In a survey conducted in September 2020, researchers found a “worrying lack of basic Holocaust knowledge” among adults under 40, including over 1 in ten respondents who did not recall ever having heard the word “Holocaust.”
According to the survey conducted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), respondents of millennials and Generation Z in all 50 states of the United States had no idea about the basic facts regarding the Holocaust, with 63 percent of those surveyed not knowing that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust with over half of those thinking the death toll was fewer than 2 million.
“The most important lesson is that we can’t lose any more time,” said Greg Schneider, Executive Vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
“If we let these trends continue for another generation, the crucial lessons from this terrible part of history could be lost.”