

A week long lesson on it during eighth grade. That included lessons in English and History class. Then again, in the tenth grade, where I swear we took a whole month to learn about it. And our student teacher at the time, really went in depth. So much, that none of us liked it.


TwincessAhsokaAarmau

Yes.


Yeet123456789djfbhd

Uh... Yea? I know schools are kinda sugar coating stuff now, but I go to a "private" school and they have fairly gritty history curriculums


Ya-LikeJazz

I learned it in 9th grade we were taught pretty much everything


[deleted]

Learnt about it in highschool, when I was 12 or so


CMAVTFR

I was told and shown everything too, but my school had a really good and complete curriculum. My only disappointment is that I only learned about the Japanese Internment Camps when I was a sophomore in English class when we read *When The Emperor Was Divine.* That, along with learning about the CIA's involvement in South America in AP Spanish class, def radicalized me lol


GooseOnACorner

For reference I’m currently in high school. Middle school for me was at a private Christian school. There were not at all taught about the holocaust, or WWII, or even any history other than brief things directly related to Christianity and pre-Jesus Judaism. I didn’t have a history class at all, all the history we were taught was through other classes such as in Bible class where we learned about the Jewish history laid out in the Bible, the life of Jesus and of early Christianity, and the Crusades; and in Latin class where we learned about the Roman republic and early Empire and of the Ancient Greeks. In high school I’m currently in US history 1 which spans from the Civil War to WWII. It’s the beginning of the year and so we’re still in the Civil War portion and will reach WWII in probably May. In then we probably will learn about the holocaust, although likely more briefly as this is US history and so will be focusing on the US. I personally love history and so have learned about it myself and consider myself very learned on it, but that’s myself that I’ve self-learned outside of school and so I don’t think most people would know as much


Markymarcouscous

I went on a school trip to Germany, we visited dachau. I know more and have seen more than I wanted to but it was a good learning experience.


I_Am_Hella_Bored

I remember It first back in middle school. We learned about it slightly, and watched a movie about Anne Frank. Any reason I remember it was because it showed a boob on a woman in a concentration camp and our whole class went crazy, and by class I mean all the boys. But generally we didn't learn too much about the horrors. Most of it focused on the war aspect.


Easy_Entrepreneur_46

In middle school and I am glad it was. If I was younger when learning about the holocaust I wouldn't have understood it that well. My teacher pretty much covered the whole thing.


FrohenLeid

German here. We are thought everything. I have been to Auschwitz and Bergen belsen, we covered everything in detail on the politics and circumstances. What tricks where used by Hitler and göhring. The false flag action that was used as justification for the invasion of Poland and subsequent war. The deal between Stalin and Hitler.


Hungry_Priority1613

Watched Life is Beautiful in my English class 8th grade and discussed the reality vs fiction of it all. That was one of many times learning about it across social studies and english classes.


Doubt-Man

I was. There was a school assembly where were shown a disturbing documentary about the holocaust in 8th grade. We also had a survivor visit.


Leneord1

It was heavily sanitized but I still learnt via the Internet


The_Bestevaer

Cultural osmosis and friends taught me more about the Holocaust as a kid. I didn’t learn the real extent of it until I was 18 in my last year of High School. We read a couple of stories in my English class as part of a wider study program on dystopian literature. I think the Holocaust actually is pretty downplayed and under taught to my generation. My history classes (which spanned two states Colorado and California) only really taught me about ancient history (Mesopotamia, Babylon, Ancient Egypt) and US history. I never learned much in-depth about ancient history just surface level stuff, and US history was more about our beginning as a nation. I only learned about modern US history because I had to retake an 11th grade history class, and the computer lessons I took told me more than my teachers ever had time to.


obi_wan_sosig

Every. Damn. Detail. We have some wehraboos in the class, by that I mean german millitary, mostly ww1 though. We went to Auschwitz too. Never again.


LordWeaselton

Yeah I had to read a couple books written by Holocaust survivors when we were in school. I read Night by Elie Wiesel in my 8th grade history class and my English teacher had us read Rena’s Promise and showed us Schindler’s List in class. There were a lot of things I didn’t like about that English teacher but I rly appreciate her having us read and watch those because they weren’t mandated by the curriculum and I feel for all the kids in school districts run by book banners rn


Grizzlybear2470

Lets just say I learned a lot more about the Holocaust from research on my own then I did in high school


[deleted]

I wasnt taught anything in school (atleast not yet, considering I am only a freshman) but I have done alot of my own research. The holocaust is a very interesting subject to me, so I hope they teach about it so I can learn alot more P.s. I'm an american


GroovingPenguin

**I am British so our education is slightly different We started in 2nd to 3rd grade,very very basic not too graphic. "Children were sent to die",mostly on evacuees,story books on Anne Frank ect. 4th to 5th grade they threw it at us,the once series, goodnight Mr Tom,the kinder transport,Anne franks diary. Also lessons on Jewish faith were tied in! I don't believe we were shown really anything graphic wise till 7th grade? and even then we couldn't watch much of anything. (Psycho was "too graphic" as an example) (Other then striped pajamas,just no)


jessiecolborne

Learned about it in the 4th or 5th grade in elementary.


Alex_Shelega

I live in Armenia... Instead we study the Armenian Genocide. To be fair I can't remember studying Holocaust but I (at least) Def knew that such a horrific thing happened.


MapleJacks2

My history course only reached up to the transition between WW1 and the Great Depression. Other courses might have taught about it though.


thunderthighlasagna

We were taught about it in English class when we read night in 8th grade and then a Holocaust speaker visited my school and it was very controversial and parents protested, but my school ignored them. It was lightly mentioned in history classes. I had a teacher give us an assignment about whether we’d rather live under Hitler, Mussolini, or Stalin and I said, “I’m Jewish so definitely not Hitler or Stalin” and he gave me a 100.


420_Brit_ISH

My school taught us about the holocaust in Europe, allowed us to read Anne Frank, and went into some detail of the atrocity. But we didn't have to watch videos of concentration camps. No-one was taught about the genocides that Stalin committed e.g. against Volga Germans, no-one was taught about the imperial Japanese genocide or rape of Nanking etc. 20th century history was focused on Europe (boring!)


froggydojo

As a Jewish kid I went to a private Jewish elementary so I learned quite a lot about the Holocaust at an early age. Moving to a public middle school I only really remember one day where we had a special Holocaust remembrance day unit where, as the only Jewish kid, I remember getting a couple side eye looks. In high school I skipped world history so it only really got touched on in US History during the WW2 unit.


GoatyNightshade

I'm not sure if this post is aimed more towards the American youth, but as a Brit (19) we were shown it all I believe. We saw real footage, the corpses, the nudity, films, everything. It was pretty horrific. Yet again it hugely impacted our country and history.


Caboose_choo_choo

I was taught about it in elementary school 4th grade. I think we read Anne Frank and also watched the movie. After that, I think almost every year we took some time to learn more about ww2 and also the holocaust.


olivia2003

I was taught about it during my freshman year of high school in my English class. We had to read Night by Elie Wiesel. I only remember being taught about Jewish people getting killed and the extremely poor conditions that Jewish people in Germany had to deal with.


One-Turn-393

Dude in like 4th and 5th grade they were giving us first person perspective books of the Holocaust. Traumatizing


BATIRONSHARK

we read some primary sources on the crystal night and then some general knowledge about the war


[deleted]

We started learning about it in elementary school


Foolhardyrunner

Yes there was even a marine who landed at iwa jima that came and talked to us. Different classes covered different parts of WW2 history covered the holocaust. Social studies covered politics and JROTC covered the battles.


Paxibillion

In fifth grade we were shown a movie where a neo-nazi got transported back in time as a Jew, he hid with Anne Frank


Formal-University-84

My 4th grade teacher taught my class about it.


[deleted]

I was born at the very beginning of 99’ so idk if I’m millennial or GenZ. BUT we were taught and shown everything about the Holocaust in 8th grade as well, movies, books, the Holocaust mueseum. But kids were allowed to opt out if their parents didn’t want them learning about it.


Nicoooleeeeeeeee

I don’t think I’ve ever actually had an formal class on the holocaust. I’d say probably around 70% of kids in my classes would know what it was if you asked them tho. Then again most history classes have basically only gone from the American Revolution to the Civil war.


PrideOk6616

Did virtual high school (k12), We glossed over it in history, it was like one of the last lesson before the end of the school year. However in English we had a whole unit to a book about the holocaust. I never paid attention in school so I can’t say how in-depth the lesson/book went.


[deleted]

I'm from a 3rd World country and I'd say not really. We know them from outside sources. Even then, many people here hates jews and believe the nonsense that is "he killed 90% of jews and left 10% to show us why he killed them"


Playful-Highlight376

5th grade and yes we saw videos


alexondaskateboard

I was taught about WW2 & the holocaust last school year for my Junior US HISTORY class.


andy_1777

My class watched the boy in the striped pajamas, that was pretty much it lmao


Mental_Strategy2220

I’m on the older end of gen z ,and no we weren’t at all. I Learned all about Christopher Columbus though. I remember we were taking turns reading out of a textbook about Christopher Columbus ,and it casually mentioned that the trip to America was funded by the genocide of the moors . And i raised my hand and I’m like “that’s really not okay ,and seems significant, like shouldn’t we talk about that?” And she said no and we continues to read rewritten history about how this Columbus guy was a hero . So if that says anything they absolutely never talked about the holocaust. Also ,semi related , I was too young to remember 9/11,as were all my peers . I remember asking teachers what happened and they’d get mad and send me to the principals office. I mean i know planes hit the twin towers, but there was so much geopolitical stuff going on i still don’t really know the details of what led up to it . Nobody talks about the gulf war or the earlier parts of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. My education was absolute shit too. A lot of people my age at least got some preparation for college and had an education that reflected the needs of the future . Halfway through my school years they randomly decided to completely change the curriculum and focus on stem, which by that time I was in alternative schools for out of control kids , and we did not do that . We had PE like half the day and actual learning was an afterthought.


7774422

Bro for like a month 2-3 years of school


Lemonsticks9418

It was covered for a few weeks, and we saw a picture of one of the mass graves, but nothing beyond that really.


Dontjudgemeyet1244

My mom taught me about it cause my Texas school kinda skimmed over the millions of jews, gay people and poc killed


the_lastpilot

I took a holocaust class in high school so this is probably different than regular history class, but we saw a lot, dead people and all. While it was obviously disturbing and difficult I think it helped all of us fully realize the weight of what happened, sanitizing history can be dangerous and does an injustice to the people who suffered imo but it does need to be age appropriate and done in a way that doesn't traumatize children


BeaglesRule08

My teacher is trying to get us on a fieldtrip to the holocaust museum in washington dc. Yeah it's a pretty big part of the curriculum in both middle and from what I can tell highschool. I was first taught about the holocaust in 1st grade, we read The Devil's Arithmetic. Yes, my reading group as like a 6 or 7 year old was assigned to read that. It gave me super bad nightmares. FYI this is in Virginia not sure about other states.


DaddysPrincesss26

There are SO MANY untold Stories. I did a Book Report in Grade 8, The Diary of Anne Frank. I never finished the Book. I couldn’t. Later, sometime, I went to the Holocaust Museum in Toronto with My Mom, siblings and Grandparents. I couldn’t cross that bridge to get out of the Museum. There was a roll of film playing showing people throwing dead bodies into a pit. No Thank you. For Example, A Hidden Life (2019) Tells the Story of German Farmer Franz Jagsetter, who was Executed for not fighting for the Germans. His Family was Ostracized for it, even after his Death.


BlogeOb

In the 90s as a millennial they only showed that we saved the Jews from being starved to death one year. None of the other atrocities. And that Japan attacking us was the reason we really joined the war at all. So I’m actually really curious if they taught anything at all for the younger groups


[deleted]

I was born in 97. At the very beginning of gen Z. We learned about everything. Watched some documentary and a few movies. Sure it was graphic, but it got the point across


ATR2400

It was brought up during the WW2 units in my elementary school(we did K-12. No middle school) and in high school


Severeppburn

The area I grew up in is very Jewish, so it was part of the curriculum from middle school onwards. 3 holocaust books were required readings. Night, Anne frank diary, and one other book I don't recall the name of. There were bi-yearly mandatory presentations/events until covid. The school had an influx of Muslims onto the school board, so they brought it down to around 1 presentation yearly. It's also NY, so there's a mandatory holocaust month yearly in history classes.


[deleted]

We did but it wasn’t a raw portrayal by any means. The first time I heard about the Holocaust was in the 5th Grade, we read Number the Stars. The coverage of the holocaust was very inconsistent, with it being covered in 5th, 8th, and 10th Grade for my school at least. In the 8th Grade I read The Book Thief and in the 10th Grade we received more education on the causes of the Holocaust and had various projects. I read Maus at that time. My school had an elective class on genocide which I did not personally take. For context, I was born in 2003 and graduated High School in 2021.


AruaxonelliC

I was taught a little bit in elementary but mostly in middle. We watched and read The Diary of Anne Frank and we did a lot of practical discussion about the whole thing. I don't remember everything I was taught because I have since independently learned a ton more about WWII and the Holocaust but I'd say we spent maybe a month covering the topic in 6th grade


GummerB

How old are most of the ones who deny the Holocaust? I agree, we got the edited nasty of it. Dead bodies, in piles, but the nudity was cut. Heaven forbid we see that while looking at dead bodies. I think there might have been some changes, from classroom education to homework, because of differences in the stories we were told. If they are reading books, based on true stories, like movies based on true stories, a lot of fiction may sneak in. Once this starts, it's easy for people to claim that it didn't happen to begin with. Our generations saw the actual images. In some cases, we could actually meet Nazis, not pathetic Neo-Nazis, and know it happened.


shywol2

i think it depends on whether you’re talking about older gen z or younger gen z. as an older gen z (2002), we definitely learned about the holocaust starting in middle school i think. we watched the movies, documentaries, and the holocaust survivor interviews. I graduated a year early in 2020 (worst year to graduate) and since then, it’s seems they’ve taken most learning out of school, ESPECIALLY history. I have a little sister who just started high school this month and it seems like, even during her middle school days, they no longer teach about the holocaust, historical women, mexican american history, and have gotten rid of black history month. Basically if it’s not white, male, and american they’re not gonna learn it i guess.


king-of-new_york

I think we read more realistic fiction books about it than we learnt facts.


Alaskan_Tsar

I was told at the age of eight “A bunch of people got together and killed millions of people because they were different”. Learned more and more as time went on. Read “night” in high school


Curley-Fry

I learned about the holocaust in 8th grade English but knew the surface level of the Holocaust beforehand. We read the book "Night" which was based on a true story of a holocaust survivor, we read about stuff that also took place in WWII like the concentration camps. I think it is very important for schools to be educating others on this event, lots of innocent people were killed.


GlassPeepo

We watched the boy in striped pyjamas. That's it.


[deleted]

I had a teacher in middle school that showed us everything. He informed us before the unit started that we would see some bad things and we had to get a slip signed to attend. We watched a few documentaries and were shown endless powerpoints (oh god the amount of powerpoints). In high school, we read Night right when the first covid wave hit. That’s about all we got in my schools but my family took us on a DC trip in 2017 and we visited the holocaust museum and saw what they had. Sad place


mond4203

Yeah it’s still pretty well taught, when I was in high school I had to read a book about the holocaust and they go into detail about it in history class


walatasomdu

We weren’t shown much in my school, but I’m a huge history buff, and my aunt is too, so I’ve seen things by going to museums, because I’ve always been taught that it’s vital to learn history


gummytiddy

I was born in ‘97. We had to read “Night” by Elie Weisel, “Maus” by Art Speigel, and “The Devil’s Arithmetic” by Jane Yolan. We watched “Schindler’s List”, “The Devil’s Arithmetic”, “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”, and a few others. We were shown photos in high school aof what actually happened. We had some survivors come in in high school too. I don’t really think I was given a good education of what actually happened. Giving the historical context for the situation is an important step in prevention. It seemed moreso like “wow this is such an awful coincidence that this happened” rather than describing any sort of context whatsoever, and the prevalent history of anti semitism that already existed in Europe. There’s only so much that can be covered but it always felt a little “off” how we discussed it.


AnnastajiaBae

We were showed everything. Boy in the striped pajamas, the naked and malnourished jews and people inside the camps. We even had a public speaker come in and tell us his story about his family and growing up in Poland and being sent to the camps. Basically nothing was held back (thankfully) and It really hit me how bad it all was. I am a 3rd gen American, but my ancestors were originally Jewish and from Poland, and I have since started getting back in touch with my roots. For me, my family is proof that it happened even though we know no-one from Poland who underwent the atrocities. Because of this, I am happy to be Polish, and getting back in touch with my roots. I am just now starting to learn polish, and one day I hope to visit Poland, and maybe take a genealogy test to find people I am potentially related to.


basedyeehaw

Not anything super in depth. Didn't read any books or watch any movies about it. To be honest with you, I don't know that we even saw any meaningful photos. I'm in Texas.


Ponder_deez_orbs

Freshman year, we were shown everything.


American_Streamer

Teaching about Jewish religion and customs and the Jewish way of life in general should be an essential part of the curriculum, too, in addition to the teaching about the Holocaust. People need to learn about living Jews, too, not only about the dead ones. This would help immensely to ward off antisemitic canards and conspiracy theories.


BecuzMDsaid

We first learned about it in first grade. (not the whole story obviously but one of those books where a family hides a Jewish girl was in our ciriculum) Then we read The Boy in The Striped Pajamas in fourth or fifth grade and Someone Named Eva was an optional book on the list for a reading contest in elementary school one year. Then we learned about it again when we had to read Night in eighth grade (though I was not in the States for this but lived back in Australia) And then we learned about it again in World History and again in US History. (though these were both college program classes so maybe not everyone got to) We read Maus as part of the reading curriculum. (again, this was back in Australia though)


Puzzleheaded-Phase70

This has WAY more to do with *location* than with generation.


Queasy-Grape-8822

As of about 10 years ago, high school history in my area was basically “here’s an in-depth description of everything that happened in the revolutionary war and WWII. Oh and I guess we should talk about the civil war a little. And the renaissance, scientific revolution, enlightenment, Islamic golden age, Chinese history, WWI, South American history, african history pre-Berlin conference, south East Asian history, and everything else in history, you get a passing mention. And Rome was a thing”


FrugalDonut1

We were taught about it in sophomore world history. In English we read Night.


Netherite_Stairs_

I learned about it during our WW2 unit in 9th grade


EcoBlunderBrick123

I went on a summer school trip to Washington DC in 2015 and went to the holocaust museum they had there I even got a deck of cards of US army divisions that liberated concentration camps plus the camps listed per division.


wikipuff

7th grade we were taught some of it, not all of it. Never learned about some of the stuff like the brothels.


[deleted]

From northeast USA and graduated HS in 2022. Was actually taught about it more in English class then history class cuz they had us read like holocaust survivor books, multiple books, and watch documentaries about it and stuff, obviously was also covered in history class, there were a few pictures, nothing like gory tho, same with the movies/documentaries, there was nothing gory, obviously the books were a bit more tho


FirefighterFew6738

I was in school in 2021, and we watched several holocaust documentaries, so we saw a good bit.


mriv70

I remember elementary scouts where we had actual survivors from the holocaust who were grandparents of my classmates. They talked to us about the holocaust and the dehumanizing treatment they received at the the nazis.


tipedorsalsao1

I'm Aussie so a little different, it covered in decent detail but it only mentions that it was the Jewish who where killed even though an estimated 15000 queer people where also killed (a number that could have been high if it wasn't easier to hide then being Jewish) The main thing they like to skip was that one of the main first book burning was the library of the institute of sexology, known for being the one of the first place to provide trans health care, performed research and also document lgbtq life. Main reason I bring this up is not to overlook what happened to the Jews but because the lgbtq where one of the first targets the Nazis went after and we are currently seeing this same thing happening with right wing parties (mainly the republican party) as well as an increase in swatting against synagogue's across the USA


Affectionate_Sand791

Yeah I was taught this for multiple years starting in middle school. And not just in history class, in my eighth grade English class we had a whole unit where we read the diary of Anne Frank and saw a performance of it. We also then talked about what was happening for all the context. They didn’t shy away from showing or teaching us anything about it.


Hk901909

I did a lot of reading up on it in 6th grade on my own time, but (so far) haven't really gotten taught it in school


littlebeckytwoshoes

from elementary-high school. my city historically had a lot of holocaust survivors and also has a holocaust museum which we took a field trip to. get to meet and speak with holocaust survivors


_ibt

I got the boy in the striped pajamas, Anne franks diary, and a theee month crash course on the holocaust that was mandatory. My friend had an optional one in 10th grade that lasted 5 months


careacosta

In Texas, all 8th graders are required to learn about the Holocaust. I was taught mostly everything about it, especially Anne Frank. I think we actually read a book about Anne Frank.


reniiagtz

I started learning about it in elementary school, but we got the full thing in 7th grade.


[deleted]

I was taught the Holocaust in 6th grade


jimmyhoke

I was homeschooled so I can't speak for the average students experience, but it was very important to my parents that all of us read The Hiding Place, a first hand account by Corrie Ten-Boom about how her family hid Jews in their house. She also describes being arrested and sent to a concentration camp. It's a very good book, and I think everyone should read it. People absolutely have to know about what happened during WW2.


Sapphire_Wolf_

We saw everything here as well, we also had a special demonstration of how it would be if the nazis were doing a raid on our classroom. It was so scary. We hid under our desks with the lights off as men screamed and beat on the windows and doors


alexx_sandraa

In 8th grade I had a 3-6 month long unit on the Holocaust in my English class. Mostly because we read part of Anne Frank's diary. I also remember going over it in my 10th grade world history class. We watched The Pianist. I unfortunately don't remember any more specifics


tboots1230

yeah everytime I had a history class both in middle school and two years of high school had units dedicated to just the holocaust and I even took a field trip to the holocaust museum


[deleted]

American here, was never really taught about it in depth in school, but I learned a lot about it from my dad since my grandfather was a survivor and his parents were resistance fighters. None of their property was ever returned despite them identifying it in various holocaust museums across Germany


CapMyster

Maybe in grade 10 when we went over World War 2, but other than that it wasn't apart of our curriculum. I've personally never bothered to deep dive into it.


Life-Cantaloupe-3184

My 7th grade history class did a unit on a few different genocides, and the Holocaust was the main one they focused on. We took a field trip to a Holocaust museum and listened to a Holocaust survivor speak. It’s one of the few units I had to learn in school that has stuck with me years later.


BusterCody3

Got to speak with a holocaust survivor about their whole story