On this 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Red Army troops, it’s worth a brief reality check on how the greatest atrocity in human history is seen in Europe today.
It’s a depressing exercise. Though there is no shortage of official remembrances across the continent, the degree to which everyday Europeans are prepared to reflect on the Shoah and confront the persistent scourge of antisemitism in our societies is clearly on the wane – even in Germany.
Nearly 40% of Germans between the ages of 18 and 29 are unable to provide accurate information about what transpired during the Nazi period, according to a study published last week by the Jewish Claims Conference.
An astounding 10% of German adults had not heard or were unsure if they’d ever heard of the Holocaust. In much of the rest of Europe, the picture is no better.
“Across countries surveyed, large swathes of the population do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and notable subsets of the populations believe 2 million or fewer Jews were killed,” the study found.
There’s no question that much of this ignorance resides in Muslim migrant communities, where hatred of Jews is as much a staple of daily life as baklava.
But we all know that's not the whole picture.
Read more.
