How can you be 43 and not know who Hitler was and what he did?

[Orrex]

15. I graduated from high school in Pennsylvania in 1989

The only time Hitler or the Holocaust was formally discussed was when we read Elie Wiesel's Night in Honors English. Certainly we had no in-depth discussion in any history class, which tended to stop at around the Spanish/American war.

My father was a history buff, and Patton was one of his favorite films (I believe it's the first film I ever saw, at the drive-in as an infant), so he talked about the subject fairly often. I also had friends who'd lost family members in the Holocaust, or whose families fled Europe to escape it. And occasionally it came up unofficially in discussions at school, like when a teacher talked about their trip to Europe, etc.

That's not to excuse your son's friend, but if he had only a HS education then I'm guessing that he didn't take any Honors courses, and he didn't have the opportunity to pursue the subject further in college.