What grade (age) do you feel appropriate to study Hitler?

[NHdisneylover]

In regards to the bolded part, its hard to say. World War 1 isn't covered very much in depth in the schools. Sure, they talk about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the trench warfare but it is covered very one sided. There is very little coverage of Churchill's practice of disguising military ships as passenger vessels or that our sending of munitions to England via these ships was a contributing factor to the sinking of the Lusitania. I believe that the peace conference in Paris at the end of WW1 was instrumental not only is causing WW2 (or at least setting it up as inevitable) but also putting into motion the conflicts that would one day turn into Korea and Vietnam..

We covered both wars pretty in depth--and read literature from both sides as well. I hadn't realized we were so far off the norm--but I am glad of it.

I would hope that we can all look at all facets of historical events and realize they are complex and not just good vs. evil. There was a lot more to Nazi Germany than the Holocaust just like there was a lot more to the antebellum south than slavery. Too often we dwell on one aspect and not on the overall situation.

I agree. Nothing is ever as blck and white as we seem to want it to be.

 

[1957]

I visited Germany again in 1995, and drove through some areas of the former East Germany. Very sad, even after six years of no wall. Bad roads, five- hundred year old historic timber-and-plaster buildings and houses collapsing, old rusted abandoned cars, etc. We stayed with a number of people my fiance' did business with. One family lived in Rottach (where we lived in the 50's)...south of Munich, and the former heart of Hitler country. (Bavaria) They were our age, and said that while in school, they were taught the evils of Hitler and the Nazis...literally had it drummed into them. They made jokes about Hitler, even during the course of normal conversation. Another couple we stayed with in Bonn - the husband worked for the government to re-locate the German capitol from Bonn to Berlin. Many jokes and contemptuous remarks about Hitler.

The Treaty of Versailles was a big factor in Hitler's rise to power. The 1918 Armistice was basically a cease-fire, and never an admission of German surrender....according to the Germans. Which is why Hitler had the French surrender in the same railway car in 1940 that the Germans signed the Armistice in 1918. One of my favorite movies, "Remains of the Day" addresses the whole attempted British appeasement thing in the mid-late 30's.

 

[luvmyfam444]

Gosh the more I look @ threads around here about what people learned in school I wonder what the heck I did all those 8 hours while they were learning? And I went to an excellant school (according to test scores)

I remember very little about studying WWII - remember having to read Anne Frank - but I don't know what grade. I don't remember learning about WWI @ all - learned more from helping dd with her homework this year.

 

[luvmyfam444]

I asked the original question 'cause I just thought my dd was too immature to learn all she has, but I guess just 'cause my child is immature doesn't mean the other 600 kids can't handle it.

They read Surviving Hitler. It's an excellant book - I read it myself the other night.

Dd has been able to handle it - no bad dreams or anything like that - I just was doubting her really getting it & then also it bothering her - IDk I guess I was thinking she may be worried about it happening here or being separated from her family & having to live alone - things like that.

I can remember being scared that anything I saw on the news was right outside my door & would effect me personally even if it was 1,000s of miles away.

 

[kidzmom3]

what grade is she in?

 

[clori]

I agree that that kids are ready to learn some things young. My dd9 is in 4th grade and knows about the Holocaust and has read the Usborne young readers books about the Holocaust and Anne Frank. She has also read Number the Stars. I have the Boy in the Striped PJs which she has looked at a bit though I don't think she read it all yet.

I live near Boston so whenever we take the subway and get off at Haymarket we are right near the Holocaust Memorial. She knows that the numbers all represent a real person, what the steam represents etc. My dd5 has started asking a bit more about it so I've started telling her some but I don't know how much she fully grasps yet. We are Jewish and the girls attend Hebrew School so some of the Holocaust info may have been covered at times. DD9 also knows that some distant relatives were killed in concentration camps on dh's side. We also have a video made by dh's grandmother for the Shoah foundation. She wasn't in a concentration camp but lived in a Ghetto during WWII in Hungary. Her husband ended up at a Siberian work camp. He lived thru it and came home but never got healthy and died 3 years later.

She has also heard my father, who was in the army during WWII, talk about helping to liberate a concentration camp. He was almost in tears telling us about the 80lb adults with numbers etc. This isn't something I grew up with him even talking about even though I heard many other war stories. My guess is that at 85 he wanted to talk about it finally. I asked him if he felt it was harder being Jewish. He told us that no it didn't matter what religion anyone was that they all were shocked at what they saw no matter what they were expecting. At the time it was simply human beings doing what they could to help other human beings survive.

 

[sdemore]

The Longest Day is also good, and not as gruesome.


I don't know the answer to the question, but I do know that an understanding you have at one point will change entirely. I am always being hit by how little I understood something big before, when I have a new flash of insight about something now. So the idea of "OK now we've covered it, we're done" just boggles my mind...


I was 26 when I watched Schindler's List and I couldn't speak for almost a day. I cannot even imagine showing it to a child....

That is why you start when children are young and give them age appropriate information. I teach third grade and I touch on Hitler, slavery, treatment of Native Americans etc. At each grade level they are given more appropriate information. I agree Schindler's List is very disturbing (as well it should be) but our 8th graders have watched this movie in class after parental notification and responded with amazing empathy and outrage.

 

[Ppufi]

There's a comic-style book that uses cats and mice to tell about the Holocaust to younger audiences.

 

[testifyoncruises]

My daughter has watched Schindler's list and has been to Dachau since her grandfather was a liberator.

She is six.

One of the books I read to her is Man's Search for Reason by Viktor Frankl.

 

[Planogirl]

I agree that 4th or 5th grade is a good time to start. Even younger kids may get the overall idea of what happened but I'm not sure about the details. I remember that Anne Frank's book was my introduction to this subject.

We took DS to see the Oklahoma City bombing memorial when he was just elementary school age. It is a way smaller scale of course but many kids were involved and I remember being impressed with his understanding of it all.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I think even as young as second grade depending on the material. I remember reading a book at that age called "The Big Lie". It was written by a girl who survived a concentration camp with her sisters. It was very short and explained things on a kid's level. I'm sure I didn't fully understand that atrocities of the Holocaust at that age, but I at least had an introduction to it and was able to understand on my level.