Anywhere in the world, when a mass genocide occurs, a direct comparison is drawn to the holocaust, as it is considered to be the worst ethnic cleansing incident in the world. Who does not remember the persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime.

There seems to be certain number of college students in the state of Pennsylvania who are ignorant about the Holocaust, its perpetrator and the victims.

Curious to test students' knowledge on the massacre, Rhonda Fink-Whitman, a Pennsylvania woman questioned several of them on the subject.

They were completely clueless about the world changing event that took place just over sixty years ago. One student apparently thought that African Americans were the primary target of the Holocaust.

When Fink-Whitman asked students what Holocaust actually meant, she received some interesting replies,

"Uh, I'm on the spot now."

"It was a, uh, I don't know how to say it like. It was something that happened in. Oh my God, I know the answer but I don't know how to explain it."

"I have no idea."

"I have no idea ... is it Europe? I don't think so."

The next question was which country Adolf Hitler ruled:

"Amsterdam?"

"I forget."

At the prestigious Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, when students were asked about the time period of the Holocaust, one of them actually said that it occurred around 1800 and then 300 years ago.

This interview certainly reflects the fate of History education in the state of Pennsylvania.

"You can't blame the kids," Fink-Whitman told the Blaze. "Nobody's teaching it to them. By the time they get to college, they should know a thing or two about the Holocaust and other genocides so when the plague of denial creeps onto their campus they're armed and ready with the truth."

Fink-Whitman insists that education on Holocaust needs to be made compulsory in Pennsylvania public schools similar to California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York.

On a lighter note, students would have answered the questionnaire better had they seen the 1993 Oscar-winning movie, 'Schindler's list.' The story is based on the life of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saves the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories.

It was not just Holocaust, students lacked general knowledge about American's history itself - they were unaware of the basic details about World War II, who the president was at the time (Wilson, Eisenhower and JFK were the strange responses), do not know where Normandy is located and the reason for the U.S. to enter the war.

One of them even thought that Winston Churchill was an American leader.

In order to make such students and other community members intelligent on the world's dreadful event, Dallas Holocaust Museum has organized a group called Generations that is "committed to educate our community and future generations by preserving the memories of the past and keeping our families' voices alive."

After the first meeting in June, Arlington artist Julie Meetal, the daughter of Holocaust survivors and a founder of Generations told Star Telegram, "There was such excitement. There was such a need for second and third generations to get together and have their voices heard."

Topics Hitler, Student, Mass, World, Murder