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Showing Original Post only (View all)Nearly Two-Thirds of US Young Adults Unaware 6m Jews Killed in the Holocaust [View all]
Source: The Guardian
By Harriet Sherwood.
According to survey of adults 18-39, 23% said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, had been exaggerated or they weren't sure. Almost two-thirds of young American adults do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and more than one in 10 believe Jews caused the Holocaust, a new survey has found, revealing shocking levels of ignorance about the greatest crime of the 20th century.
According to the study of millennial and Gen Z adults aged between 18 and 39, almost half (48%) could not name a single concentration camp or ghetto established during the second world war. One in eight (12%) said they had definitely not heard, or didn't think they had heard, about the Holocaust.
More than half (56%) said they had seen Nazi symbols on their social media platforms and/or in their communities, and almost half (49%) had seen Holocaust denial or distortion posts on social media or elsewhere online.
"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," said Gideon Taylor, president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) which commissioned the survey...
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/16/holocaust-us-adults-study
The survey is the first to focus on state level in the US and ranks states with a score based on 3 criteria: whether young people have definitely heard about the Holocaust; whether they can name one concentration camp, death camp or ghetto; and whether they know 6 million Jews were killed.
Top-scoring states: Wisconsin, where 42% of millennial and Gen Z adults met all 3 criteria, followed by Minnesota at 37% and Massachusetts at 35%. The lowest-scoring states were Florida at 20%, Mississippi at 18% and Arkansas at 17%.
On a national level, 63% of respondents did not know 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, and 36% thought 2 million or fewer had been killed.
Ignorance of the Holocaust is also high among similar demograhics in Canada and Europe based on reports in the last few years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v8faLqc8dcoU
- The phrase "Arbeit Macht Frei" ('Work Makes You Free') is displayed at the entrances of several former concentration camps throughout post-Holocaust Europe. The words are still disturbing to read after over 80 years, and the meaning is still debated today by educators, survivors and the families of survivors. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum/USHMM.