New Survey By The Azrieli Foundation And The Claims Conference Finds Critical Gaps In Holocaust Knowledge

NEW YORK, Jan. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Julius Berman, President of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), and Naomi Azrieli, CEO and Chair of the Azrieli Foundation, jointly announced the release of a comprehensive Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Survey of adults in Canada done in partnership with the Azrieli Foundation.

Similar to the April 2018 survey in the United States, the Canadian study found critical gaps both regarding awareness of historical basic facts and detailed knowledge of the Holocaust. For example, 54 percent of those surveyed did not know that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.  And, while a significant majority of Canadian adults believe that fewer people care about the Holocaust today than they used to, there was a broad-based consensus for providing comprehensive Holocaust education in schools across the country.  

Canadian perceptions of the neo-Nazi movement in the United States are quite disturbing.  47 percent of the Canadian respondents say there are a "great deal" or "many" neo-Nazis in the U.S. compared to only 17 percent who say there are a "great deal" or "many" neo-Nazis in Canada.

Major findings from the survey include:

• Nearly half (48 percent) say something like the Holocaust could happen in other Western democracies today.
  
  
• An alarming 52% of millennials cannot name even one concentration camp or ghetto and 62% of millennials did not know that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
  
  
• 22% of millennials haven't heard or are not sure if they have heard of the Holocaust
  
  
• Nearly one quarter of all Canadians (23 percent) believe that substantially less than six million Jews were killed (two million or fewer) during the Holocaust, while another near-quarter (24 percent) were unsure of how many were killed.
  
  
• Nearly six out of ten Canadians (57 percent) say fewer people seem to care about the Holocaust than they used to.

A task force, which was comprised of Holocaust survivors, as well as representatives from Holocaust museums, educational institutions, and leading nonprofits in the field of Holocaust education helped develop the survey questions. Participants in the task force included:  the Azrieli Foundation, Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Claims Conference.

Naomi Azrieli says, "When we heard about the first Claims Conference study by Schoen in the U.S., we were keen to know how we were doing in Canada. I was shocked and disappointed to see the Canadian results. Clearly there are holes in our education system that must be filled, because as it stands now, we are not preparing the next generation to learn from the past."

Additional significant gaps in knowledge about the Holocaust that are revealed by the survey include:

• While there were over 40,000 concentration camps and ghettos in Europe during the Holocaust, 49 percent of Canadian respondents couldn't name a single camp or ghetto, similar to the U.S. study, where 45 percent could not name one such place.
  
  
• 32 percent of respondents believed that Canada had an open immigration policy for any Jewish refugees fleeing Europe. In reality, Canada had one of the worst records of any democracy, allowing only 5,000 Jewish refugees into the country while allowing nearly 2,000 Nazi war criminals to immigrate to Canada after World War II.
  
  
• A surprising 71 percent were not familiar with Holocaust survivor icon, Elie Wiesel, and only 55 percent were familiar with Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of a number of Jews during the Holocaust, underscoring the need for continued education about the Holocaust.
  
  
• 82 percent of respondents believe all students should learn about the Holocaust in school, while 85 percent said it is important to keep teaching about the Holocaust so that it does not happen again.

Julius Berman, Claims Conference President, noted, "Here we have yet another study showing that Holocaust education falls woefully short, and we must work together to correct this global issue. As International Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, we are reminded of how important education is if we are to ensure that the atrocities of the Holocaust will never happen again."

"The results of this study should cause great concern about Holocaust education and the gaps we have again uncovered," commented Greg Schneider, Executive Vice President of the Claims Conference.  "We must do all we can to educate about the horrors of the Holocaust; it is incumbent on us to ensure that those who suffered so greatly are remembered, while their stories are told and taught by future generations."

Survey Methodology and Sample
The Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Study was commissioned by the Azrieli Foundation in partnership with the Claims Conference.  Data was collected in French and English and analyzed by Schoen Consulting with a representative sample of 1100 Canadian adults via landline, cell phone, and online interviews.  Respondents were selected at random and constituted a demographically representative sample of the adult population in Canada.

For more information, please visit: www.claimscon.org

About the Azrieli Foundation
For 30 years, the Azrieli Foundation has funded institutions as well as operated programs in Canada and in Israel. It supports eight priority areas, with the common thread of education running throughout its funding. Having published the stories of nearly ninety Canadian Holocaust survivors, the Azrieli Foundation has become a world leader in the publication and distribution of Holocaust memoirs in English and in French. The Azrieli Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program connects edu­cators and students across Canada to these first-hand accounts. The program is guided by the certainty that these stories cultivate empathy and compassion and inspire action against hatred. In addition to providing Holocaust education, the Azrieli Foundation generously supports scientific and medical research, higher education, youth empowerment and school perseverance, music and the arts, architecture and quality of life initiatives for people with developmental disabilities.

About the Claims Conference: The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) a nonprofit organization with offices in New York, Tel Aviv and Frankfurt, secures material compensation for Holocaust survivors around the world. Founded in 1951 by representatives of 23 major international Jewish organizations, the Claims Conference negotiates for and disburses funds to individuals and organizations, and seeks the return of Jewish property stolen during the Holocaust. As a result of negotiations with the Claims Conference since 1952, the German government has paid more than $80 billion in indemnification to individuals for suffering and losses resulting from persecution by the Nazis. In 2019, the Claims Conference will distribute approximately $350 million in direct compensation to over 60,000 survivors in 83 countries and will allocate approximately $550 million in grants to over 200 social service agencies worldwide that provide vital services for Holocaust survivors such as homecare, food and medicine.

SOURCE Claims Conference

Related Links

http://www.claimscon.org

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