Half of US millennials cant name a single concentration camp: Survey

Highlighting a worrying lack of basic Holocaust knowledge, a recent survey revealed that almost half of millennials and Gen Zers could not name a single concentration camp and two-third of them did not know 6 million Jews were killed. The ‘US Millennial Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey’ conducted by the Claims Conference is the first-ever 50-state survey on Holocaust knowledge.

The report also revealed that 1 in 10 respondents did not recollect ever having heard the word “Holocaust” before and 11% of them are of the belief that Jews caused the holocaust. Interestingly, 59% of them think that a holocaust can happen again.

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“The results are both shocking and saddening and they underscore why we must act now while Holocaust survivors are still with us to voice their stories,” said Gideon Taylor, President of Claims Conference.

“We need to understand why we aren’t doing better in educating a younger generation about the Holocaust and the lessons of the past. This needs to serve as a wake-up call to us all, and as a road map of where government officials need to act,” she added.

The study also revealed that Wisconsin scores highest in Holocaust awareness and Arkansas has the lowest Holocaust knowledge.

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Claims Conference is a nonprofit organisation that works to secure material compensation for Holocaust survivors. They had conducted 1,000 telephonic interviews, 200 in each state, targeting a random and demographically representative sample of respondents aged 18 to 39.

Holocaust was a state-sponsored World War II genocide of the European Jews. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered six million Jews, around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population.