”You can’t understand what he did but you try” : Upper secondary school student’s conceptions about Adolph Hitler

The author of this degree thesis has interviewed students in there first year of the upper secondary school about (among others) how they express conception about Adolph Hitler. The thesis shows that the students are interested in modern history but they have some lack in knowledge in nineteen- and the twentieth century general history. The students connect Hitler with the Holocaust and they had no conceptions that aren’t known in Hitler research. The students wanted to understand “why” the Holocaust happened and why Hitler did what he did and what his beliefs and thoughts was. In general the students had good knowledge about Hitler and they often saw him as intelligent but also as mentally ill. The students often placed too much in there explanations to Hitler’s own person and did idealistic interpretations, but they didn’t see Hitler as a superhuman or a demon. The students also were good at critical thinking, analysis ability and reflection. The thesis also shows that the interviewed students were influenced by media andespecially movies about Hitler, and the schoolbooks were of subordinate importance. The thesis finally concludes that discussion and orientation in school about historical movies is of importance and new ways to teach about the Second World War, Hitler and the Holocaust can be necessary regarding things as education about movie influence and a social psychology way of looking at things as human evil and the Second World War.