Feb 3, 2019 3 min read

The 20th century was packed with both triumphs and atrocities, and perhaps the greatest atrocity of all was the Holocaust. The systematic killing of 6 million Jews across Europe by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime has become the signal example of just how inhumane man can be to his fellow man.

As with World War II veterans, the number of Holocaust survivors and people who have firsthand memories of it is dwindling rapidly. At the same time, some recent polls indicate that knowledge about and understanding of the Holocaust by those who were not there is declining. This should raise alarm bells. Not only does it underscore gaps in our teaching of history, but if the Holocaust fades from memory, the likelihood of another horror show like it unfolding increases.

A poll released in 2018 found that 11 percent of adults in the United States and 20 percent of U.S. millennials had not heard of or were not sure if they had heard of the Holocaust. It also found that a full two-thirds of millennials could not identify what Auschwitz is. And our counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic aren’t doing a whole lot better. A poll released Jan. 27 to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day found that 5 percent of British adults don’t believe the Holocaust actually happened, with 8 percent saying the scale of the carnage has been exaggerated. Across the English Channel in France, 20 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 34 said they had not heard of the Holocaust, according to the same poll.

Experts say this degree of ignorance can make people fall prey to crackpot theories that the Holocaust never happened. More distressingly, it leaves the lessons of the Holocaust unlearned. Without those, we would lose sight of how scapegoating, stereotyping and casual prejudice can metastasize and turn into genocide.

Harry D. Wall, who serves on the board of directors for the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights, pointed out in an essay published on CNN’s website that “the Holocaust reduced social and economic pressures to simplistic responses, which blamed one segment of the population for national or social problems. It was not the first time in history that Jews have been singled out for blame and attack … It’s important to note that contemporary fascists, racists and extremists employ similar tactics against other minorities.”

Wall noted that studying the Holocaust “can also serve as a blueprint for recognizing the dangers of demonization and incitement, and help guard human rights and strengthen core democratic values.”

Several European countries have adopted laws requiring education about the Holocaust, while only five states have followed suit in the United States. While Pennsylvania is not one of the five, the state Board of Education reported in 2017 that 90 percent of schools in the commonwealth offered some sort of education about the Holocaust. The need for other states to do the same is clear.

This region – and, indeed, the whole country – was shattered in October by the nightmarish killings at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Let those be Exhibit A in why the Holocaust should not be cast from our consciousness.