FL Holocaust Ignorance Widespread Among Millennials, Gen Z

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A nationwide survey found that millennial and Generation Z Floridians were uninformed when it comes to the Holocaust.

The survey, which was sponsored by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, found 13 percent of respondents between 18 to 39 incorrectly believe Jews caused the Holocaust.

Florida ranked as one of the states with the lowest scores of Holocaust knowledge among people reaching adulthood in the first two decades of the millennium.

The study calculated the Holocaust “knowledge score” by using the percentage of millennials and Gen Z adults who met all three of the following criteria: 1.) have “Definitively heard about the Holocaust,” 2) can name at least one concentration camp, death camp, or ghetto, 3) and know that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Forty-seven-percent of millennials and Gen Z in Florida can't name at least one concentration camp, the study said.

Sixty-three percent of all national survey respondents do not know that six million Jews were murdered and 36 percent thought that “two million or fewer Jews” were killed during the Holocaust.

According to the survey, millennials and Gen Z young adults nationwide have a desire to learn more about the Holocaust:

• A consistent bright spot across all the survey findings is the desire for Holocaust education. Sixty-four percent of all U.S. millennials and Gen Z believe that Holocaust education should be compulsory in school.

• Eighty percent of all respondents believe that it is important to continue teaching about the Holocaust, in part, so that it does not happen again.

The Florida Board of Education has a meeting scheduled on Wednesday at The Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg to discuss the survey's findings, and seeing if more needs to done surrounding Holocaust history lessons.

The Florida Holocaust Museum has started a program called "Trunks of Hope," that offers teachers Holocaust material to share with their students.

Florida's law requires that Holocaust history be taught in the classrooms.

For more information about this program, visit the Florida Holocaust Museum's website.