No, it's a little bit of both. WWII isn't taught to any deeply specific levels, like the technology, battles (save for the historically relevant 'turning points'), and certainly not through the lens of any historical memory, in schools, unless you are majoring in history or you're attending a military academy. And people, some people, through no fault of their own except that they have no innate curiosity or desire to, are simply that ignorant about the defining human conflict of the 20th century.
They don't care. And that circles back to historical memory. Historical memory, in part, makes us human. We learn from our pasts. But how can we when anything even 25 years ago, let alone ten or five, seems 'ancient '? You're asking those who thrive on external validation in the immediate here and now to remember something that, in its cumulative events, now dates back 80 years. They can't do it. And, circling back to the lack of innate curiosity, interest, and desire, they won't either. I don't know when it changed; I suppose we millennials were the last real link, since our grandparents likely served. As the Greatest Generation continues to pass on, the living measure of sacrifice and memory is passing with them. That's the tragedy that makes me the saddest... Every year, the number of vets who attend the Normandy June 6th memorial event dwindles, and this past year, for Dec. 7, they didn't hold the usual Pearl Harbor event because so few remain. By June 6th next year, I really don't know if there will be any left....
Personally, WWII for me is extremely present in my life. Both my grandfathers served (maternal with Patton's 3rd Army, paternal, Naval up until Normandy, where he drove landing craft to the beachhead; later he transferred to Army infantry "because you can't dig a foxhole on a deck"), along with a couple of great-uncles, one of whom scaled Monte Cassino with the Rangers.
My father is a WWII history buff, and I just tagged along. I don't remember a time in my life when I haven't been a willing student. Patton is my favorite general (who has a favorite general these days...? Me, I guess....), a man of destiny who became a man out of time through little twists of his own fate. Who else could have turned his entire tank column 180 degrees mid-battle in 24 hours and driven them 100 miles without rest to effectuate the relief and rescue of Bastogne? No one else. Monty, eat your bloody heart out, you pompous clod.
As for Das Boot... heh, this is the one WWII movie I watched once... and can never watch again... because of how... destitute... the ending leaves me. It's not even the nature of the historical record of the U-boats being in any way confounding, I understand, I grasp; it was not the Happy Times, and U-boats did indeed regularly face the fate of the one in the movie. It's the bloody plot, I hate it: I hate how they survive against all damn odds, they make it back to their home port...! Only to get destroyed in the dock. I sat there in shock the first time I watched it. It's not fair. They should have made it. But anyway, yes, despite my own personal grievances, it's absolutely the best WWII sub movie, and that's saying a lot. (Run Silent, Run Deep; The Enemy Below, Destination Tokyo, I see you)
My top 15 WWII Movie picks (no particular order, although the top three are my top favorites):
