(Photos) BBC poll: Nearly half of Britons never heard of Auschwitz

haaretz.com ^

[zyaakov]

BBC poll: Nearly half of Britons never heard of Auschwitz

By Reuters

LONDON - Nearly half of Britons in a poll said they had never heard of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in southern Poland that became a symbol of the Holocaust and the attempted genocide of the Jews.

The results of the survey conducted by the BBC were released Thursday, as Britain's public broadcaster announced it will show a new series next January to mark the 60th anniversary of the concentration camp's liberation.

"We were amazed by the results of our audience research," said Laurence Rees, a producer on the series, "Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution."

"It's easy to presume that the horrors of Auschwitz are engrained in the nation's collective memory, but obviously this is not the case," Rees said.

The survey found that 45 percent of those surveyed had not heard of Auschwitz. Historians estimate that anywhere from one million to three million people, about 90 percent of them Jews, were killed there.

Among women and people younger than 35, 60 percent had never heard of Auschwitz, despite the recent popularity of films such as "Schindler's List," "Life is Beautiful" and "The Pianist," which depict the atrocities of the Holocaust.

"The name Auschwitz is quite rightly a byword for horror, but the problem with thinking about horror is that we naturally turn away from it," Rees said.

The BBC said the research was based on a nationally representative postal survey of 4,000 adults 16 and older.

The broadcaster is marking Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, with a variety of television and radio programs.

The Auschwitz series for BBC2 is based on nearly 100 interviews with survivors and perpetrators and is the result of three years of research with the assistance of professors Ian Kershaw and David Cesarani.

[Gritty]

It seems the Brits are about as good at world history as we Americans. I doubt we would fare much better.

Now, if you were talking about "Watergate" or "Iran/Contra"...

[SandRat]

Ask this same group what Operation Downfall, Operation Olympic, and Operation Coronet were and the results would be even worse. Of course if they knew what these were and what the estimated Japanese and Allied causualties were expected to be we wouldn't hear from the cry babies about Hiroshima and Nagazaki. Well the leftists(Commies) would still cry.

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Heavens to betsy, I hope that's what he meant.

[clyde asbury]

Say, didn't Kerry discover his Jewish roots not too long ago?

If he was speaking to a Jewish group, I'm certain he did.

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I tried your link. I have dial-up and it took forever and I still didn't get it so I bookmarked it for later. Thanks.

[feralcat]

How can 26 million people be so DUMB?

Gotta love those genius Brits who hate up for voting for W.

http://www.plasticbag.org/images/extra/dailymirror.jpg

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I couldn't watch the debates. I was too emotional over how Bush would do.

I watched a couple of minutes of the first one and when he started sputtering, I turned the channel. I came here for a blow by blow of debates #2&3.

[Kurt_D]

So what? My great-grandfather was executed in the KZ Neuengamme. Probably nobody in this forum heard about this concentration camp.

[Pointblank]

That is disappointing to hear. The genocide by the Nazi's was too real for anyone to be unaware of.
I'm from Mississippi, I have a "good ole boy" friend that exactly fits the stereotype of "country". He is a stoic, god fearing, family oriented, outdoorsman who would be called uncouth by alot of you. I walked in on him watching "Schiendler's List" and crying like a child. He could not believe that the events of the movie were actually true. Some events in history have been hidden because they were just too horrible to contemplate. I fear that the events in the Sudan draw a similar parallel with Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. The media is great about tallying the body count in Iraq, but who is monitoring the genocide in the Sudan?

[Pacothecat]

Aren't these the people that called Americans stupid for reelecting Bush?

[gatex]

"Probably nobody in this forum heard about this concentration camp."

Concentration camp Neuengamme is shown on the 1942 map of concentration camps in World War II Almanac 1931-1945 by Robert Goralski, page 202.

It was west of Ravensbreuck.

Sorry about your great-grandfather.

[clyde asbury]

The printer friendly version will load faster.

[clyde asbury]

Treblinka, as I'm sure you know, is quite lovely in the fall.

Well, I'm strictly a North American bird so far. Have you visited Treblinka?