History, the recipe for the future

Its a simple  but almost stupid question. Does history matter? The answer is obviously yes or we wouldn't keep it now and teach it in school. I guess though a bit more explaining is necessary. The perfect example is a society that tries to eliminate another race. Romans tried to rid the Christians, although they didn't succeed it was recorded. Even though it was recorded it repeated itself when Hitler tried to eliminate the Jews. So yes history is important because we need it to try and prevent history from repeating itself again.