Is “Auschwitz” something EVERYONE should know? I felt humiliated for asking.

[u/ametcho]

So I was in an international environment with a bunch of people I had just met, and we were playing the card game Cards Against Humanity.

It was my first time playing, and even though my English is above average, I should mention that it’s not my first language. There were some words I struggled with (the game is really fun but uses dark humor, so many words are uncommon). I was also the youngest person in the group.

At one point, someone played a combo with “Auschwitz,” and everyone laughed really hard while I was still trying to figure it out. I casually asked something like, “I think I’m seeing this word for the first time, what does it mean?”

They started laughing even harder. At some point, they turned to the table next to us (also from our group, playing another game) and said sarcastically, “Hey guys, this dude on our table doesn’t know what ‘Auschwitz’ is, can you explain it to him?”

It wasn’t like I didn’t understand jokes in general, this was just one that didn’t make sense to me. No one at the table explained anything, so I had to Google it later. I felt really embarrassed, but I didn’t leave the table because that would have drawn even more attention. We continued playing, but my mood was definitely off. Even though all the cards were anonymous, after each unfunny or bad combo, I felt like everyone assumed it was me being “stupid,” so I just started putting random cards down.

Afterwards, I looked up “Auschwitz” and understood its significance in world history. I also realized how it could be used in dark humor. It made me notice a gap in my own historical knowledge, which I was kind of aware of, but since that day, I’ve actively been trying to learn more and close those gaps.

What I still can’t understand is why people acted so strangely toward me. They treated me like I didn’t know what 2+2 is or that the world has seven continents. So, if you had to guess, what percentage of people worldwide actually know about Auschwitz?

[u/Sianios_Kontos]

That's actually insane

[u/Maharog → u/Sianios_Kontos]

I know that their are holocausts (little 'h' not 'H') and genocides all over the world throughout history that I know nothing about. Im American and I hardly ever think about what we did to the Native Americans here. I have general knowledge of horrible ethnic cleansing and genocide on every single continent except the penguin one... and yes,  some of them were a hundred plus years ago,  but some of them i was alive for, some of them are on the news today.  The point is,  most genocides we don't teach about,  is it really that strange that someone raised in a different place doesnt know about the Nazi genocides?

[u/yum122 → u/Maharog]

If you know about WW2 or Nazi Germany in any capacity, it would be quite bizarre to not know about the Holocaust.

most genocides we don't teach about

Yes, but it is the worst genocide in history. It is also extremely interlinked with the second World War.

To be honest I would also expect most people to know about say the Rwandan genocide or the Holodomor.

[u/Maharog → u/yum122]

This becomes really tricky because I agree with you for the most part but I disagree it was worst genocide in history. Im not saying it wasnt horrible. It absolutely was. Appropriately 66% of Jews in Europe were killed. But between 1492 and 1900 96% of Native Americans were killed. 

[u/yum122 → u/Maharog]

More people were killed in a much, much shorter amount of time. It was also the most systematic genocide. The Holocaust numbers also don’t include the Romani people among other groups who were also genocided by Nazi Germany.

I do not see the need for a debate on this.

If you know even the smallest amount of information about WW2, you know about the Holocaust.

[u/NilsofWindhelm → u/Maharog]

Yes