alexandre
11-09-2008, 06:08 PM
Lack of Holocaust knowledge revealed in poll
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=cee5d0db-134a-41cc-9ebc-9e4bc26d37c4
November 09, 2008
A new national survey about Canadians' knowledge of the Holocaust - commissioned to mark the 70th anniversary of Germany's infamous 1938 "Kristallnacht" anti-Jewish riots - shows strong general awareness of the Second World War-era genocide but notable knowledge gaps among younger and less-educated Canadians, as well as some francophones.
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 Ñ 23 per cent Ñ 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.
Full details of the study, described by ACS executive director Jack Jedwab as one the most extensive probes ever of Canadians' knowledge and views about the Holocaust, are to be released Monday in Montreal with a panel of experts commenting on the results.
The survey coincides with international commemorations of the Nov. 9-10, 1938, "Night of Broken Glass" in which Nazi-inspired mobs killed at least 90 Jews, rounded up tens of thousands of others and ransacked Jewish homes and businesses across Germany.
The pretext for the racist attacks was a Jewish assassin's murder of German diplomat in Paris a few days earlier. But the stage had long been set for an anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany by the Nazi regime's anti-Semitic policies.
Kristallnacht's highly organized brutalizing of Germany's Jewry is seen as the prelude to the genocidal "Final Solution" ultimately implemented under Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
"We know the unspeakable began that day and ended with the Holocaust," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday in launching her country's own remembrance of the event. "We must guard that memory not only out of duty towards the victims, but also to ensure that it does not happen again."
Jedwab said the results of the Canadian survey showed much stronger knowledge of the Holocaust among older respondents, for whom the Second World War and its associated events represent "a lived history."
Younger respondents, he said, were more likely to have gained knowledge of the Holocaust through school or films.
He added that present-day knowledge of the Second World War in general is somewhat "spotty"in Quebec compared with other provinces. In Quebec, where Canada's role in the 1939-45 war was less widely supported and the conscription issue was particularly controversial, there is generally "less comfort" with conventional historical narratives about the era, said Jedwab.
The survey, conducted by Leger Marketing between Oct. 8 and 10, has a margin of error of 3.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
http://csvr.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/banniere-112008-csvr-2.jpg
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=cee5d0db-134a-41cc-9ebc-9e4bc26d37c4
November 09, 2008
A new national survey about Canadians' knowledge of the Holocaust - commissioned to mark the 70th anniversary of Germany's infamous 1938 "Kristallnacht" anti-Jewish riots - shows strong general awareness of the Second World War-era genocide but notable knowledge gaps among younger and less-educated Canadians, as well as some francophones.
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 Ñ 23 per cent Ñ 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.
Full details of the study, described by ACS executive director Jack Jedwab as one the most extensive probes ever of Canadians' knowledge and views about the Holocaust, are to be released Monday in Montreal with a panel of experts commenting on the results.
The survey coincides with international commemorations of the Nov. 9-10, 1938, "Night of Broken Glass" in which Nazi-inspired mobs killed at least 90 Jews, rounded up tens of thousands of others and ransacked Jewish homes and businesses across Germany.
The pretext for the racist attacks was a Jewish assassin's murder of German diplomat in Paris a few days earlier. But the stage had long been set for an anti-Jewish pogrom in Germany by the Nazi regime's anti-Semitic policies.
Kristallnacht's highly organized brutalizing of Germany's Jewry is seen as the prelude to the genocidal "Final Solution" ultimately implemented under Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
"We know the unspeakable began that day and ended with the Holocaust," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday in launching her country's own remembrance of the event. "We must guard that memory not only out of duty towards the victims, but also to ensure that it does not happen again."
Jedwab said the results of the Canadian survey showed much stronger knowledge of the Holocaust among older respondents, for whom the Second World War and its associated events represent "a lived history."
Younger respondents, he said, were more likely to have gained knowledge of the Holocaust through school or films.
He added that present-day knowledge of the Second World War in general is somewhat "spotty"in Quebec compared with other provinces. In Quebec, where Canada's role in the 1939-45 war was less widely supported and the conscription issue was particularly controversial, there is generally "less comfort" with conventional historical narratives about the era, said Jedwab.
The survey, conducted by Leger Marketing between Oct. 8 and 10, has a margin of error of 3.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
http://csvr.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/banniere-112008-csvr-2.jpg