Another poll that buries the lede.
Most Americans believe there has been an increase in hate crimes in the U.S., and many think that antisemitism is a serious problem. Few American adults agree with extreme statements such as “the Holocaust is a myth,” but those who do are most likely to be under the age of 30.
Last week, the Ontario government announced it is expanding Holocaust education in the province’s schools to combat antisemitism. It’s a good idea, but more must be done to fight the rising tide of hate. Night after night this week, Canadians have been treated to firebombed synagogues, anti-Jewish violence on university campuses and anti-Jewish hate speech in our streets. These crimes reveal a disturbing, but inevitable, reality: no matter how much we say “never again,” if you don’t know something to begin with, you are doomed not to remember it.
I doubt Holocaust education is well received by certain of our religious “minorities.”
Sidney Zoltak, who has spent a significant part of his life recounting his experiences as a child survivor of the Holocaust, says he’s not sure how he would characterize the effort by some to deny the historical genocide.
“I don’t know what to call it … whether it’s a crime, a shame, a lie — what would be more appropriate,” said Zoltak, 91. As a child, he, along with his family, escaped the Jewish ghetto set up by Nazis in his Polish hometown and went into hiding.
I do not approve of speech bans.
Nearly a third of North American students think the Holocaust was exaggerated or fabricated, according to a new study, which also found that 40 per cent of students reported learning about the Holocaust through social media.
… For the study, nearly 3,600 students in Grades 6 through 12 were surveyed both before and after a two-day virtual conference focusing on the Holocaust. Almost 80 per cent of the students were in Canada, while the rest were in U.S. classrooms. Just over six per cent identified as Jewish.
No one should ever be surprised at the ignorance of students. Little history is taught them. I wonder if diversity plays a role?
Twenty years ago this week, my book, IBM and the Holocaust exposed with crystal clarity—backed up with a literal tower of physical documentation—that IBM knowingly organized all six phases of the Holocaust: identification, exclusion, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and even extermination, all under the micromanagement of its celebrated CEO, Thomas Watson, Sr., operating from his New York office on Madison Avenue, and later through European subsidiaries.
