More Holocaust education needed

In Nevada, there were 11 confirmed incidents of anti-Semitism in 2018, the most recent year for which figures are available, says Katrina Sandigo, education director for the Nevada regional office of ADL (Anti-Defamation League).

Most of those incidents took the form of graffiti and flyers.

But it’s likely there are more, she adds. “We don’t necessarily get every report. Reports of hate crimes and anti-Semitism, in general, are under-reported.”

Nationally, 1,870 incidents were reported to ADL chapters around the country in 2018, Sandigo says. Nevada and the U.S. have seen upward trends in recent years, and that’s expected to continue when 2019 figures are tallied.

A Pew Research Center survey released recently indicates that American adults and teenagers could stand to learn more about the Holocaust.

According to the survey, most American adults know what the Holocaust is and when it occurred. However, less than half could correctly answer multiple-choice questions about the number of Jewish people murdered. Just 45 percent of adults knew that about 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Nearly 30 percent said they did not know how many were killed, while 10 percent overestimated the death toll and 15 percent incorrectly said 3 million were killed.

The survey also indicated that Americans ages 13 to 17 knew less about the Holocaust than did adults. Just 38 percent of teenagers surveyed knew that 6 million Jews died.

Americans also were fuzzy about how Hitler came to power. Just 43 percent of adults and only about one-third of teenagers surveyed knew that Hitler became German chancellor through a democratic process.