One in five young Americans believe the Holocaust is a myth – while another 30% say they are unsure if the genocide ever happened, a poll shows
- Fake news on social media is considered the main reason why young people question the Holocaust
- Holocaust denial is much more common among young people, although seven percent of Americans of all ages still believe it is a myth
- Meanwhile, more Americans view anti-Semitism as a problem now than in 2019
One in five young Americans think the Holocaust is a myth, while only half think it definitely happened, a new poll shows.
Conspiracy theories about the Holocaust are rampant on social media, as fake news is suspected to be the main cause of Holocaust denial or insecurity among young people.
Older people were much more likely to believe the Holocaust really happened, but across all ages, seven percent of Americans still believed it was a myth.
The new data from the YouGov/the Economist survey is particularly relevant given the rise in allegations of anti-Semitism on American college campuses since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
TikTok has been forced to block users from searching “Holocaust myth” under its Community Guidelines, which state: “This phrase may be associated with hateful conduct.”
The results of the new poll are particularly relevant given the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas
The poll comes as large-scale pro-Palestinian protests take place in major cities and on college campuses across the US
A recent study from Generation Lab, a data intelligence company, found that young adults who used TikTok were more likely to harbor anti-Semitic beliefs.
This week, Congress launched an investigation into Harvard University, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania after their presidents failed to convict students who called for a Jewish genocide.
Since Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7, the campuses of Harvard, MIT and Penn have been awash with unregulated anti-Israel protests.
The presidents of the three universities were summoned to a congressional hearing where they refused to dismiss calls for genocide against Jews as “intimidation,” saying such speeches do not necessarily violate their codes of conduct.
But the problem is not limited to Ivy League campuses, as the poll shows that the extent to which people believe the Holocaust is a myth is similar across all levels of education.
About 20 percent of all people between the ages of 18 and 29 believe the murder of six million Jews was fictional, while another 30 percent say they don’t know whether the Holocaust was a myth or not.
Dr. Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, Liz Magill, President of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Pamela Nadell, professor of History and Jewish Studies at American University, and Dr. Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Senator Jacky Rosen, D-NV, has called for more funding to educate students about the Holocaust.
She said this week: “Failure to educate students about the severity and scope of the Holocaust is a disservice to the memory of the victims and to our duty to prevent such atrocities in the future.”
YouGov emphasized that Holocaust denial is still “rare” but found that larger numbers of adults “tend to agree with certain negative statements about Israel.”
Even if Americans believe the Holocaust happened, one in five still believes that “Israel is exploiting Holocaust victimhood for its own purposes.”
These views influence their views on Israeli national and foreign policy, with almost a fifth of all adults believing that the “interests of Israelis conflict with the interests of the rest of the world.”
Another fifth believe that “Israel has too much control over global affairs,” while nearly a third believe that “Israel is deliberately trying to exterminate the Palestinian population.”
These negative views are more often held by young people and Democratic voters than by Republicans.
A pro-Palestinian march in New York on December 9
Americans under 30 are especially likely to agree with the statement that “Jews have too much power in America,” with 28 percent saying they strongly agree or tend to agree.
YouGov does say that the level of agreement with anti-Israel or anti-Semitic statements has not changed much since 2019, indicating that the war has not had a major impact on public sentiment.
And they add that more Americans see anti-Semitism as a problem now than in 2019 – up to 63 percent, compared to 54 percent in 2019.
They add that most Americans (67 percent) agree that Holocaust denial is anti-Semitic.