Anti-Semitism Report

The Holocaust is mostly forgotten

Demonstrators in Turkey equate the Israeli government with Nazi Germany.

(Bild: AFP/KEMAL ASLAN)

Anti-Semitic views have become even more deeply entrenched in people's minds over the past ten years. This is the result of a global study that attests that almost half of the world's population has a negative attitude towards Jews. What is particularly alarming is that the Holocaust is increasingly being forgotten ...

This is the result of the latest survey "The ADL Global 100", which was published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in New York on Tuesday, according to Kathpress. According to the survey, 46 percent of the world's adult population - an estimated 2.2 billion people - harbor "deeply rooted anti-Semitic attitudes".

This is more than twice as many as in the first global survey a decade ago and the highest figure since the US civil rights organization, which campaigns against anti-Semitism, began investigating the global trend.

Holocaust is being forgotten
Among other things, the survey revealed that one fifth of adults worldwide have never heard of the Holocaust. Less than half (48 percent) recognize the historical event of the Holocaust, with this figure dropping to 39 percent among 18 to 34-year-olds.

A Star of David was daubed on the wall of a house in a Jewish quarter of Paris.

(Bild: AFP/Anna KURTH)

Just over half of respondents agree with the statement that Jews are only loyal to the state of Israel and have too much influence on the business world. Almost 50 percent are convinced that anti-Semitism can be explained by the behavior of Jews themselves.

According to the survey, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Kuwait and Indonesia, are among the countries and territories with the highest levels of anti-Semitism, with almost 100 percent each. They are lowest in Sweden, Norway, Canada and the Netherlands with less than 10 percent each.

Jews in Austria relatively safe
Austria ranks 13th in the study, with neighboring Germany in seventh place. Jews are therefore much less likely to be attacked here. Nevertheless, according to the report, around 1.2 million people in Austria have "heightened anti-Semitic attitudes".

The survey also looked at approval of historical facts such as the Holocaust. Furthermore, Austria has 16 index points out of 100 of the countries with the lowest anti-Semitic attitudes - the higher this number is, the higher the percentage of those who responded to anti-Semitic stereotypes with "definitely true" or "probably true".

That is depressing!

Josef Schuster, Präsident des Zentralrats der Juden in Deutschland

Josef Schuster, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the newspaper "Die Welt" (Wednesday): "Open anti-Semitism is an everyday phenomenon in Western Europe - that is depressing." Although Schuster welcomed the "social norm" that applies in Germany when assessing Nazi crimes, this could not really be reassuring in view of the high number of anti-Semitic incidents.

The "ADL Global 100" study is the world's most comprehensive study on anti-Semitic attitudes. More than 58,000 adults from 103 countries and territories were surveyed for the latest poll. The survey is representative of 94 percent of the world's adult population.