HOLOCAUST FORGOTTEN: SOCIAL MEDIA FUELS NAZI SYMBOLISM USAGE

A recent nationwide survey has found that 63 percent of respondents, made up of millennials and Gen-Zers, weren’t knowledgeable and some were even unaware of the Holocaust—the European genocide that resulted in the death of six million Jewish people—partly due to the association of Nazi symbolism to American white supremacist groups rather than the genocide.

Recent civil rights issues like police brutality and ICE detainments have caused Nazi symbolism to resurface on social media. About 30 percent of respondents had seen Nazi symbols on social media. Many younger groups may associate these symbols to no more than an antithesis to Black Lives Matter rather than a symbol for the continent-wide murder of Jewish people.

This comes as a shock to many considering that the Holocaust, which occurred between 1941 and 1945, is one of the biggest genocides in modern history.

One thing that isn’t shocking, however, is the denial of the Holocaust. In countries such as Germany, Poland and France, it is illegal to deny the genocide ever happened. According to the survey, half of millennials and Gen Zers have seen content that denies or distorts the Holocaust on social media.

Others, however, blame the lack of knowledge on our educational system: only 30 percent of states are required to teach about the Holocaust, and among them is California.

The state with the least knowledge of the Holocaust is Arkansas while Wisconsin is the state with the highest score in Holocaust awareness.

As the world reaches its one millionth death due to COVID-19, it is a shocking revelation that a lot of young people aren’t aware of a genocide that took the lives of six times the amount of people. It is a sure indication that there needs to be a wake-up call if we want posterity to be aware of history, especially to prevent it from repeating itself.