Testing awareness of the Holocaust - News

Christian Century, May 5, 1993

According to a poll released recently by the American Jewish Committee, Americans' knowledge about the Holocaust is shaky, with sizable minorities of adults and young people open to the idea that the attempted extermination of Jews never happened. But a majority of both adults and youth did say that the Holocaust is relevant, and that it is important for all Americans to know about and understand the Nazi's systematic effort to eliminate Jews. The poll was released just prior to the formal opening of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and amid public observances of the 50th anniversary of the uprising of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto on April 19, 1943.

According to the survey:

* 38 percent of adults and 53 percent of high school students either said they did not know what the term "Holocaust" referred to or gave completely incorrect answers.

* 60 percent of adults and 53 percent of high school students agreed that the Holocaust "makes clear the need for the state of Israel as a place of refuge for Jews in times of persecution."

* 34 percent of adults and 37 percent of high school students answered either "it seems possible" or "don't know" when asked whether is seems possible or impossible that the Nazi extermination of the Jews never happened.

In regard to attitudes, the survey found that large numbers of both adults and high school students - 83 percent and 81 percent, respectively - said one of the lessons of the Holocaust is that "firm steps need to be taken to protect the rights of minorities." Almost as high a percentage said another lesson of the Holocaust is that "people must speak out against oppression so that another Holocaust will not happen."

The $90 million, four-floor U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum sits on federal land within sight of two of Washington's major symbolic structures - the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument. It is at once a monument, a memorial and an education and research center. Inside, visitors are taken on a step-by-step tour of exhibits, photographs and video that trace the prewar world of European Jewry, the takeover of Germany by the Nazis, the horrors of the concentration camps and the "final solution," the war's end and the role of rescuers, resistance and liberation. Although admission is free, the museum works on a timed-ticket system; visitors need reservations.