(2020-09-16) Nearly Two-thirds Of US Adults Unaware 6M Jews Killed In The Holocaust

Nearly two-thirds of US adults unaware 6m Jews killed in the Holocaust – study, aged between 18 and 39... Almost a quarter of respondents (23%) said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, or had been exaggerated, or they weren’t sure

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

New Survey on Public Ignorance About the Holocaust

These results are consistent with previous studies finding widespread public ignorance about the Holocaust, particularly among younger survey respondents. Such ignorance is unfortunate, and commentators are right to worry about its potential implications.

At the same time, it is important to recognize that public ignorance about the Holocaust is part of a much broader pattern of widespread ignorance about history, science, politics, and even the basic structure of government. In a world where a majority of Americans cannot name the three branches of government, don't know when the Civil War happened, and support mandatory labeling of food containing DNA, it isn't surprising that many do not know how many Jews died in the Holocaust and cannot name a single ghetto or concentration camp.

While many of the findings of the Claims Conference survey are indeed troubling (even if unsurprising), one has been overblown: the result that 11 percent of millennial and Gen Z respondents believe that Jews "caused" the Holocaust.

But in fact, it is a poorly worded question. The full wording asks respondents to say "Who or what do you think caused the Holocaust?" It also allows them to give multiple answers. For example, 72% said "Hitler," 62% said "Germany" and 13% indicated "World War I." Thus, it is likely that many of those who listed "the Jews" also indicated other causes.

At the same time, there are plenty of disturbing findings in the survey even if we discount this particular question. And better-designed questions do sometimes find large numbers of respondents endorsing anti-Semitic tropes. For example, a 2009 study found that some 25% of Americans believed that "the Jews" deserved at least "a moderate" amount of "blame" for the 2008 financial crisis (note the use of the morally loaded word "blame" rather than "cause").