A survey in the United States has revealed the high level of ignorance many Millennial and Gen Z Americans have in relation to the Jewish Holocaust.
Disturbingly, the survey found that 11 per cent of the young cohort believed that Jews were responsible for the Holocaust. 63 per cent of respondents did not know that 6 million Jews were killed and 36 per cent thought less than 2 million had died. Almost half, 48 per cent, could not name a single concentration camp by name.
The poll was commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and sampled 1,000 young people at random across 50 states, there were 200 follow up interviews.
While it is possible that in some cases the interviewees did not understand the question or, accidently gave a wrong answer this would not have changed the overall picture of the survey.
The Jewish Holocaust involved the systematic killing of Jews, overwhelmingly carried out during the years of the Second World War. The earliest killings, mostly occurring in Eastern Europe, took place in the form of shooting massacres, however by the later years of the war the systemic transportation of Jews to concentration camps in order to gas them to death had emerged.
In the Auschwitz concentration camp alone over 1 million men, women and children were murdered. In some historical analyses the Holocaust also includes Roma people, Soviet prisoners of war, and other minorities that were also systemically killed. In such a case the true number that died during the Holocaust is estimated to be over 10 million.
Gideon Taylor, president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, said:
"The results are both shocking and saddening and they underscore why we must act now while Holocaust survivors are still with us to voice their stories. We need to understand why we aren't doing better in educating a younger generation about the Holocaust and the lessons of the past. This needs to serve as a wake-up call to us all, and as a road map of where government officials need to act."
In more promising results, it was also found that 63 per cent of students believed that the teaching of the Holocaust should be mandatory in all schools. 7 out of 10 also stated that it was unacceptable for an individual to hold neo-Nazi beliefs. That said, this also means that 37 per cent of young people do not see a requirement for the Holocaust to be taught in schools, and it could also be inferred that 3 out of 10 young Americans also think it is acceptable to hold neo-Nazi beliefs.
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