1 in 5 American Young Adults Think the Holocaust Didn’t Happen: Poll

The entrance to the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau with the lettering 'Arbeit macht frei' ('Work makes you free') is pictured in Oswiecim, Poland, on Jan. 25, 2015. Joël Saget /AFP via Getty Images

Over one-fifth of Americans aged 18 to 29 believe the Holocaust is a myth or “has been exaggerated,” a new poll suggests.

According to the YouGov poll, conducted in collaboration with The Economist, 8 percent of that age group “strongly agree” with the claim that systematic killing of Jews across Nazi Germany-controlled Europe did not happen, while 12 percent said they “tend to agree.”

In response to the statement that “The Holocaust has been exaggerated,” 23 percent of the young adult respondents agreed, including 8 percent who said they “strongly agree.”

By comparison, no participants older than 65 said they agree that the Holocaust is a myth, and only 2 percent said that it has been exaggerated.

The young adults are also more likely that any other age group to believe that Jews “have too much power in America.” Twenty-eight percent of the age group agreed with that statement, compared to 19 percent of those aged 30 to 44, 12 percent of those aged 45 to 64, and 6 percent of those older than 65.

Political Differences

The poll also highlighted some gaps in Holocaust knowledge and awareness between Democrat and Republican voters.

Respondents who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 were found to be almost twice as likely as those who voted for President Donald Trump to give credence to Holocaust denialism (7 percent versus 4 percent, respectively), although Biden voters were only a little more likely than Trump voters to believe that the scale of Nazi Germany’s genocidal campaign has been exaggerated (7 percent versus 6 percent).

The partisan differences became more significant with questions involving the state of Israel.

Biden voters were twice as likely as Trump voters (26 percent versus 13 percent) to believe that Israel “exploits Holocaust victimhood for its own purposes.” Almost a quarter of Biden voters (22 percent) support the idea of “boycotting Israeli goods and products,” compared to just 7 percent of Trump voters saying they are in favor of such anti-Israel activism.

In an attempt to explain why young people embrace such views, The Economist said this might have to do with millennial and Generation Z Americans’ tendency to get their information from social media.

A 2022 survey from the Pew Research Center suggested that Americans under 30 are about as likely to trust information on social media as they are to trust national news outlets. A more recent Pew survey found that 32 percent of those aged 18 to 29 get their news from TikTok.

In mid-November, weeks after Israel was attacked by terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7, TikTok saw an influx of viral videos featuring a letter written by Osama bin Laden, the slain leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, who claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed more than 3,000 Americans.

In his 2002 “Letter to America,” he specifically made references to the United States’ longstanding support of Israel, which drew praise from TikTok users who take an anti-Israel stance in the ongoing war—with some of them saying that bin Laden’s comment “was right.” In a video with about 1 million views, a TikTok user claimed that “everything we learned about the Middle East, 9/11, and terrorism was a lie.”

“Whatever the reasons, the polling is alarming,” The Economist said.

Improving Holocaust Education

The YouGov poll was followed by a bipartisan legislative effort to renew a Trump-era initiative focusing on Holocaust education among young Americans.

On Dec. 12, Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) introduced the Never Again Education Reauthorization Act of 2023, which would reauthorize the 2019 legislation to allocate money for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to provide teachers and parents with “accurate, relevant, and accessible resources to improve awareness and understanding of the Holocaust.” The reauthorization of this bill would extend the program through 2030.

“In the wake of the horrific attacks in Israel just a few months ago, educating Americans and the world about the horrors of the Holocaust is more important now than ever before,” Mr. Cramer said in a press release.

The YouGov poll was conducted between Dec. 2 and Dec. 5 among 1,500 adult respondents selected to represent the national adult population. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status.

The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.