Shoah poll reveals gaps in Canadian knowledge

DAVID LAZARUS CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS

A new survey showing a significant level of ignorance about Jews being the main victims of Nazism and how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust points to the need for more extensive education about the Second World War, says the director of the organization that commissioned the poll.

The survey of 2,021 Canadians was conducted by Environics Research Group at the end of December and in early January and was released by the Association of Canadian Studies (ACS) to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

It showed that close to one-third of Canadians – 29 per cent – believe that non-Jews were the principal victims of Nazism and only 40 per cent of Canadians knew the correct answer of six million or more when asked about how many Jews were killed by the Nazis. Some 16 per cent of Canadians put the number of Jewish victims at fewer than a million.

The survey's margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

"I was disappointed by the 'principal victims' figure because it was a closed question [in which respondents selected an answer from several options]," ACS executive director Jack Jedwab told the Canadian Jewish News. "Almost 30 per cent represents an important segment of Canadians."

At a press conference held in conjunction with the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, Jedwab and MHMC executive director Ann Ungar both described the poll's findings as "mixed."

On the one hand, Jedwab said, it showed that 70 per cent of Canadians know that Jews were the Nazis' main victims. On the other hand, less than half of that 70 per cent knew that Jewish victims numbered six million or more, Jedwab said, referring to cross-tabulated figures from both questions.

"This is important to know, since it shows that there is a fragmentation of knowledge," Jedwab said. "People get pieces of information, but they do not put the whole picture together."

Jedwab said he was "quite shocked" when he heard about an 18-year-old Quebec student who toured the MHMC's Holocaust Museum and admitted that he had previously never heard of Adolf Hitler.

More than anything, Jedwab said, the poll results point to the need for making the study of the Second World War – and in that context, the Holocaust – mandatory and more detailed for all Canadian students.

"There is just this lack of exposure," Jedwab said.

This appeared to be especially true in Quebec, where the poll showed that 35 per cent of Quebecers – more than in any other province – believe that non-Jews (mostly Poles) were the Nazis' main victims. Yet, 44 per cent of Quebecers – also more than in any other province – knew the numbers of Jews killed by the Nazis was six million or more.

Jedwab postulated that the higher level of ignorance in Quebec than in other provinces about Jews being Nazism's main victims could be attributable to the Quebec school system, which deals less with the Second World War, and Quebec's historically "ambiguous" role in the war. Moreover, Jedwab suggested, Quebecers may be less exposed to information about the Second World War and the Holocaust than other Canadians.

A breakdown of the poll numbers shows some other surprises.

On the "principal victims" question, the age of respondents and where they lived did not seem to matter as much as their level of education. Only 57 per cent of Canadians without a high school diploma knew that Jews were the main victims of Nazis, compared to 72 per cent with a university degree.

On the question about the number of Jews killed by Nazis, both income and education seemed to play an "important role" in the findings, Jedwab said. Only 35 per cent of Canadians with incomes of less than $20,000, and 25 per cent of Canadians without a high school diploma, thought the number of Jews killed was six million or greater. By contrast, 50 per cent of Canadians earning $80,000 or more and 53 per cent of Canadians with university degrees knew the correct number.

The results of the poll should make the Second World War and Holocaust education a front-burner priority, both Jedwab and Ungar said.

"We have learned that education is the best weapon for transforming ignorance into understanding and intolerance into respect," Ungar said.

Ungar noted that the MHMC museum has welcomed more than 13,000 Quebec students, two-thirds of them francophone. As well, members of MHMC's speakers bureau have addressed 9,600 students across the province and country.

Among them were the students of Marc-Michel Parent, an educator at l'École des rives et centre l'envolé lachenaie, a high school in Lachenaie, Que. He told reporters that when survivor and author Anne Kazimirski came to his school, the 45 minutes she was scheduled to speak turned into two hours. Despite the knowledge that education is the best weapon, "Holocaust education is not mandatory in Canada," Ungar said.

"In general, the inclusion of the Holocaust is not compulsory in schools in Canada. Where it exists, it varies from province to province, from school board to school board, from school to school and from teacher to teacher."

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