Holocaust Saturation in America

A perception persists that Holocaust awareness is ubiquitous. Peter Novick’s exceedingly well researched book, The Holocaust in American Life, is based on this premise. But hard data tell a somewhat different story. A 1993 study, conducted by the Roper Organization for the American Jewish Committee, concluded that “ignorance of the Holocaust is rampant in the United States.” Thirty-eight percent of a representative sample of 992 adults over the age of 18 did not know what the term “Holocaust” meant, or gave an incorrect interpretation of the term. Of the high school students polled, 53 percent were unenlightened about Holocaust facts. Furthermore, in 1990 an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey of Americans and the Holocaust showed that the public, by a 44 percent to 3 percent margin, agreed that the public schools pay too little rather than too much attention to the Holocaust.