Jan. 27 marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than 1 million Jewish men, women, and children were killed by the German Nazis solely because they were Jewish. The Auschwitz killing center was just one part of the Nazis’ vast effort to eliminate European Jewry. An advanced, educated nation that had a democratic constitution succeeded—with the help of collaborators across Europe—in killing two of every three European Jews, a genocide so unprecedented in its ambition and scale that it is now called the Holocaust. It shattered assumptions about progress, human nature, and modern societies and has led to multiple commemoration efforts such as the United Nations‘ establishment of Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Today’s anniversary is a time to reflect on how memory and understanding of the Holocaust has been effective, or not in educating new generations. The picture is mixed.
Auschwitz had more than 1.6 million visitors in 2023. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum had over 1.1 million in 2024. More educators worldwide attended the Museum’s annual teacher conference in 2024 than ever before. Holocaust education is now part of the learning requirements in almost every U.S. state. There is a 38-nation International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and 130 members of the Association of Holocaust Organizations. Popular books and films on the Holocaust continue to be produced.
And yet, long before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, there has been a rise in Holocaust denial and distortion globally. And since then, it has exploded along with various other forms of antisemitism online, on campuses, and in cities worldwide. That antisemitism is widespread is not new. What’s new is the accelerant—social media and larger societal issues, such as polarization, assaults on truth, rampant conspiracy theories, a decline in history and civics education, a loss of trust in institutions, and the rise of the far right and far left, all of which create an environment where antisemitism easily flourishes.
Today, the organization responsible for Holocaust reparations, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) released its eight-country (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom, United States) Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Index, conducted in November/ December 2023, in which 76 percent of respondents believe something like the Holocaust could happen again today. When the same question was asked in another Claims Conference survey conducted almost seven years ago, the answer was 58 percent.
Nearly one-third of respondents in each country have seen Holocaust denial on Facebook. Across countries, when asked if they had encountered Holocaust denial or distortion while on social media, nearly half (47 percent) of Polish adults said, “yes.” In Austria and Hungary this number was 38 percent, in Germany it was 37 percent, in the U.S. 33 percent, in Romania 25 percent, in the U.K. 23 percent, and in France 20 percent.
The number of participants who believe that 2 million or fewer Jews were killed is also troubling. This includes 28 percent in Romania, 27 percent in Hungary, 24 percent in Poland, 21 percent in France, the U.S. and Austria, and 20 percent in the U.K., and, especially alarming, 18 percent in Germany. The Polish statistic is particularly noteworthy since 3 million of those killed in the Holocaust were Polish Jews.
In light of this information and the rise of antisemitism, it is reasonable to ask whether Holocaust education has or can make a difference. After decades of Holocaust education, we have serious challenges—the Holocaust receding in time, the loss of the eyewitness generation, changes in the overall education landscape, and the impact of social media. But we also have new scholarship, new approaches to education, and new commitments to research that can improve the impact of educational strategies.
Furthermore, the survey also shows that a strong commitment to Holocaust education remains in adults from every surveyed country. Nine-in-10 adults in all eight nations believe it is important to continue teaching about the Holocaust, in part, so it does not happen again.
The Museum’s informal research shows that most people want to know why the Holocaust happened. What made it possible? What did ordinary people do? These are vital questions that not only advance understanding. Teaching how and why the Holocaust happened can make the Holocaust relevant and provoke critical thinking, something sorely needed in a world awash in online denial, distortion, and antisemitism.
This alarming moment is a time to reassess—and to rededicate ourselves to relevant Holocaust education, rooted in rigorous history that includes the long history of antisemitism well before Nazism and the role of millions across Europe who were silent, complicit or resisted. This approach to education can help young people ask big questions about the Holocaust—and themselves. It’s more important than ever.
Greg Schneider is Executive Vice President of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat is Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.
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