New survey finds that over half of Britons do not know that six million Jews were murdered in Holocaust but a majority believe it could happen again
A new survey has found that just over half of Britons do not know that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
The survey, commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, found that under a quarter of the 2,000 UK adults who were asked thought that two million Jews or fewer perished in the Nazi genocide. 89% of respondents had heard of the Holocaust, with about three-quarters knowing that it involved the genocide of the Jews.
Over two thirds of respondents – 67% – wrongly believed that the British Government allowed Jewish immigration to the UK, whereas in fact Jews were not permitted to immigrate to Britain at the outbreak of war, nor to pre-state Israel, which the British were governing at the time.
76% did not know what the Kindertransport was. The Kindertransport was an initiative in 1938-39 to rescue nearly 10,000 Jewish children from Europe.
Just over half of respondents believed that fewer people care about the Holocaust nowadays than in the past, and a majority also believed that something like the Holocaust could happen again today.
Around 90% of respondents believe it is important to continue to teach about the Holocaust.
Last year, a survey by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany found that almost a third (32%) of 18-39-year-olds in Britain were unable to name a single concentration camp or ghetto established during WWII.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “These figures are deeply concerning, underestimating the scale of the Holocaust and overestimating the generosity of British immigration policy. This is frighteningly fertile ground for the cultivation of Holocaust denial. Clearly, there is a great deal more to do in the field of Holocaust education. That a majority of respondents believed that another Holocaust could happen today underscores the urgency of the fight against antisemitism, both through raising awareness and, crucially, zero-tolerance enforcement of the law.”
