Most American adults don't know 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, survey finds

[Behind the Aegis]

Half of American adults are unaware of basic facts regarding Nazism and the Holocaust, including the number of Jews who were killed and how Nazis came to power.

Those are some of the findings of a new study by the Pew Research Center released on Tuesday, about a week ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The study asked nearly 13,000 respondents, Jewish and non-Jewish adults and teenagers, four questions about the Holocaust.

Most knew that the Holocaust took place between 1930 and 1950, and that Nazi ghettos were areas of cities where Jews were forced to live. But only 45 percent knew that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. About 12 percent each thought that the number was lower or higher, and 29 percent did not know the answer. Among the teens, only 38 percent knew the number of Jews killed.

Those numbers, however, are higher than those reported in a 1993 survey of U.S. adults commissioned by the American Jewish Committee. That survey found only 35 percent of adults knew the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, and only a slim majority said the word “Holocaust” referred to the extermination of Jews — as opposed to 84 percent of U.S. adults in the Pew survey.



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Pew Survey -- What Americans Know About the Holocaust


Interesting subcategory: Jews, atheists and agnostics get more questions right about the Holocaust

See also: Half of Americans don’t know 6m Jews were killed in Holocaust, survey

[dewsgirl]

1. How is this possible? I went to an ordinary public school in

Florida and learned this in the sixth grade. My oldest son learned about the Holocaust in the fourth grade.
Most adults don't know what the Holocaust is? 😔

[dewsgirl]

24. Really? The lessons on Vietnam never seemed to end.

[happybird]

27. I graduated in 1993 and US History classes ended at

the Cuban Missile Crisis. They weren’t allowed to teach about Vietnam because of differing opinions. I’ve often wondered how/what they teach about Afghanistan and Iraq, or if those wars are ignored for the same reason.

ETA: we did spend a lot of time on the Holocaust. IIRC, my AP History class took a field trip to the Holocaust Museum in DC when it first opened (or maybe a group of us went after graduating? It was within the first few months of it opening.)

[dewsgirl]

32. I graduated in 1995, we learned quite a bit about the Holocaust as well.

My son is 10th grade Civics now and they do not discuss Trump at all. There is at least one teacher here at DU, that discusses current events with their students often.
I hope I get the chance to visit the Holocaust museum one day.

[xmas74]

36. I graduated in 1993

And we discussed the Holocaust, Korea, Vietnam all the way through what was a current event-Gulf War. I attended a rural public school in Missouri.

[happybird]

37. I went to public school in Northern VA,

about 30 min from DC. Maybe the high number of DoD, State Dept. and other federal employees with kids in our school system was the reason for their decision??

[xmas74]

40. Idk

My school was next to a military base.

[marble falls]

28. Are you arguing they didn't happen or that your education was lacking?

[CaptYossarian]

2. WTF?

Today we have more access to more information than in any other time in world history. Just who in the hell are the ones who got this wrong? Were they wearing red caps?

So why did we bother banning lead paint when people are going to turn out stupid anyway?

[Caliman73]

23. Stupidity and ignorance are different things.

Even smart people can be ignorant. My wife had a friend who became a medical doctor, but who could not carry on a conversation about any topics other than medicine with any skill.

You cannot say that a doctor is not intelligent, but you can certainly say they are ignorant.

Access to information is not the same as accessing information. There is a great deal out there, but there is also a great deal of misinformation and there is also the ability to cocoon yourself into hearing about only things that you like or that support your preconceived notions.

It is shocking to hear that less than half or Americans accept the facts about a historical event, just as it is shocking to hear that 24% think that the sun revolves around the earth.

You have to think about who they asked (sampling) but also about our attitudes about information and knowledge.

There is a significant anti-intellectual sentiment in the United States. Just look at how scientists and other intellectuals are often portrayed in media.

We are taught that "history is boring" and other things or that if you are into that you are "a nerd". It isn't as much stupidity as ignorance.

Also, research suggests that increased levels of ignorance often correlate to increased levels of certainty while the more knowledge you have, the less certainty people profess.

[CaptYossarian]

35. Very well said.

[Caliman73]

42. Don't get me wrong...

There are a lot of stupid people in this country, but I also think that the majority do things out of ignorance rather than being stupid. Intelligence means little without information and critical thinking skills.

[CaptYossarian]

43. Having anti-Semitism and Holocaust deniers slithering around doesn't help either.

[Caliman73]

44. True. Just adds to the ignorance and allows for bigotry

They spread false information and hatred to vulnerable minds.

[Peacetrain]

3. How is this possible??

This tears at my heart

[maxsolomon]

4. Thinking it was higher doesn't seem like a problem.

But this is a number that's really easy to learn.

There's several horrific numbers Americans don't know or don't want to know:

How many Africans sold into slavery?
How many dead overall in WW2?
How many dead under Stalin?
How many dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
How many dead in Vietnam (not US soldiers)?
How many dead in Iraq (no US soldiers)?
How many dead in NOLA from Hurricane Katrina?
How many dead in PR from Hurricane Maria?

[Mme. Defarge]

5. Upwards of 20 million under Stalin.

[Behind the Aegis]

9. So true. But whatabout...

Those who also don't know or want to know:

How many Jews were displaced because of the Holocaust?
How many Jews were ethnically cleansed throughout Africa and Asia following WWII?
How many Jews there were prior to WWII and how many after?
How many Jews currently exist?
How many hate crimes are committed against Jews?

[maxsolomon]

10. Do you know those numbers?

I'd like to know them.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. I do know some of them.

They, like the list you provided, are easily googled.

[nuxvomica]

18. 2 million fewer Jews worldwide in 2010 than in 1942!

I looked up that number after reading about Holocaust deniers and was astounded and deeply saddened. I expected that Jewish populations had not kept pace with world population overall, which has tripled since 1942, and that would be a good argument against the deniers, but fewer? That is a startling and depressing statistic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jewish_population_comparisons

[smirkymonkey]

6. Our educational system is pathetic.

I wrote a paper on the Holocaust in 9th grade. It was pretty vague considering the magnitude of the subject, but I specifically focused on the crimes of the Nazis and Hitler's last days in the bunker. Hey, I was 14, but even then, I had been aware of the Holocaust for years.

No wonder they have no compassion for the suffering of minorities and other oppressed groups. They have no awareness of the horror of man's inhumanity toward his fellow man.

[Backseat Driver]

30. My American History oral presentation was on Immigration;

I feel equally ashamed that our values toward humanity have been so moved beneath a carpet of hate and intolerance. Why has it evolved in that direction instead of toward good process and pathways to citizenship? Our educators don't promote critical thinking or solution-seeking and the kids and young adults get little from parents and/or guardians. Glued to the shorthand of their devices, they may have advanced technological skills but can barely communicate effectively. Our leaders, elected and appointed, too, reveal, in tribal majority partisanship, a lack of courage, leadership, and the sound planning expected of any corporate project manager, hitching their loyalties instead to the mythology of lies of a single corrupt POTUS without regard to the Constitution's protections against that very situation. I've lived under both parties leadership, and have watched the bar of freedom and values so lowered that opportunities of corruption outweigh what was meant to be that flexible document of civil sanity, compassion, and humanity's survival.

[abqtommy]

7. The headline states "Most" but the op states "50%". When I went to school "50%" didn't equal

"most" of anything. Things like this make me reject many otherwise informative posts.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. Try again.

Headline: Most American adults don’t know 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, survey finds

Body of article: But only 45 percent knew that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust.

100-45=55. Now, you may feel 55 is not "most", but it is a comparative statement. You, however, conflated the title and this statement: "Half of American adults are unaware of basic facts regarding Nazism and the Holocaust, including the number of Jews who were killed and how Nazis came to power."

Things like this make me wonder if people actually read the entire article or read what they want.

[abqtommy]

15. Oh. It's a comparative statement. That's all right then. Carry on.

[Mariana]

17. I hate this kind of ridiculous nitpicky crap

55 percent is "most" by definition. Some people like to pretend that "most" doesn't mean "the majority" for some silly reason.

[milestogo]

8. And that is the most widely known genocide to Americans

How many know that 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994? And that the UN and western powers did much too little, much too late in response?

[Behind the Aegis]

13. Yes, the education system is quite lacking.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

14. The generation that fought WW2 is almost all gone... the children of those people

myself included grew up in the 1950s/early 60s - I remember discussion about & references to WW2 were constant, daily occurences - in schools, TV, news media, ordinary conversation.... and the message of "never again" drilled into us.

As we old folks die off, then what. "Those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it," as the saying goes.

[keithbvadu2]

16. Some deny the holocaust... Some openly brag about it.

Some deny the holocaust... Some openly brag about it.

America fought a war against the Nazis and supposedly won.

Yet here they are in Charlottesville marching to "take back America".

When did the Nazis have America?

KKK Conservative boasting:

“We killed six million Jews the last time,” he answered. “Eleven million is nothing.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article167939222.html

[IronLionZion]

19. Ignorant, yet still feel warmly

Pew has a lot of very interesting data

[Behind the Aegis]

20. It sure does.

Makes one wonder, if people are so "warm" toward Jews, why are we the highest number of victims of hate crimes based on religion, and second highest in overall hate crimes?

[IronLionZion]

22. Deplorables need a convenient scapegoat

they marched in the streets of Charlottesville chanting "Jews will not replace us" as if anyone would even want to replace them.

People can spew hate while claiming to love the people they're victimizing. They often say "some of my best friends are...." or that they've dated someone who is..... and so on. Fred Phelps always maintained that he loved gay people and wanted to save them from eternal damnation. There was a politician recently claiming she couldn't be anti-Semitic because her lawyer is a Jew.

And then there's the complexity of measuring people's feelings. Haven't seen much data on hate crimes against atheists although plenty of folks feel cold towards them.

[cwydro]

25. But it was 11 million total counting the gays, political prisoners, Roma, and many others.

[Behind the Aegis]

34. True.

Highly doubtful they would that either, but the fact that one group made up more than half (or half depending on sources), should be appoint that sticks out in people's minds. They wiped out 63% of the entire Jewish population of Europe and over 1/3rd the entire world population of Jews.

[cwydro]

39. I agree, I just always want the full enormity of the crimes rhey committed never to be forgotten.

I’ve visited Dachau.

One of my parents’ friends (who died recently at 97) was in Auschwitz. She showed me her tattoo when she was visiting our house when I was a child. My mother chastised me for asking to see it, but she never blinked, just showed it to me. I was horrified.

Her name was Susan Cerniak-Spatz. She lost her entire family there.

Let that madness never be visited here.

[Iliyah]

26. I still can't wrap my head around that . . .

[sandensea]

29. And many that DO know of it, believe it was all a hoax

Cheeto among them, I suspect.

[enid602]

31. Poles

Nor do they know that an equal number of Poles (both Jews and non-Jews) were killed in the same manner. Only 350,000 of those sent to the camps survived

[Behind the Aegis]

33. They wiped out 90% of Jewish Poles.

[enid602]

38. Poles

And Polish doctors, professionals, professors etc. Incredible.

[Behind the Aegis]

41. 90%

Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters...all because they were Jews.