‘Everyone must know’
Poll shows Canadians lack basic knowledge of the Holocaust and anti-semitism
Many of the items on display in Auschwitz today and in exhibits that travel around the world are the everyday items brought and owned by regular people, who perished in the Holocaust. This includes things like eyeglasses, cups, wallets and watches.
Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany systematically eliminated nearly two- thirds of European Jewry; around six million people perished in mass shootings, pogroms and in extermination camps established in occupied territory.
“It is obvious,” wrote Elie Wiesel, whose book about surviving the Holocaust, Night, won the Nobel Prize, “that the war which Hitler and his accomplices waged was a war not only against Jewish men women, and children, but also against Jewish religion, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, therefore Jewish memory.”
Yet, decades later, only 43 per cent of Canadians can correctly identify how many Jews were killed, according to polling released this week.
“Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my god and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes,” Wiesel wrote of his first night at Auschwitz.
The polling suggests there are gaps in Canadians’ historical knowledge of the Holocaust and anti- Semitism, said Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies.
“The sort of benchmark, of the target for knowledge about the Holocaust, is that everyone must know,” Jedwab said, and it suggests “we’re still far from reaching that objective.”
According to the poll, conducted via web panel in November, 43 per cent of Canadians were able to correctly say six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
Around 31 per cent said they weren’t sure how many were killed, when presented with multiple-choice options. “If you weren’t prepared to venture a guess even, that probably means that you don’t know,” said Jedwab.
This figure is similar to data from the United States, where recent polling from the Pew Research Center found that roughly 45 per cent of Americans knew that six million Jews were killed, and 29 per cent did not.
Single- digit numbers of people polled by Leger Marketing for the Association of Canadian Studies in November 2019 got it fully wrong: three per cent said less than 100,000 Jews were killed and six per cent put the number at 20 million. Those with a university education were most likely to know the true figure ( 51 per cent) while those with just high school education were the least likely (36 per cent).
Countrywide, just shy of 36 per cent in Quebec were able to identify six million as the correct answer, while residents of Saskatchewan (55 per cent) were most likely to get it right.
Canadians between the ages of 35 and 44 were the least likely to know— just 32 per cent got it right — while Canadians older than 75 were the most likely, at 55 per cent.
The polling also interrogated Canadians’ feelings about anti-semitism.
Quebecers, Atlantic Canadians and Albertans were the least likely to believe anti- Semitism was a problem in Canada during the Second World War, at about 40 per cent. Other than Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario, all parts of Canada polled less than 50 per cent on that issue.
Sixty- seven per cent of Quebecers believed Canada welcomed Jewish refugees during the Second World War; Residents of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and Ontario were the least likely to believe that statement, at 35 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively.
Jedwab said he sees some correlation between those who misunderstand historical anti-semitism and those who know little about the Holocaust.
This, despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s heavily publicized apology for Canada’s decision in 1939 to turn away the MS St Louis, a ship carrying some 900 Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. It was also rejected from Cuba and the United States, and returned to Europe, where 255 of the passengers died, mostly in concentration camps.
“While decades have passed since we turned our backs on Jewish refugees, time has by no means absolved Canada of its guilt or lessened the weight or our shame,” Trudeau said.
Leger polled 2,295 Canadians via web panel. The poll has a margin of error of 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.