Many adults lack basic knowledge of Holocaust, survey finds

For seven decades, “never forget” has been a rallying cry of the Holocaust remembrance movement. But a new survey, published on Holocaust Remembrance Day, found that many adults lack basic knowledge of what happened.

The lack of knowledge is more pronounced among millennials, whom the survey defined as people ages 18-34.

Thirty-one per cent of Americans, and 41 per cent of millennials, believe that 2 million or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust; the actual number is around 6 million. Forty-one per cent of Americans, and 66 per cent of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was. And 52 per cent of Americans wrongly think Hitler came to power through force.

"As we get farther away from the actual events, 70-plus years now, it becomes less forefront of what people are talking about or thinking about or discussing or learning," said Matthew Bronfman, a board member of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which commissioned the study.

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“If we wait another generation before you start trying to take remedial action, I think we’re really going to be behind the eight ball.”

Despite the gaps in the respondents’ knowledge, the study found an overwhelming consensus - 93 per cent - that all students should learn about the Holocaust at school.

Denial

Holocaust denial remains very rare in the US, with 96 per cent of respondents saying they believe the genocide happened.

"The issue is not that people deny the Holocaust; the issue is just that it's receding from memory," said Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference, which negotiates restitution for Holocaust victims and their heirs. "People may not know the details themselves, but they still think it's important. That is very heartening."

The survey, conducted by Schoen Consulting between February 23rd and 27th, involved 1,350 American adults interviewed by phone or online, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Millennials were 31 per cent of the sample, and the results for that group have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Worldwide, the estimated number of living Holocaust survivors has fallen to 400,000, according to the Claims Conference, many of them in their 80s and 90s. And Holocaust remembrance advocates and educators, who agree that no book, film or traditional exhibition can compare to the voice of a survivor, dread the day when none are left to tell their stories. - New York Times