Do you know how many people died in the Holocaust?
It has been revealed that more than half of UK adults could not tell you how many Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust.
In a survey commissioned by The Conference On Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, “significant gaps” were brought to light on the general public’s knowledge of the Holocaust.
The study was published on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a series of violent attacks on Jewish communities in Nazi Germany in 1938.
The study found that 52 per cent did not know that six million Jews were killed by the Nazi’s during the Holocaust, with 22 per cent saying that they thought the figure was fewer than two million.
If that weren’t troubling enough, 25 per cent of participants said they did not know the term “Holocaust” referred to the extermination of Jewish people. In addition, one in 10 people said they either disbelieved that the Holocaust even happened or that the number of people killed had been exaggerated.
Conference President Gideon Taylor told the Jewish Chronicle that she was “very concerned to see the profound gaps in knowledge of the Holocaust in this and in previous studies including about events connected to the UK.
“This is where we need to focus our energy. Education will not only fill the gaps in Holocaust knowledge, but it will also make for better, more empathetic citizens.”
The majority of respondents said that they believed something similar to the Holocaust could happen again, while 15 per cent believe “a great deal of or many” neo-Nazis currently reside in the UK.
However this isn’t just a UK focused issue, as half of the respondents in France, Austria, Canada and the US also didn’t know the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Perhaps it’s time the UK got back to the history books.
Related Links:
- Richard Madeley goes full Partridge on Shamima Begum and Hitler Youth
- Roald Dahl’s family apologise for his anti-semitic views
- Thomas Markle responds to Meghan and Harry interview: ‘I never played naked pool or dressed up like Hitler’
