A new survey conducted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany has found that a majority of people in seven countries believe a genocide against Jewish people similar to the Holocaust could happen today. The findings also highlight a concerning decline in knowledge about the Holocaust, particularly among younger generations.
The survey polled adults in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Romania. The results were released ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27.
In the United States, 76% of respondents said they believed another Holocaust could occur, followed by 69% in the UK, 63% in France, 62% in Austria, 61% in Germany, 54% in Poland, and 52% in Hungary. Romania had the lowest percentage, with 44% considering such a scenario possible.
The survey also revealed significant gaps in Holocaust knowledge. Across countries, a large share of people underestimated the number of Jewish victims, with 18% to 28% believing that two million or fewer Jews were killed, far below the historically documented six million. Alarmingly, younger respondents aged 18-29 were more likely to believe the death toll had been exaggerated.
In France, 46% of young adults said they were unfamiliar with the Holocaust, compared to 15% in Romania, 14% in Austria, and 12% in Germany. Overall, one in five French adults reported they had not heard of the Holocaust or were unsure if they had.
When asked to name Nazi concentration camps, nearly half of Americans (48%) could not identify a single one out of the more than 40,000 camps and ghettos established during World War II. A quarter of respondents across all countries also failed to name any camps or ghettos.
Holocaust denial and distortion were identified as significant issues, particularly in the U.S. and Hungary, where respondents reported denial was more prevalent.
Despite the troubling trends, there is broad global consensus on the importance of Holocaust education. More than 90% of respondents in all countries agreed that teaching about the Holocaust is essential to ensure history does not repeat itself.
Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference, called the gaps in knowledge “deeply concerning,” emphasizing the need for more effective Holocaust education. “The alarming gaps in knowledge, particularly among younger generations, highlight an urgent need for more effective Holocaust education,” he said.
Matthew Bronfman, head of the team that commissioned the report, struck a hopeful note, pointing to the widespread support for Holocaust education. “Now our task is clear; we must take this mandate and make it happen,” he said.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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3 Responses
We need to judge another Yid in a favorable manner. Like the stories from the Gemara – one of the stories a real far fetched out scenario, which usually never happens, actually happened and the Gemara calls that a
מדה טובה
it is not a crazy Chumra, Hashem will repay us for that tenfold and also Klal Yisroel will be Zoche to mind boggling protection.
Please look up that Gemara.
מסכת שבת דף קכ”ז
“The results were released ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 2024.“
We’re in 2025
After the Holocaust some great people said that it won’t happen again such a thing from heaven, it isn’t simple, maybe they meant only to themselves, this means as long they alive, or maybe they meant to suffer together and from each other, but the Torah says in the tochocha they every we time we say that’s it, and it is over till maybe hundred years and that now nothing can happen we all are as Innocent as Abraham again then it only gets seven times worse, now the crusades was a galuse won, hundreds of people slaughtered they’re own family not to convert to the meshumid, but the Spanish inquisition they tortured people with a gut what could of happened worse and they say history that people was literally starved to death in Portugal right after that, we don’t know the circumstances or how official it was, later in tach vtat people was mutilated to a painful death, young and old in the streets and dungeons and according to breslove tradition it happened again a little later some place, but ever since the Spanish inquisition there was pogroms and blood libels from place to place some bigger some smaller some bad some not so bad, but for the most part there seemed to be some fortress of protection and normalcy or pity and to live it out, during the Holocaust masses of people was taken together for kill, all the history, all the face, all the culture, all the family, gone in a minute, like from dream to nightmare, so if we believe what it says in the Torah, “behold I will do seven times” then it makes sense that unfortunately it’s never again but there is something so bad that it will include all of those exiles together, that when the enemy get to “he will throw of your yoke from his neck” there is something so bad that exist today that encompasses all the bad times together, all the torture of Spain, all mutilation and dungeons of tach vtat, all the street pogroms and blood libels, and all the people and culture from dream to nightmare,…. There is a famous story of before the Holocaust a great Rabbi told his students not to call somebody by a certain nickname, said the student to the rabbi but the whole Warsaw calles him this nickname, Said the rabbi back, and do you think there isn’t place for all of Warsaw in gehenom , and only now we know there was, but you can still try with your might and strength keep trying to say never again, but only God knows who are his trustworthy