Fifth of Europeans think “Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own needs” and that a Jewish cabal rules the world

A new survey has found that a fifth of Europeans think that “Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own needs” and that a Jewish cabal rules the world.

The survey was conducted by the European Jewish Association in December 2019 and presented at the organisation’s conference in Paris this week, at which Campaign Against Antisemitism participated. The survey polled a representative sample of 1,000 adults who were presented with 45 questions in face-to-face interviews in sixteen countries, including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the UK and Poland.

It is understood that the organisers found it difficult to find pollsters prepared to enter certain neighbourhoods, for example in Paris and Brussels, which was necessary to garner a representative sample.

According to the survey, a quarter of respondents believe that Israel’s policies make them understand why some people hate Jews; and more than a third believe that “during World War II, people from our nation suffered as much as Jews”.

The survey reportedly showed that Judeophobic antisemitic stereotypes and Holocaust revisionism were more common in Eastern Europe, whereas anti-Zionist antisemitic beliefs were more prevalent in Western Europe.