23 percent of Dutch people under 40 and 12 percent of the general population think the Holocaust is a myth or that the number of Jews killed has been significantly inflated, according to a survey commissioned by the Claims Conference. Comments on the study speak of “shock” and “growing knowledge gaps”.
The Claims Conference, or rather the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, is the largest organization in the world concerned with compensating, restoring property and assisting Holocaust survivors.
Ordered by her surveywhich was supposed to check the state of Holocaust awareness among the Dutch, showed, according to her, “a disturbing misunderstanding of key historical facts”.
The survey found that 23% of adults under 40 and 12% of all respondents believe the Holocaust is a myth or that figures for the number of Jews killed have been grossly inflated.
This is the highest percentage among the six countries surveyed so far, and how highlighted AP Agency – we are talking about a country where about 100,000 Jews died in World War II and where Anne Frank was hiding.
The poll shows that 54% of respondents do not know that as many as six million Jews died in the Holocaust. About 1/3 of respondents are convinced that we are talking about the value of two million.
Half of the Dutch do not support the authorities’ apologies
53 percent of respondents also do not mention the Netherlands as a country where the Holocaust took place. Only 22 percent of respondents could identify the Nazi Westerbork transit camp, where Jews were sent before their deportation. 60 percent of respondents have also never visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
“With each successive poll, we continue to witness a decline in knowledge and awareness of the Holocaust. Equally troubling is the tendency to deny and misrepresent it,” the Claims Conference president commented on the survey results. Gideon Taylor.
Poll results ‘terrible’, in Associated Press interview said holocaust survivor Max Arpels Lezerwhose mother was murdered in Auschwitz. “The Dutch should know their own history… I think it’s a shame,” he added.
However, more than three-quarters of respondents (77%) said it was important to continue teaching about the Holocaust, and 66% agreed that education in this area should be compulsory.
Meanwhile, only half of those polled said they supported recent statements by Dutch leaders acknowledging and apologizing for the country’s failure to protect Jews during the Holocaust.
The outgoing prime minister says the Netherlands had done ‘too little’ in this regard at the ceremony ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp Marc Rutte.
“With the last survivors among us, I apologize on behalf of the government for the actions of this time…I do this knowing that no words can describe something as huge and terrible as the Holocaust,” said the Dutch Prime Minister.
“We ask ourselves: how could this have happened? – he stressed, pointing out that the Jews had “too little protection” and “too little help”. “75 years after Auschwitz, anti-Semitism still exists. That’s why we need to fully acknowledge what happened and say it out loud.”
