Pew Poll: US Majority Unaware 6M Jews Died in Holocaust

Over half of American adults are not aware that 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust, according to a Pew Research Center poll.

Just 45% of Americans know the number of Jewish deaths to be 6 million, per the poll.

"It is extremely disturbing that less than half of Americans can correctly cite the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust, or can correctly answer that Adolf Hitler came to power through a democratic political process," Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told Newsweek.

"This is why ADL supports the Never Again Education Act, which would create a new grant program at the U.S. Department of Education to provide teachers across the country with the necessary resources to teach about the Holocaust in their classrooms," he added to Newsweek.

Monday is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi death camp where 1 million Jews were killed, which is why the Feb. 4-19, 2019 poll results were being referenced by the Pew Research Center on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The poll did find that 84% of American adults roughly understand "the Holocaust" to be related to the death or persecution of Jews, and 69% understood it to have occurred between 1930 and 1950, according to Pew.

The poll might be a bit misleading in asking if American adults know the death total, because a plurality was on the right track. While just 12% overestimated the death total, 43% underestimated it or did not answer.

Here is the breakdown of the question asked:

How many Jews were killed in the Holocaust:

• Less than 1 million – 2%.
• Approximately 3 million – 12%.
• Approximately 6 million – 45%.
• More than 12 million – 12%.
• Not sure/no answer – 29%.

The Pew Research Center polled 10,971 American adults Feb. 4-19, 2019 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.

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