In this newest special installment of History Impossible, we’re joined by long-time friend of the podcast and friend of mine, J.D. Huitt, the man behind the incredible <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@TheHistoryUnderground" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">History Underground channel over on YouTube</a>, probably one of the best historical travel and educational content creators in the game (who has more than earned his 600,000 subscribers). <br /><br />Both J.D. and I were DMing on Twitter/X recently, sharing our discomfort with the seeming spike we’ve been seeing of not just ignorance about the Holocaust—what we thought was one of the best known event of the 20th century—but also the skepticism and even downright denial of it as it’s been traditionally known. This coincided with the <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/12/07/one-in-five-young-americans-thinks-the-holocaust-is-a-myth" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Economist-reported YouGov poll</a> released in late 2023 that showed a shocking 20 percent of young Americans believing the Holocaust was a myth, with more vastly underestimating the numbers. As it happens, this is a subject J.D. and I had discussed before in one of our conversations a number of years ago, and J.D. warned the audience that this was the natural consequence of poor education on this subject. Much as it’s crude to say, we felt it was necessary to take a rueful victory lap on our concerns being confirmed.<br /><br />We discuss why this phenomenon has occurred in a bit more depth, while also offering some broader solutions to how one teaches such a horrifying event in a way that might stick with people, without it simply going in one ear and out the other. It’s hard to say whether we succeed, so we’ll let you be the judge of that.<br /><br />History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider <a href="https://www.patreon.com/historyimpossible" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">donating today</a> to help keep me free and this show alive:<br /><br />David Adamcik<br />Rajan Athul<br />Babeonbobby<br />Michael Beach<br />Benjamin<br />Elias Borota<br />Johannes Breitsameter<br />Charles C<br />Cliffydeuce<br />CR<br />daddygorgon<br />Paul DeCoster<br />Neil Dickens<br />Nathan Diehl<br />Bob Downing<br />Dramicas<br />Rob Duval<br />Gavin Edwards<br />Pierre Ghazarian<br />Jayson Griesmeyer<br />Nathan Grote<br />Benjamin Hamilton<br />Peter Hauck<br />Carey Hurst<br />Joe6245<br />Thomas Justesen<br />Mike Kalnins<br />Bryn Kaufman<br />Leah Kodner<br />Benjamin Lee<br />Constance Loucks<br />Maddy<br />Mounty of Madness<br />Jose Martinez<br />Mike Mayleben<br />Judy McCoid<br />Jim Miller<br />Kyle Mohney<br />Kostas Moros<br />Ryan Mortenson<br />Skip Pacheco<br />David Page<br />Molly Pan<br />Jeff Parrent<br />Jean Peters<br />Sr. Powell<br />Brian Pritzl<br />AnaR737<br />PJ Rader<br />Gleb Radutsky<br />Aleksandr Rakitin<br />Reptilycus<br />Phillip Rice<br />Chris Rowe<br />Jon Andre Saether<br />Alison Salo<br />Jake Scalia<br />Emily Schmidt<br />Julian Schmidt<br />Andrew Seeber<br />Joshua Simpson<br />Cameron Smith<br />Thomas Squeo<br />Brian Steggeman<br />Pier-Luc St-Pierre<br />Athal Krishna Sundarrajan<br />Jared Cole Temple<br />ChrisTX<br />Robert VS<br />Jonny Wilkie<br />Ricky Worthey<br />Michael Wroblewski<br />F. You<br />Greg Zink

History Impossible

Alexander von Sternberg

The Holocaust Knowledge Gap w/ The History Underground

FEB 23, 202491 MIN
History Impossible

The Holocaust Knowledge Gap w/ The History Underground

FEB 23, 202491 MIN

Description

In this newest special installment of History Impossible, we’re joined by long-time friend of the podcast and friend of mine, J.D. Huitt, the man behind the incredible <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@TheHistoryUnderground" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">History Underground channel over on YouTube</a>, probably one of the best historical travel and educational content creators in the game (who has more than earned his 600,000 subscribers). <br /><br />Both J.D. and I were DMing on Twitter/X recently, sharing our discomfort with the seeming spike we’ve been seeing of not just ignorance about the Holocaust—what we thought was one of the best known event of the 20th century—but also the skepticism and even downright denial of it as it’s been traditionally known. This coincided with the <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/12/07/one-in-five-young-americans-thinks-the-holocaust-is-a-myth" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Economist-reported YouGov poll</a> released in late 2023 that showed a shocking 20 percent of young Americans believing the Holocaust was a myth, with more vastly underestimating the numbers. As it happens, this is a subject J.D. and I had discussed before in one of our conversations a number of years ago, and J.D. warned the audience that this was the natural consequence of poor education on this subject. Much as it’s crude to say, we felt it was necessary to take a rueful victory lap on our concerns being confirmed.<br /><br />We discuss why this phenomenon has occurred in a bit more depth, while also offering some broader solutions to how one teaches such a horrifying event in a way that might stick with people, without it simply going in one ear and out the other. It’s hard to say whether we succeed, so we’ll let you be the judge of that.<br /><br />History Impossible has been made possible by the following generous supporters on Patreon, Substack, and PayPal. Please consider <a href="https://www.patreon.com/historyimpossible" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">donating today</a> to help keep me free and this show alive:<br /><br />David Adamcik<br />Rajan Athul<br />Babeonbobby<br />Michael Beach<br />Benjamin<br />Elias Borota<br />Johannes Breitsameter<br />Charles C<br />Cliffydeuce<br />CR<br />daddygorgon<br />Paul DeCoster<br />Neil Dickens<br />Nathan Diehl<br />Bob Downing<br />Dramicas<br />Rob Duval<br />Gavin Edwards<br />Pierre Ghazarian<br />Jayson Griesmeyer<br />Nathan Grote<br />Benjamin Hamilton<br />Peter Hauck<br />Carey Hurst<br />Joe6245<br />Thomas Justesen<br />Mike Kalnins<br />Bryn Kaufman<br />Leah Kodner<br />Benjamin Lee<br />Constance Loucks<br />Maddy<br />Mounty of Madness<br />Jose Martinez<br />Mike Mayleben<br />Judy McCoid<br />Jim Miller<br />Kyle Mohney<br />Kostas Moros<br />Ryan Mortenson<br />Skip Pacheco<br />David Page<br />Molly Pan<br />Jeff Parrent<br />Jean Peters<br />Sr. Powell<br />Brian Pritzl<br />AnaR737<br />PJ Rader<br />Gleb Radutsky<br />Aleksandr Rakitin<br />Reptilycus<br />Phillip Rice<br />Chris Rowe<br />Jon Andre Saether<br />Alison Salo<br />Jake Scalia<br />Emily Schmidt<br />Julian Schmidt<br />Andrew Seeber<br />Joshua Simpson<br />Cameron Smith<br />Thomas Squeo<br />Brian Steggeman<br />Pier-Luc St-Pierre<br />Athal Krishna Sundarrajan<br />Jared Cole Temple<br />ChrisTX<br />Robert VS<br />Jonny Wilkie<br />Ricky Worthey<br />Michael Wroblewski<br />F. You<br />Greg Zink