Key findings: Year 9[1] HGP Knowledge, Attitudinal & Behaviour survey[2] (POSTresults) July 2015.

  • 95% of students rate their knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust as good (64%) or excellent (31%).Up from 51% (+44%)
  • 91% of students recognise there are similar situations to the Holocaust or examples going on in the world today.Up from 83% (+8%)
  • 86% of students recognise there have been similar situations to the Holocaust (examples of genocide post 1945).Up from 80% (+6%)
  • 36% of students rate their knowledge and understanding of the other modern genocides as good (30%) or excellent (6%). Up from 20% (+16%),thus 68% rate it satisfactory (39%, down from 44%) or poor (25% down from 36%).
  • 99% of students are aware of RWBA’s HGP. Up from 80% (+19%) 89% regard such a programme as necessary and important, up from 82% (+17%),91% believe their knowledge, understanding and skills will be improved as a result of the programme, up from 88% (+3%).96% of students feel they will benefit ‘as people’ from having participated in RWBA’s HGP, up from 93% (+3%)
  • 78% of students strongly (38%) agree (40%) with the claim: ‘Study of the Holocaust and genocide impacts your attitudes, prejudices and stereotypes in a way that other topics don’t’. Up from 75%, +3%
  • 67% of students strongly (30%) agree (37%) with the claim: ‘Study of the Holocaust and genocide impacts your behaviour and actions so you want to make a difference to the world and participate actively at a global level’.Up from 64%, +3%
  • 92% of students strongly (51%) agree (41%) with the claim: ‘I am proud of the HGP work we do in school – it’s a bit depressing on one hand, but it’s important, inspirational and challenging and more schools should do it’. Up from 85%, +7%.1% strongly disagree.
  • 71%of students aware of RWBA’s IOE ‘Beacon School’ status; up from 66% (+5%)
  • 96% of students recognise hearing directly from a survivor would increase their knowledge and understanding, up from 92% (+4%).93% of students believe ‘every survivor’s story is unique’, up from 78% (+15%).0% have never heard from a survivor (down from 52%, +54%), thus 100% of Yr9 students have heard from a survivor: 17% from 34% have heard from one, whilst83% of students have heard from more than one survivor (up from 14%, +69%)
  • 29% of students would be interested in events run extra-curricular, evening or other special events as part of the HGP(up from 26%, +3%).33% of students have attended/participated in such an extra-curricular opportunity, evening or special event; this is up +5%from the pre survey. 34% of students reports their parents or carer had attended and evening or HGP special event, up +4%.
  • 45% of students recognise Auschwitz-Birkenau/Treblinka as Death/extermination camps, rather than a Polish town, German town, transit camp, POW camp, concentration camp.(Up from 37%, +8%)
  • 85% of students recognise that 6 million Jews in Europe were killed [as compared to 51% in UK, IOE survey].Up from 75%, +10%.
  • 83%of students know that as part of the Nazis’ attempts to purify German society and to create an ‘Aryan master race’ they condemned homosexuals as ‘socially abhorrent’ and that when they were in camps they were distinguished with the mark of a pink triangle. This is up from 76%, (+7%)
  • 39%of students incorrectly believe Hitler thought of the Jews as a religion and persecuted them because of this.This is down from 58%.
  • 86% of students know that 10,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses were imprisoned in Nazi camps because they were pacifists and would not salute or ‘Heil Hitler’(up from 83%, +3%).75% of students know that 200 German Jehovah’s Witnesses were tried by German courts and executed for refusing military service, (up from 4%, +1%). 74% of students understand that 2,500-5,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses died in concentration camps(up from 71%, +3%)and 73% know that they were distinguished in the camps by a purple triangle symbol (up from 70%, +3%).
  • 91% think an ‘ordinary object’ can take on extraordinary meanings. (Barney’s toy, Hana’s suitcase, the shoe)This is up from 80%, +11%.
  • 96% of students understand that ‘not all Germans were Nazi’s’.Up from 85% (+9%).
  • 70% of students believe ‘Jews were like sheep to the slaughter. They did not fight back’.This is a rise of 16% and must be addressed via a curriculum review regards resistance.
  • 76% of students know that between 1933-1945 Sinti and Roma suffered greatly at hands of the Nazi regime as not part of the ‘master race’, up from 75%, +1%. 79%incorrectly said they were identified by green triangles in the camps (green triangles were for professional criminals).This is a rise of 1% and must be addressed by curriculum change to ensure that whilst the Jewish experience is enshrined we do more to recognise the range of victim experience across the HGP.
  • 73% of students aware that T-4 was the code name for the euthanasia programme the Nazis used on those deemed physically or mentally handicapped. This is a +1% rise. 76% recognised some 200,000-250,000 people perished as a result of this programme.This is a drop of -1%. Something HGP needs to be mindful of.
  • 86%of year 9 studentsincorrectly identified Anne Frank’s Diary and Zlata’s Diary as depictions of teenage life during the Holocaust.(This is up from 78%, +8%, and indicates students recognise Anne Frank and make assumptions regards Zlata)
  • 52% of students say Jewish prisoners did blow up one of the crematoria and gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau (up from 50%, +2%). 48% say this is a false claim (down from 50%, -2%)
  • 96%recognised Elie Wiesel as a Holocaust survivor.Up from 85%, +11%(pre survey saw 9% consider him a Bosnian survivor, post survey down to 3%)
  • 60% consider Oskar Schindler a rescuer (up from 47%, +13%) with 36% a perpetrator, (up from 35%, +1%)
  • 58%correctly associated Richard Dimbleby with his Holocaust news coverage. Up from 37%, +21%(27% said he was most associated with reporting on Bosnia (+1%), 13% in Rwanda-9% from pre survey).
  • 57%of students know Sir Nicholas Winton is most closely associated with the Holocaust, and as a rescuer.This is up from 44%, +13% (HGP needs to do more in response to PM Commission recommendation of the British dimension – eg. Winton, Kindertransport, what did Britain know or do, Channel Islands, Leon Greenman, treatment of refugees and Jews etc)
  • 79% of students successfully able to define ‘victim’, 71% correctly defined ‘perpetrators’, 73%correctly defined ‘resistor’, 76% of students know the term ‘bystander’, 92% recognise ‘rescuer’, 59% know the term ‘collaborator’.
  • 71% of students think there is a UK Holocaust Memorial (or expect there to be one) but do not know what it is, where it is, what form it takes.(Down -1% from pre survey)
  • 37% of students think the Holocaust in some way directly impacts upon their lives, up from 34%, +3%. 40% say ‘it might’ which is up +4%from pre survey. 23% it has nothing to do with them, down 7%.
  • 14% of students know that in 1933, the Jewish population in Germany accounted for 1%; this is up +1% from pre survey findings [as compared to 6% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 44% of students know that Poland was the country where the largest number of Jewish people who were murdered during the Holocaust came from; this is up +1%from pre survey response. [as compared to 38% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 50% of students know that Poland was the country where the largest number of killings of Jewish people took place.Up +2%from pre survey results. [as compared to 36% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 15%of students know that the organised mass killings of Jews began immediately after the German invasion of the Soviet Union; this is a rise from 8%, thus up +7% in post survey. [as compared to 6% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 23% of students know that if a member of the military or police refused an instruction to kill Jewish people, it was most likely that they would be given another duty. This is up +3%on pre survey results [as compared to 5% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 22%of students understand that the when the British government knew about the mass murder of Jews their response was to vow to punish the killers. This is up from pre survey result of 17%, +5%.[as compared to 6% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 54%of students understand that the Nazi’s organised mass killing of Jews ended as a result of Allied armies liberating lands/camps. Up from 43%, +11%from pre survey [as compared to 41% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 59% of students have read ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, up +9% from pre survey[as compared to 32% in UK, IOE survey], whilst 63% had seen the film version, up +10%.[as compared to 63% in UK, IOE survey].
  • 27% of students have read ‘Anne Frank’s Diary’, up +1%from pre survey. [as compared to 27% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 21% of students have read of seen ‘Hana’s Suitcase’/’Inside Hana’s suitcase’, up +1% [as compared to 2% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 19% of students have seen the film ‘Schindler’s List, up +1%. [as compared to 22% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 10% of students have seen the film ‘Defiance’. Remained static in post survey. [as compared to 5% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 92% of students recognise the truth of approximately 1 million men, women and children were slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide in less than 100 days.This is up from 80%, +12%increase from pre survey results. 67% know that the Hutus forced out 200,000 Tutsis from their country to become refugees during the early 1990s.This is up +2%from pre survey findings.
  • 93% of students are aware that at least 7,500 men and boys over 13 were killed in the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.This is up from 82% in pre survey, +11%.62% of students recognise Srebrenica as the site of a massacre in Bosnia. This is up from 48% in pre survey, +14%.
  • 66% of students know that the US congress recognised what was/is going on in Darfur as genocide. This is -1% from pre survey (Indicates more current situation work, and reaction of international community needs to be undertaken across HGP)
  • 53% of students recognised Kemal Pervanic as a Bosnian survivor. Up +2%(25% thought a Holocaust survivor, up +1%)
  • 41% recognised Paul Ruseabagina as a Rwandan survivor. This is down -8%(19% thought a Bosnian survivor)Indicates a need to relate post 1945 genocides and individual stories throughout HGP not simply Yr10 and above.
  • 51%regard DrazenErdemovic a convicted war criminal; this is up from 38%, +13%; 22% a victim of the system (this is down -9% from pre survey) and 24% a dutiful soldier (up +3%)
  • 28% correctly associated Martin Bell OBE with his Bosnian news coverage, up +1%(38% said he was most associated with reporting on the Holocaust (up +2%from pre survey), 20% in Rwanda (down -4%)).
  • 39% correctly associated Fergal Keane with his Rwandan news coverage. This is up from 28%, +11%.(1% said he was most associated with reporting on the Holocaust – which is down -24%from pre survey. 25% in Bosnia,; which is +2%on pre survey, and 35% Darfur; up +11%on pre-survey).These latter stats may be indicative of Fergal Keane’s continued reporting and thus mixing up the locations where students associate him.
  • 39% of students know Carl Wilkens is most closely associated with the genocide in Rwanda. This is up from 22%, +17%
  • 24% of students know MukeshKapila is most closely associated with the genocide in Darfur/Sudan.Up +2%.This stat may be indicative of Kapila’s continued and wide ranging work regards, Syria, DRC, Sudan etc.
  • 35% of students, up +7%,know George Clooney is most closely associated with the genocide in Darfur/Sudan.
  • 87% of students, up +10%,know Malala Yousafzai is most closely associated with human rights campaigning, especially for education and girls.
  • 24% of students (down –2%from pre survey) know Zoya Phan is most closely associated with human rights abuses in Burma.Indicative of need for RWBA to reframe and revisit our Burma connection, in light of the issues facing the country and its marginalised groups and for HGP to include this moving forward.
  • 35% of students (up +7%)know Angelina Jolie is a champion or campaigner for raising awareness of sexual violence used as a weapon of war.Possible link to be made or opportunity regards raising awareness around child sexual exploitation/trafficking?
  • 47% of students(up +20%)know Gen Romeo Dallaire now known as champion or campaigner for raising awareness of child soldiers.
  • 80% of students think ‘genocide is preventable’.Up +2%.
  • 87% of students reject as false the claim that ‘genocide is God’s fault, (down -1%)he should prevent it’. Rather 90% of students agree that ‘genocide is human beings fault’, (up +3%)
  • ¾ of students, some 76% of students agree that ‘the UN, international community and world leaders could prevent genocide and do more if they wanted to’. This is up from 67% in pre survey, +9%.
  • 73% of students (up +3%)feel ‘an individual can do something to champion human rights and prevent genocide’; whilst 27% feel they are powerless and cannot affect change (down -3%)
  • 85% of students (up +2%) say it is essential (30%,down -3%) or very important (55%,up +5%) for British people to know about and understand the Holocaust and the Nazi system, 3% consider it not important(up +1%).
  • 93% of students (up +3%) strongly (41%, up +2%)or mostly agree (52%,up +1%)that the Holocaust should be taught alongside other modern genocides.
  • 86% of students agree we should ‘keep remembrance of the extermination of the Jews strong’ (up +4%), whilst 14% argue we should ‘Put memory of the extermination of the Jews behind us’(down -4%).
  • 68% of students (up +4%)support the existence of HMD in UK, whilst 4% oppose it, down -7%from pre survey. 41% of students believe ‘it is right that the main focus of the HMD should be to commemorate the victims of Nazi persecution’ (up +2%), 55% think ‘the day should be renamed ‘Genocide Day’ and be used to commemorate the victims of all such persecution around the world’; this is up +2%, 4% feel such a day is ‘wrong and should be abandoned’. This is down -4%from pre survey.
  • 44% of students had heard Holocaust denial claims such as those made by former President of Iran, or David Irving. This is +1% increase in awareness of denial from pre survey.34% (down from 38%, -4%) said it was possible that the Nazi extermination of the Jews never happened. Whilst 66% (up +4%)considered such claims as impossible. 94% felt they were certain that the Holocaust had happened. This is up +20%from the pre survey results.
  • 82%(remained static in pre and post surveys) of students strongly (59%,up +7%) or mostly disagreed (23%,down -7%) with the claim that the Holocaust is not relevant today because it happened so many years ago.
  • 17% of students believe the UK should institute a Holocaust Denial Law; this is up +1%. 42% think it should not be brought in (up +2%). 41% unsure if such a law is needed (down -4%)
  • 45% of students think we should forbid Holocaust deniers statements; down from 49% in pre survey. 55% think we should allow them as part of free speech, up from 51% pre survey (so long as not inciting racial hatred)
  • 96% believe that teaching about the Nazi Holocaust should be required in British school. This is up +12%from pre survey findings. 62% of students think it should best be taught aged 14-16, up +2%; 34% 11-14 (up +1%from pre survey)
  • 63% of students think that the Holocaust should not only be taught in History (down -3%).79% think the Holocaust should not only be taught in RE (up +9%). 84% of students believe the Holocaust and more recent genocides should be taught across the school, where appropriate, so different aspects and approaches can be introduced, up +5%.
  • 77% of students believe that the Holocaust and more recent genocides should be taught in and out of school so teach everyone the lessons of the past and ensure we are all more informed, better, active global citizens. This is up +1%.
  • 83% of students think the Holocaust should be taught so we ‘learn the lessons’.Down -7%thanks to exploring notion of ‘lessons’, whether pre-packaged or via encouraging independent thinking and critical self-reflection.
  • 33% of students have visited the Imperial War Museum, including its permanent Holocaust Exhibition. This is up +1%from pre survey.
  • 2% of students have visited Israel. No change from pre survey.
  • 10% of students have visited a Nazi death/extermination, concentration or work/transit camp, up +1%.58% state they would like the opportunity to visit such a site, up +7%. Indicative of interest in a possible European trip?
  • 76% of students (no change from pre survey) strongly (42%, up +2%) or mostly disagree (34%, down -2%)with the view that it is time to put memory of the Holocaust behind us.
  • 62% of students (up +1%) state they strongly (11%, up +3%)or mostly agree (51%, down -2%) with the claim that ‘The Holocaust makes clear the need for a Jewish homeland or refuge’, 38% strongly or mostly disagree (down -1%)
  • 31% of students (down -4%) strongly (9%, up +3%from pre survey) or mostly agree (22%, down -7%) that Jews are exploiting the memory of the Nazi extermination of Jews for their own purposes.
  • 37% of students (down from 40%; -3%) strongly (5%; down -2%)or somewhat (32%, down -1%) agree that ‘Now, as in the past, Jews exert too much influence in world events’.
  • 32% of students describe their feelings towards Jews as neutral, up +2%; (21% very sympathetic; down -1%, 37% somewhat sympathetic; up +1%, 3% very unsympathetic; up +1%)
  • 9% of students consider it very likely that Jewish people could be subject to another genocide or significant persecution; this is down -2%from the pre survey. 54% somewhat likely,up +6%. 38% not very likely, down -3%.(in light of rising anti-Semitism, something to consider)
  • 13% think anti-Semitism in UK is ‘not a problem at all’, down -3%;60% somewhat of a problem which is down -2%.27% a very serious problem, up +6%.This is a significant issue that needs addressing in a range of our curricular, ilearn, assemblies etc.
  • 23% of students consider it very likely that Muslim people could be subject to genocide or significant persecution; this us up +5%.61% somewhat likely; down -1%. 16% not very likely; down -4%. (in light of rising Islamophobia, something to consider)
  • 1% think Islamophobia in UK is ‘not a problem at all’ – down -12%from pre survey. 57% somewhat of a problem; down -1%. 42% a very serious problem, up from 29%, up +13%. This is a significant issue that needs addressing in a range of our curricular, ilearn, assemblies etc.
  • 4% of students consider homophobia and the stereotyping and prejudices against travelling communities, the disabled and other minorities in Britain to be ‘not a problem at all’, this is down -4%since pre survey. 57% somewhat of a problem, up +5%.38% a very serious problem, down -2%from pre survey.
  • 63% of students think that those accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity should be prosecuted not matter how old they may be. This is up +2%from pre survey.
  • 87% correctly identify the definition of ‘racism’. Up +1%.[as compared to 90% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 70% correctlyidentify the definition of ‘anti-Semitism’. Pre and post results were static. [as compared to 31% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 78% correctlyidentify the definition of ‘Islamophobia’. Up +1%.[as compared to 53% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 88% correctlyidentify the definition of ‘homophobia’.Up +5%.[as compared to 87% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 82% correctlyidentify the definition of ‘genocide’. Up +3%from pre survey. [as compared to 46% in UK, IOE survey]
  • 93% correctlyidentify the definition of ‘sexism’.Up +7%.
  • 49%correctlyidentify the definition of ‘xenophobia’.Up +6%.
  • 73%correctlyidentify the definition of ‘discrimination’.Up+1%.
  • 79%correctlyidentify the definition of ‘prejudice’.Up +3%.
  • 85%correctlyidentify the definition of ‘freedom of speech’.Up from 69%, up +16%.
  • 72%correctlyidentify the definition of ‘religious freedom’. This is up +2%.
  • 86%correctlyidentify the definition of ‘tolerance’; up +7%. 71% correctly understand the term ‘intolerance’, down -3%.
  • 80%correctlyunderstand the term and concept of ‘empathy’.Up +5%.
  • 60%correctlyidentify the definition of ‘censorship’. Up +5%.However, 1% think it means ‘to talk over someone else when they are talking’, down -7%on pre survey.
  • 66%correctlyidentify the definition of ‘blasphemy’. Up +15%. However, 28% think it is the same as ‘censorship’, up +1%from pre survey.
  • 77% of students do not understandwhat incitement to racial hatred is or the boundaries of ‘casual’ racism or homophobia/banter. This is up +3%.
  • 75% of students do not correctlyunderstand or apply the use of term ‘extremist’ and interlink this with ‘terror’. Up +1% from pre survey; suggesting a great deal of confusion from media and politic rhetoric – needs addressing via Citizenship, Ilearn programmes, HGP or PD days etc.
  • 66% of students correctlyidentify the definition of ‘refugee’. This is up +1%.
  • 67% of students incorrectlyidentify or understand the term ‘asylum seeker’.Up +6% from pre survey; suggesting a great deal of confusion from media and politic rhetoric – needs addressing via Citizenship, Ilearn programmes, HGP or PD days etc.
  • 83% of students incorrectlyidentify or understand the term ‘immigrant’.This remained static in both surveys – this needs to be addressed.
  • 44% of students never read a newspaper; up +1%on pre survey. 6% do so daily; down +2%.
  • 17% of students never watch the news on TV. This remained static in both surveys. 19% do so daily; down -1%from pre survey.
  • 30% of students never access the news via the web, mobile devices etc; up +1%from pre survey. 16% do so daily, down -1%.
  • 32% of students never hear the news via the radio; up +4%. 10% do so daily, down -7%from pre survey.
  • 32% of students never discuss the news (world, national or local) with parents/carers or in out of school context (This is up +2%);6% do so daily (no change from pre survey);29% sometimes (up +1%);34% occasionally (down -2%)
  • 18% of students’ state they do not feel able to speak out about injustice or prejudice when they see it as they are too scared to do so, this is up +1%from pre survey. 13% they always speak out(up +1%), 37% sometimes; up +4%,32% feel able to speak out but don’t usually bother;down -6%.

[1] Year 9 cohort of 292 students who completed online survey. 155 female/137 male students in 11 tutor groups.