Survey Finds Lack of Holocaust Knowledge Among American Young Adults
Survey Finds Lack of Holocaust Knowledge Among American Young Adults
A “shocking” number of American young adults lack a basic understanding of the Holocaust, according to a new survey.
According to the first-ever, state-by-state survey of American Millennials and Gen Z (ages 18 to 39), 63% do not know that 6 million Jews were exterminated by Nazis, and 36% thought the number was “two million or fewer.”
Nearly a quarter of those surveyed (23%) said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, had been exaggerated or weren’t sure.
Commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as the Claims Conference, the study found “particularly disquieting” that nearly 20% of young people in the state of New York thought Jews were responsible for the Holocaust. This view was held by 11% nationally.
"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 Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor in a statement.
"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."
The survey also found that young Americans couldn’t name one of the more than 40,000 concentration camps or ghettos established during World War II. Fifty-six percent could not identify Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most infamous concentration camp.
Nearly half of those surveyed said they’d seen Holocaust denial or distortion posts on social media or elsewhere online.
The survey found that 64% think Holocaust education should be compulsory.
Data was collected among adults 18 to 39 years old from 1,000 interviews nationwide and 200 interviews in each state.
Source
Here you can find more interesting details about the survey (Pew Research Center - pewforum.org)
Unrelated news:
Notorious Antigay Russian Ultranationalist Found Dead In Jail Cell
A notorious Russian antigay ultranationalist, Maksim Martsinkevich -- also known as "Tesak" (Machete) -- has been found dead in the cell of a detention center in the Chelyabinsk region.
The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said on September 16 that it has started a preliminary investigation after the 36-year-old Martsinkevich, who was serving a 10-year prison term, was found dead earlier in the day.
Some media reports quoted unnamed law enforcement sources in the Chelyabinsk region as saying that Martsinkevich had committed suicide in his cell.
Martsinkevich's lawyer, Ivan Sidorov, rejected the reports, saying his client had no reason to kill himself, adding that if suicide is officially announced as the cause of death, "it will mean that somebody assisted him" in dying.
According to Sidorov, Martsinkevich was in transit in the Chelyabinsk region on his way to Moscow, where he was expected to testify in an unspecified case dating back to 1999.
A leader of the neo-Nazi organization Format 18, Martsinkevich founded a homophobic group, Occupy Pedophilia, whose aim was to "cure" homosexuals.
Russian authorities opened an investigation after several videos showing Martsinkevich and his followers humiliating and beating gays circulated on the Internet in 2013.
After a criminal case was opened against him in 2013, Martsinkevich fled to Cuba, but Cuban authorities arrested Martsinkevich for a visa violation in January 2014 and deported him to Russia.
In late December 2018, a court in Moscow found Martsikevich guilty of robbery and hooliganism and sentenced him to 10 years in prison
Before that, Martsinkevich was convicted three times on extremism charges.
Kremlin critics have said the government used Martsinkevich's group to counter opposition protests.
With reporting by TASS and Interfax
Source