What preconceptions do your pupils hold about the Second World War and about German people? How far have these been influenced by home background, by personal experience, by film, by sport, by the Key Stage 2 history curriculum? Paul Coman argues that the last of these deserves greater attention, at the level of both policy and practice. Analysing the perceptions of Year 6 pupils, he calls for a more detailed examination of the German wartime context within school history.