Released Wednesday, a new study commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany demonstrates that Holocaust awareness among millennials and members of Generation Z is abysmal. The survey, conducted across all 50 states, found that almost two-thirds of young people are not aware that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Almost half of the respondents could not name a single one of the 40,000 concentration camps that existed under the Third Reich. While 44% were aware of Auschwitz, only 1% were aware of Buchenwald and Treblinka.
Worse still, survey answers indicate some respondents share beliefs with Holocaust deniers. About 23% believed the Holocaust did not happen, were not sure whether the Holocaust occurred, or thought that the number of victims was exaggerated. A startling 11% believe that Jews caused the Holocaust.
Holocaust denial and distortion actively feed into the atmosphere of anti-Semitism that is on the rise around the world. It is no surprise that in a climate where vast swathes of the public are ignorant about or trust in dangerous falsehoods about the Holocaust, American Jews are facing hatred from sources that cut across race, age, and political affiliation.
In 2019, the Anti-Defamation League recorded the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents since the organization began assembling such data in 1979. This year may be far more devastating. Acts of vandalism and expressions of bigotry have continued, perhaps fueled by widespread coronavirus-related conspiracy theories. More recently, leftists have propelled flagrant anti-Semitism during countrywide protests and activism associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
During Black Lives Matter protests, Jewish institutions in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles have been vandalized with anti-Semitic, anti-Israel graffiti. Some figures on the Left have blamed Israel for the death of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter protesters marching in solidarity with advocates for Palestinians in Washington, D.C., chanted anti-Semitic, anti-Israel slogans during a march in July.
But the anti-Semitism associated with Black Lives Matter is deeper and more systemic, as I have witnessed in my black-square-posting, overnight-activist millennial peers. While they loudly condemn racism against black people, many ill-informed millennials deny the importance of simultaneously addressing rising hatred targeting Jews. Activists trying to shame Jews into supporting Black Lives Matter have pushed the falsehood that the anti-Semitism of white supremacists is more harmful than that espoused by the anti-Semitic and dangerous boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, which Black Lives Matter endorsed in 2016. They lambaste Jews for possessing “white privilege,” though between 6% and 15% of Jews are of diverse, non-white backgrounds.
While defending his self-styled Olympics of victimhood, in which he deemed hatred against Jews of minimal concern, a former classmate turned leftist “activist” on my social network paraded out a host of untruths about anti-Semitism, which were bathed in “likes” by his equally misinformed peers. Among these was the observation that Jews have the privilege of blending in. I suggested he examine the plight of the Orthodox Jews living in Bill de Blasio’s New York City, whose visibility has led them to be singled out inappropriately for condemnation by the mayor himself and targeted for hate crimes, both before and during the coronavirus pandemic.
It doesn’t exactly seem privileged for Jews to make up just 2.2% of the nation’s population and yet face 57.8% of its religiously motivated hate crimes.
While cultural elites normalize anti-Semitism, tech companies have been slow to battle back against anti-Jewish prejudice and Holocaust denial, which percolate through online venues such as Twitter, Gab, 4Chan, Reddit, YouTube, and Twitch. Though Facebook and Instagram recently banned the use of anti-Semitic tropes on their platforms, Facebook does not consider Holocaust denial to be anti-Semitic. The Guardian found that Facebook’s algorithm “actively promotes” content denying the Holocaust by offering content related to Holocaust denial after a user types “Holocaust” into the search window.
TikTok is another venue where anti-Semitic content continues to spread. Recently, a user uploaded a TikTok video featuring anti-Semitic imagery and a song whose lyrics included, “We’re going on a trip to a place called Auschwitz. It’s shower time.” When the video began to gain traction, TikTok’s algorithm promoted it further. In eight hours, the video reached 6 million views before it was removed from the platform.
During the coronavirus pandemic, another form of online anti-Semitic harassment has become popularized. Zoom-bombing (the hateful, anonymous targeting of Zoom meetings with swastikas, Nazi imagery, pornography, and racist threats) has affected religious gatherings, funeral observances, educational seminars, and family meetings.
In July, I attended a virtual tour of several U.S. Holocaust museums on Zoom. Before the tour began, the guide was forced to close down the comments function, where users touted Adolf Hitler’s achievements, threatened to shoot up preschools, and commented that the Third Reich leader “hadn’t done enough.” When the program rebooted with the chat function disabled, one attendee, an obese, middle-aged white man, was naked on his screen, rubbing his genitals. Another user’s camera featured footage of Hitler giving the Nazi salute, the images superimposed with pink cartoon hearts. At least one attendee had changed one’s username to a horrifying message of hatred and racism.
The tour guide apologized. “We do online tours all the time. We only have trouble like this when we’re talking about the Holocaust.”
There was a glimmer of hope for the future of Holocaust education and the fight against anti-Semitism when the Never Again Education Act was passed in May. Allowing for increased funding to promote the study of the Holocaust, the law will ensure students are educated about this heinous period of history, as well as its implications for the future.
Unfortunately, the millennials and older members of Generation Z who have already been inculcated in denial culture or possess intractable, incorrect opinions about the dangers of anti-Semitism are too old to benefit from the Never Again Education Act. With anti-Semitism already pervading so many aspects of technology and our horribly polarized society, and the Holocaust being exploited and purposely misunderstood as its history retreats further into our rearview mirror, I fear that the Claims Conference will be reporting ever more bad news in the years to come.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
