A new poll of adult Americans found that 20% of 18-29 year-olds believe that the Holocaust in World War II— in which six million Jews were murdered, including one million children — is a myth while 77% of adults older than 29 disagreed with calling the Holocaust a “myth.”
A YouGov/The Economist survey of 1,500 American adults found that among the 18-29 age group, only 46% said it was anti-Semitic to deny the Holocaust occurred as opposed to 67% among the rest of the population surveyed.
The survey asked if respondents agreed with statements such as “Jews have too much power in America,” “People should boycott Israeli goods and products,” “Israel exploits Holocaust victimhood for its own purposes,” “Israel has too much control over global affairs,” and “the interests of Israelis are at odds with the interests of the rest of the world.” The 18-29 age “bracket answered in the affirmative more so than any other group,” The Jerusalem Post reported.
The 18-29 age group also displayed a higher percentage of those who believe Israel is an apartheid state and is deliberately trying to erase the Palestinian population. “This 18-29 year-old age group also had the largest proportion of respondents who disagreed with the statement that Israel has a right to exist,” the Post noted.
The anti-Israel sentiment that has gained strength in American academia for decades likely played a part in young people’s denial of the Holocaust and anti-Israel sentiment. As far back as 2002, anti-Semitism on college campuses was growing. Then-Harvard President Lawrence Summers spoke to students at a morning prayer service at the Memorial Church, saying, “ … there is disturbing evidence of an upturn in anti-Semitism globally … where anti-Semitism and views that are profoundly anti-Israeli have traditionally been the primary preserve of poorly educated right-wing populists, profoundly anti-Israel views are increasingly finding support in progressive intellectual communities.”
In January 2022, Ellen Germain, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, spoke of Holocaust denial at the Hague. She stated:
It seems incredible that more than 75 years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust, people still deny and distort the facts of the genocide, one of the best-documented mass atrocities in human history. We have mountains of evidence, extensive survivor testimonies, and eyewitness accounts from those who liberated the concentration and death camps. Yet Holocaust denial and distortion persist. Indeed, one could say they have gone viral. Modern day Holocaust distortion and denial have been exacerbated, and amplified, through the use of digital tools and the ease with which misinformation and disinformation can be spread on social media platforms. This is shocking. The Holocaust is fact; the evidence is overwhelming.
She continued:
We must do all we can, every day, to counter Holocaust denial and distortion, and other modern manifestations of antisemitism and other forms of hate. We must stand up for the truth and promote the accurate and truthful history of the horrors of the Holocaust. We must highlight the painful lessons of the Holocaust, including the importance of respecting the human rights and dignity of people who are different from us. That is the only way we will ever fulfill our solemn pledge of “never again.”