Nearly two-thirds of Gen Y/Z unaware 6m Jews killed in the Holocaust – study

[Josephus]

This survey is about a year old, or there was one like it released when I was still a working journalist in the Jewish media.

People I then worked with were horrified. "Can you believe that?"

Oh yes, yes I can. I've always had issues with it. That is to say. I'm not surprised that most young ones don't know that 6 million Jews perished. It's a number from 75- year old history. Most know it happened. That's good enough. How many can mention the Armenian Holocaust? How many can tell you how many people were killed during the starvation in Stalinist Ukraine? They can't name a concentration camp? How many can name one of the beaches U.S. forces landed on on D-Day?

For most kids, this is just one chapter in history. No more or less relevant than the 100 year war. Can they tell you who even fought that one? How many can tell you how many people died on 9-11?

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I mean I also slightly wonder how much knowing the numbers matter or indicates anything, it's more that it was genocide and a sense of scale that I'd expect people to have rather than knowing roughly how many people were killed.

I don't think it's right to say this is just another chapter in history though because it is culturally resonant. I can't think of many 100 Year War films, but I can think of many that depict the Holocaust. It's also within living memory (I worry about what happens when the current generation dies and we don't have any living witnesses any more). And I think as well that if you are engaged in or study the arts at any point in your life the Holocaust ends up looming - it is the overwhelming fact that shapes a lot of arts for at least the immediate 30 years afterwards: dissonance, fragmentation, confrontational art that isn't pleasant or "nice". Esepcially in poetry and classical music the impact is huge.

[DontSayBanana]

Not crazy about the questions.  The one about naming a concentration camp in particular seems like a gotcha/Messerschmidt question.

I don't know about that. Auschwitz figured heavily into Holocaust units in social studies curriculum when I was in school, and I would hardly call my elementary or high school districts "robust" in that regard. Naming a camp other than Auschwitz, now, I could see that being a gotcha question.

[Razgovory]

How do other age groups score on this?  Is this abnormal?

[The Brain]

How do other age groups score on this?  Is this abnormal?

Toddlers typically can rattle off at least 3 or 4 KZs.

[Duque de Bragança]

Yeah I mean I also slightly wonder how much knowing the numbers matter or indicates anything, it's more that it was genocide and a sense of scale that I'd expect people to have rather than knowing roughly how many people were killed.

I don't think it's right to say this is just another chapter in history though because it is culturally resonant. I can't think of many 100 Year War films, but I can think of many that depict the Holocaust. It's also within living memory (I worry about what happens when the current generation dies and we don't have any living witnesses any more). And I think as well that if you are engaged in or study the arts at any point in your life the Holocaust ends up looming - it is the overwhelming fact that shapes a lot of arts for at least the immediate 30 years afterwards: dissonance, fragmentation, confrontational art that isn't pleasant or "nice". Esepcially in poetry and classical music the impact is huge.

As for 100 Year War films, this is not the 30 Years' War, you just need to think of Shakespearean adaptations as Henry V (for shame Rosbif!) and movies centered around Joan of Arc. Masterpieces, be them talkies or silent, can be found among them.

[merithyn]

I asked my kids and each of them not only know how many died, but could name several of the camps, believed that 6 million was ridiculously low, and can't believe that so few in their age range would know these things.

They also pointed out that their middle school did an extensive unit on the Holocaust that lasted three months, culminating in a massive all-school display and Holocaust Museum with their displays and presentations. The school still does this, to my knowledge.

[Eddie Teach]

3 months seems a bit obsessive. Never forget, I suppose.

[merithyn]

3 months seems a bit obsessive. Never forget, I suppose.

It was their history unit on European History. They focused on WWII and the worldwide impact of the war.

[11B4V]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/16/holocaust-us-adults-study

Nearly two-thirds of US adults unaware 6m Jews killed in the Holocaust – study

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.

Almost a quarter of respondents (23%) said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, or had been exaggerated, or they weren't sure. 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.

Taylor added: "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, the first to drill down to state level in the US, ranks states according to a score based on three 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.

The top-scoring state was Wisconsin, where 42% of millennial and Gen Z adults met all three 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%.

Nationally, 63% of respondents did not know 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, and more than one in three (36%) thought 2 million or fewer had been killed.

Eleven per cent of respondents across the US believed that Jews had caused the Holocaust, with the proportion in New York state at 19%, followed by 16% in Louisiana, Tennessee and Montana, and 15% in Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Nevada and New Mexico.

Nationally, 44% of those questioned were able to identify Auschwitz-Birkenau, and only 3% were familiar with Bergen-Belsen. Six out of 10 respondents in Texas could not name a single concentration camp or ghetto.

However, almost two-thirds (64%) of American millennial and Gen Z adults believe Holocaust education should be compulsory in schools. Seven out of 10 said it was not acceptable for an individual to hold neo-Nazi views.

The Claims Conference, whose mission is "to provide a measure of justice for Jewish Holocaust victims", set up a taskforce to oversee the survey. It included Holocaust survivors, historians and experts from Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Data was collected from 1,000 interviews nationwide and 200 interviews in each state with young adults aged 18 to 39 selected at random.

Of course because they're stupid and its not on tik tok

[Eddie Teach]

Ok boomer.

[11B4V]

Ok boomer.

Not a boomer, sorry. Go back to tiktok and let the adults talk.

Or are you referring to BSG.

[Eddie Teach]

Meh, generational stereotyping is just as tedious when the youngsters do it.

[11B4V]

Meh, generational stereotyping is just as tedious when the youngsters do it.

Can I  be BSG....

[Eddie Teach]

Battlestar Galactica?