Netherlands: 23 percent of young people consider the Holocaust to be a myth

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Final exams at a secondary school in The Hague: »Historical facts are no longer a binding factor, especially among young adults«.

Photo: ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN / EPA

Almost a quarter of young Dutch people think the Holocaust is a myth or exaggerated.

That is the result of a study by the Claims Conference, which was published shortly before the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism.

That number -- a total of 23 percent of the 2,000 adults aged between 18 and 40 surveyed for the representative study -- is higher than in any other previously surveyed country, it said.

The Claims Conference was established after World War II to enforce claims by Jewish survivors against Germany and continues to serve Holocaust survivors and their descendants today.

Many respondents were unaware of the extent of the Holocaust: 54 percent of all respondents and 59 percent of young Dutch people from the millennial and so-called Generation Z generations did not know that six million Jews were murdered.

A total of 29 percent believed that two million or fewer Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

For Millennials and Gen Z, the proportion was even higher at 37 percent.

“Our Netherlands study clearly shows us that historical facts are no longer binding, especially among young adults,” said Rüdiger Mahlo, the representative of the Claims Conference in Germany.

»Knowledge about the Holocaust and awareness of the Holocaust are eroding at a rate that is shaking us.

Our worst fears are proving to be justified.”

muk/dpa