British children think Hitler was German football coach

London — One in 20 Scottish children think Adolf Hitler was Germany’s national football coach, while six percent believe the Holocaust was a celebration at the end of World War II, according to a new poll.

One in five also mixed up Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels with Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who wrote a diary of her time hiding from the Nazis in an attic.

The results of the multiple choice poll, published by a war veterans’ charity, reveal that while a majority of children have basic knowledge about the two world wars, a significant minority have no clue.

Given a choice of answers, 77 percent of the children aged 9-15 recognised Hitler as leader of the Nazi party, but 13.5 percent thought he invented gravity in 1650 and seven percent thought he coached Germany’s football team.

Likewise, 61 percent knew who Goebbels was but 21 percent thought he was a "well-known Jew who wrote a diary in the attic" — and 14 percent thought he was Britain’s defence secretary at the start of the World War II.

While 85 percent knew what the Holocaust was, six percent thought it was the celebration at the end of the war. Auschwitz was correctly identified by 70 percent — but 15 percent thought it was a WWII based theme park.

A question about which country launched the first nuclear weapon caused some confusion. More than 41 percent knew it was the United States, but 31 percent said it was target country Japan, and 19 percent said it was Germany.

"Some of the answers to this poll have shocked us," said Major Jim Panton, chief executive of charity Erskine, adding: "Schoolchildren are the future of our country and it is important that we help them to learn about our history."

The full results of the survey can be seen on the charity’s website at: www.erskine.org.uk/news/general-news/

AFP/Expatica