‘Shocked that so many young people think it’s a myth’
More than half (54 percent) of the 2000 Dutch do not believe that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. The survey was commissioned by Claims Conference, an international organization founded in 1951 that fights for compensation for Holocaust victims. The National Coordinator for Countering Anti-Semitism and Cidi call the shocking events.
In particular, the responses of millennials (born between 1980 and 1995) and the divided Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2010) are punctuated by a major lack of knowledge. So similar 23 percent the Holocaust a myth – a form of Holocaust denial. That is higher than in five previously surveyed countries such as Austria, the United Kingdom and the United States, where this number fluctuated around 15 percent.
‘A maximum of two million Jews murdered’
The two youngest generations together make up forty percent of the respondents. More than a third of millennials are in college. Of these groups of respondents, 37 percent said they believe two million Jews or fewer were murdered.
The Cidi is not surprised by the dive. “It is indicative of the state of history education in our country. History should become a compulsory subject, including the Holocaust. For years, history teachers have been afraid to discuss the Holocaust in class for fear of class controversy. Now you can see the consequences,” said spokesperson Aline Pennewaard.
uninterested students
The Amsterdam Holocaust survivor Max Arpels Lezer (1936) is extremely disappointed that people are so bad and do not know their own history. “It’s detailed. More than a third of the revealed millennials are studying and do not know that the Holocaust originated in the Netherlands, while the largest number of Jews were deported in the Netherlands compared to the lowest countries. I also think it’s a travesty that the elderly don’t know. After the war based on a small group of Jews back.”
“I have found myself telling my personal story at schools. I saw kids in grades 7 and 8 sink into their seats and pull their hoods over their heads. I stopped. Every primary school should visit the Monument to Names. Then the children see what happened to us. Want to see make believe.”
Invest in education
“We are the country of Anne Frank and think we know enough about the Holocaust, but we don’t,” says Eddo Verdoner, National Coordinator for Countering Anti-Semitism. “We are deeply shocked that so many young people think the Holocaust is a myth. Shocking. Austria has a solid commitment to Holocaust education to tackle anti-Semitism. The Netherlands can take an example of that.”
Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference – which is headquartered in New York, but also has offices in Frankfurt, Vienna and Tel Aviv – said “survey after survey” shows that knowledge about the Holocaust becomes less. “And that is as untrustworthy as delaying the delayed Holocaust and distorting the facts about the persecution of the Jews.”
For example, 53 percent of the events did not know that the Holocaust also took place in the Netherlands, and more than half of all those expected (59 percent) could not name a camp in the Netherlands (such as Westerbork and Vught) from which Jews were sent to concentration camps such as Auschwitz. deported. Anne Frank’s story in hiding is known to 89 percent of the Dutch population. 65 percent of them also acknowledge that there is anti-Semitism in the Netherlands. 53 percent of respondents believe the Holocaust could happen again.
Also listen to this episode of the podcast series Amsterdam metropolis:
Why it embraced the Holocaust past for Amsterdam 80 years ago