Not good. All I know is that WW1 ended unfavorably for them, and that struggling under economic sanctions from the other Euro nations is a big part of what laid the stage for Hitler’s rise to power.

I’m in the demographic you’re looking for. It went something like this:

• End of WWI with the Treaty of Versailles
• Massive war repayment debts placed on Weimar Republic
• Beer Hall Putsch
• The Weimar Republic falling because of disenfranchised German citizens
• Nazi party rising in power in the Reichstag
• Brown shirts (SA)
• Burning of the Reichstag
• Hitler seizing power
• Night of the Long Knives
• The west ignoring military limits on German military expansion (aircraft, Panzer 1)
• Annexation of Austria
• Talk of leibenstrom

etc

Thats from memory. Apologies for butchering any spelling or some of those events out of order.

So, yes, lots and LOTS of things in the USA government right now are ringing alarm bells like crazy. Executive orders just this week of military support for local police “to root out immigrants” sound close to creation of the Brownshirts (SA). The villainization of immigrants sound disgustingly close to the targeting of various minority groups that Hitler targeted (Roma, Jews, gays, Poles).

We learned about Anne Frank and read Night in middle school. In high school we had separate classes for US, world, and European history. We covered the beer hall putsch, kristalnacht, Reichstag fire, that Hitler was given emergency powers, etc. WWI reparations and hyperinflation. Propaganda and Josef Goebbels “if you repeat a lie long enough, people will start to believe it”. Watched some of Triumph of the Will. We also had separate classes covering western philosophy which included Nitzche and how Nazis appropriated the will to power. I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of the details. However I suspect this is more education than the average American receives.

History is second to math.

“Money money, business, money, go to college, money, greed is good, money, money”

Kids are brainwashed and people have forgotten that Greed is one of the seven deadly sins. The US now preaches greed as a virtue.

In the mid-70s, in middle school (8th grade), we were taught all about the holocaust-which I remember because of the pictures and movies. I don’t remember what we were taught about the war itself, I’m sure it was covered. I didn’t realize it then, but many of my teachers grew up during, or were adults during WWII, simply based on how old they were. My English teacher that year was 70+, and he told combat stories in class.

Most of my history / social studies classes, including AP history my senior year, focused on the United States. I think there was and is an AP World History, but my school didn’t offer it. So we learned about Pearl Harbor, and D-Day, and Nagasaki, but not much of the Euro-centric lead-up to war.

One of my social studies classes, maybe 9th grade or so, spent a period watching The Wave, which might be the closest part of my formal education to addressing OP’s question.

Can’t tell if you only want answers from Americans in 40-50s, but I’ll offer mine anyway lol

I was raised upper middle class, and homeschooled until a private school my parents agreed with opened nearby. I learned about nazi Germany only in the sense that was wrong to punish people for what they looked like, what race they were, and what professions they had. Very little was said about the people who were punished for helping Jewish people, and nothing was said about how the typical citizen was treated. I was taken to a traveling Holocaust exhibit and told to never be racist because of the human lives lost.

You could say I was raised to think authoritarianism was correct, especially because “democracy allows stupid people to have a voice”. I was not allowed friends from other races or social classes as far as my parents could help. So I was taught “don’t be racist”, but at the same time was very strictly told I couldn’t have anything in common with anyone else that didn’t look and live like me.

That changed a bit when I met my best friend in high school, they are a first generation immigrant. I remember later, as 19 or 20 year old, I took a quiz on my preferred government type and was fucking floored when it said I was a fascist. My dad moonlighted for an enforcement agency for much of my life, so I guess I learned some fucked up things that way, but still it was a shock.

Anyway, I have had to do a lot of introspection and self education, and I’ll never be done learning and growing. I’m not a billionaire, so I’ve probably been a bit successful with that

Rural Nebraska Middle School mid late 80s jr high highschool in the 90s. Regans policies hadn’t yet destroyed the education system. And the right wing was barely hanging on. History was taught really well

Practically none. The only formal education I had that covered the 1930s focused on the Great Depression, and blaming it primarily on the Dust Bowl The same school system completely skipped WWI, and the only WWII lesson was a week on the Diary of Anne Frank.

Everything I know about the rise of Hitler, I learned on my own.

Those guys are older than me but the extent of my education on the matter was basically that Germany was experiencing a lot of poverty and inflation and stuff until Hitler came along and stole everyone’s hearts with his charisma

WWII, and actually the entire 20th century except for some civil rights stuff, was actually hardly covered in history class at all. But boy oh boy did we cover our Revolutionary War about 8 times over, and our Civil War like 5 times over. Most of my knowledge about WWII comes from family members and the History Channel (back when it was about history)

School teaching of history has changed a lot since I was in K-12 … but at that time, I never had a history class that got so far as WW1. Yep. We spent months on the history of Europe from the Holy Roman Empire up to (barely) von Bismarck. That was it.

I suspect that was because teachers were staying away from any history that might be known to anyone who was actually alive. My daughter, on the other hand, had a teacher who spent months on the Vietnam War. I was glad to hear that.

OTOH, when TV was black and white, there was a whole series on WW2 created by the US army called The Big Picture, broadcast on hundreds of stations. Each of over 800 half-hour episodes were available to any TV station that would air them. So there was a time when ADULTS -could- learn that stuff … and no doubt many of those who lived through that era were curious what their relatives and friends died for.

I’m fairly sure that a lot of today’s elected politicians would have paid no attention to that stuff. Many of them move in a different mental culture than people who’ve lost relatives to the whims of dictators. And of course they’re sure they’re smarter than people were back then. Like the Prime Example.

nonexistent. i wasn’t really taught much of anything about Germany except what led up to WWII and even then it was heavily edited and summarized. i had to find out the lengthy history for myself and do my own research.

Average? Probably very little. I was in a decent school, and all I remember was a brief overview of the hyperinflation and reparations that led to rearrangements of german life. Like others, we read about the overall picture during the war, with a focus on holocaust victims.

I didn’t learn about the weimar republic until after college, and that was only found out about through casual browsing and mentions from others. The specific chain of events giving hitler his power were barely mentioned in formal education. I remember reading a short summary (maybe a diary entry?) of a first-hand account of the night of broken glass.

Aside from the goriest details, I’ve known the gist of WW2 since middle school. Some things may have changed since then, but the people who are making the decisions aren’t far from my age.

That being said, all states have different education standards. If the Mississippi board of education decides there was no Holocaust, they aren’t going to teach it there.

The other variable is how much they cared. I know plenty of Americans that couldn’t tell you the history of anything, and I also know some people who’ve made a career out of American History.

There was no national shortage of knowledge available, some people just don’t care.

Very familiar but much more from university than from high school.