Shocking Survey: 1 in 10 Young Irish Adults Doubt Holocaust

Almost one in 10 Irish people aged between 18 and 29 believe the Holocaust is a “myth” while 19 per cent believe it happened but its scale has been “greatly exaggerated”, according to a survey. Half of the Irish adult population does not know that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, the survey found. More than a quarter of the 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed believed that fewer than two million were killed, according to the survey, and half had encountered Holocaust denial or distortion online. Commissioned by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference), the online survey was conducted by the Global Strategy group and involved 1,000 participants aged 18 years and over selected from a database of Irish people who have agreed to take part in surveys. The participants were selected so the age profile reflected that of the latest census. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 per cent, meaning a finding of 50 per cent can be confidently assumed to be correct within the 46.9 per cent to 53.1 per cent range. Eight per cent of all adults surveyed said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, while 18 per cent said they believed the number killed was greatly exaggerated. Twelve per cent of all respondents said they had never heard of or were not sure if they had ever heard of the Holocaust, with the proportion rising to 15 per cent among the younger age cohort, the survey found. The Holocaust was a policy of genocide operated by the Nazi regime in Germany during the years 1933 to 1945. About half of the six million victims were killed in German-occupied Poland. The Claims Conference, which was set up in 1951 to negotiate reparation from Germany on behalf of Jewish victims, commissioned the survey as part of a rolling series of such studies around the world. As with the Irish survey, earlier surveys in the US and Europe found a surprisingly high level of ignorance about the Holocaust alongside strong support for Holocaust education and a majority view that such a massive campaign of killing could happen again. [ ‘A beacon of hope’: Tributes paid to the late Eva Schloss, stepsister of Anne FrankOpens in new window ] The Irish survey found 92 per cent of adults believe teaching the Holocaust is important, in part so it does not happen again. Eight-eight per cent believe it should be taught in schools. The levels of ignorance were worrying but the support for Holocaust education was encouraging, the president of the Claims Conference, Gideon Taylor, said of the Irish survey results. He said he hoped the results would encourage educators in relation to teaching people about the Holocaust while using new technologies and communications methods to do so. “We are at an inflection point,” he said. “Soon we are going to live in a world without Holocaust survivors, without a Holocaust survivor voice.” Having an individual survivor tell their story to a school will no longer be possible and new ways of creating a “visceral” experience would have to be found, he said. “We are seeing this rising anti-Semitism, and this increasing lack of knowledge, and awareness, internationally. But on the other hand, there are new ways to educate and communicate,” Mr Taylor said. [ Holocaust survivor, jeweller and table tennis maestro: Ireland’s oldest man dies aged 107Opens in new window ] Visiting the former Nazi camps was one way in which the reality of what had happened could be brought home, he said, as could immersive new technologies. “It can be hard to get your head around how massive the destruction of the Jewish people was,” he said. Although Holocaust education was relevant to making people aware of anti-Semitism, it does not defeat the problem, which has been around “for a thousand years” he said. But Holocaust education is important in and of itself, he said; it teaches people “how humans can act” and helps create a humane society. Mr Taylor, a lawyer in the United States, is the son of the former Irish government minister, the late Mervyn Taylor. The Claims Conference has collected billions of dollars in compensation for distribution to and provide care for Holocaust survivors, while also, more recently, running education programmes funded by Germany.