07/11/2009
Hitler was a German soccer coach, kids tell U.K. poll
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126434.html
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Adolf Hitler, Israel News
Adolf Hitler was the manager of Germany's national soccer team, and Auschwitz was a World War Two theme park, a poll released by the Daily Mail on Friday said, questioning U.K. children aged 9 to 15.
The study, which was conducted by war veterans' charity Erskine in the run-up to Remembrance Day, tested 2,000 children for their knowledge of last century's two world wars.
One in 20, according to the poll, thought the Holocaust was the celebration at the end of the war and one in ten said the SS was Enid Blyton's Secret Seven.
The poll also showed only half of the respondents knew D-Day was the invasion of Normandy, with a quarter of those asked believing it was "Dooms Day," with another quarter thinking a nuclear bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbour, spurring America's involvement in the war.
Twelve percent of respondents said the symbol of Britain's Remembrance Day is the golden arches of McDonald's, rather than the poppy.
Major Jim Panton, chief executive of Erskine, said that "Some of the answers to this poll have shocked us and it has shown that Erskine, amongst others, has a part to play, not just in caring for veterans but in educating society as a whole."
