The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany commissioned a recent survey, which found a shocking number of young people in the state of New York believe Jews caused the Holocaust.
It is absolutely stunning that so many people could be so grossly misinformed about one of the most horrific and significant events of the 20th century.
Elizabeth Rosner reports at the New York Post:
Nearly 20 percent of millennials, Gen Z in NY believe Jews caused the Holocaust: surveyNearly 20 percent of millennials and Gen Z in New York believe Jews caused the Holocaust, according to a new survey released Wednesday.The findings come from the first-ever 50-state survey on the Holocaust knowledge of American millennials and Gen Z, which was commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.For instance, although there were more than 40,000 camps and ghettos during World War II, 58 percent of respondents in New York cannot name a single one.Additionally, 60 percent of respondents in New York do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.“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.
Public schools in the United States have fully embraced the progressive agenda of diversity and inclusion in the classroom but are obviously failing students when it comes to history.
Ryan W. Miller of USA Today has more:
“How much of that is based on genuine understanding of neo-Nazis principles and how much is based on ignorance is hard to tell. Either of them is very disturbing,” said Gideon Taylor, president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which commissioned the survey.”If people can’t name Auschwitz … that’s something that’s deeply concerning. I don’t think there is any greater symbol of man’s depravity in recent history than Auschwitz,” he added.The survey is the fifth in a series that looks at people’s knowledge of Holocaust history worldwide as well as education around the genocide.That sort of denial and distortion around the causes of the Holocaust “is a form of anti-Semitism,” said Gretchen Skidmore, the director of education initiatives for the Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.The results come amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents around the U.S. in recent years. The Anti-Defamation League said in May that it had recorded an all-time high of anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 since it tracking of such events began in 1979.
I attended Catholic school and in the eighth grade, my entire class read the 1960 book ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel, which detailed his experiences at the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. You may want to recommend the book to young people in your life, or even to your local school board.
Wiesel passed away in 2016, but his words and teaching on the Holocaust serve as a reminder for everyone:
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