Canadians Don’t Know Enough About The Holocaust

A recent national survey about Canadian’s knowledge about the Holocaust has revealed a considerable knowledge gap. This is especially true among younger and less educated Canadians, as well as significant portion of francophones. The survey coincided with intaernational commermorations of the Night of Broken Glass in 1938, when 92 Jews were killed and another 30,000 were arrested.

Here are some of the more surprising findings:

The telephone poll of 1,500 Canadians, conducted in October for the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies, showed seven per cent of all respondents had never heard of the Holocaust.

However, 13 per cent of those between the ages of 18 and 24 said they didn’t know what the Holocaust was, and nearly one-quarter of respondents with only elementary-level education – 23 per cent – had never heard of it.

Meanwhile, about 12 per cent of francophones reported no knowledge of the Holocaust compared with about four per cent of English-speaking respondents.

Despite the validity of some of the explanations (Quebec’s opposition to conscription caused less emphasis to be put on the “traditional historical narratives”), the results are still both concerning and saddening.