Thread: 2020, the year to remember past wars.

Was talking to a couple who were new to the team to introduce myself and find out a little about them. Topic of Olympic Games came up. I mentioned that the East Germans used to be a real power on the medal stakes. Turns out none of them were aware that there used to be an East and West Germany!! This in Europe. Why would Russian do that was asked? They were all born and educated since the wall fell. Suppose is not far enough in the past to be in history lessons which here tend to end in the fifties

Hi 3toes, and being as you are in the UK, that is pretty disgusting.

The problem is, our education system over here is not much better.

My daughter was in her final year at high school when something came up at home about Hiroshima and I was astounded to learn she knew absolutely nothing about it.

I am a bit of a history buff so I am as much to blame for my daughter's lack of knowledge of the subject, as the education system is, but it is still so unbelievably ridiculous that children are not being told/warned about one of, if not the greatest disaster to have ever occurred.

Originally Posted by 3toes

Was talking to a couple who were new to the team to introduce myself and find out a little about them. Topic of Olympic Games came up. I mentioned that the East Germans used to be a real power on the medal stakes. Turns out none of them were aware that there used to be an East and West Germany!! This in Europe. Why would Russian do that was asked? They were all born and educated since the wall fell. Suppose is not far enough in the past to be in history lessons which here tend to end in the fifties

Perhaps their society wanted to erase the past and start afresh. I guess the danger with that is , with no knowledge of that history, history may repeat. How much are your children taught about the Holocaust?
We have a similar situation here in Aus., with our indigenous people's history. With just over 200 years of European settlement, the history of our Nation , as taught in school, has been dominated by the European view, almost totally ignoring 60,000+ years of Indigenous occupation. I believe some progress has been made but some way to go yet.

[ all the best for you and yours with this virus , cheers]

What of the defeated? How did they face the World, after the horrors of War? This from the Germans themselves.

May 8, 1945: Total defeat or day of liberation? | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 05.05.2020

When victory does not mean liberation.

Opinion: When victory does not mean liberation | Opinion | DW | 05.05.2020

I wonder how many of our children and grand children know anything about these events.[/QUOTE]

There was a story doing the rounds in my organisation a few years ago of a young health professional recently graduated from university; she was attending to an elderly Jewish woman and when she observed the numbers tattooed on the woman's arm, said 'Cool tat!'.

Conversely, my children's secondary school curriculum included lengthy studies on subjects including the holocaust and the events leading up to WW1.

My grandchildren (all except perhaps the youngest) I think are familiar with Hiroshima, and perhaps less familiar with other events of WW2, and I think are familiar with the partition of Germany. But they certainly know about the holocaust, perhaps because my late wife's first husband was Jewish.

However, I should point out a similar (and today very relevant) forgetting of history. I was born only twenty years after the 'Spanish' Flu pandemic, yet I never heard anything about it either from my parents or in school. I was an adult before I knew about it. This despite my mother losing siblings in, and my father losing an aunt.

So I don't think the lack of knowledge of recent history is anything new. In fact, thinking about the history I learnt at school, I don't think anything after 1900 got a mention!

As noted in some of the above of course history is the version of the person who wrote the text book.

Current European version is that:
The USA input and provision of resources had no influence on the development of what has become the EU
It was Russia who won the war with Western efforts little more than a distraction
The only thing which stops the European countries all going to war with each other is the EU

My parents take in University students from Japan and Korea who stay for a few months as part of their studies. When something comes up about WW2 or Korea in the news or a TV program the students often ask questions as they have been taught they fought the USA (Japan) or were defended by the USA (Korea). None have had prior knowledge of the involvement of other countries. Makes for some interesting conversations when they pull out a photo album of Korea or photos of Japan with Uncle who came home from the occupation with a Japanese bride