Why the dickens Brazilians, of all people, should concern themselves with matters of the "Holocaust" is something left for the reader to ponder. However, self-serving surveys tell a story - and there is an interesting story enbedded in this one:
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Thursday July 26, 8:08 am Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee Survey: One-Third of Brazilians Completely Unaware of Holocaust
SAO PAULO, Brazil, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- One-third of Brazilians have no awareness at all of the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II, and 11 percent say it is possible that the Holocaust never happened, according to a new American Jewish Committee survey released today at a news conference in Sao Paulo.
``The level of ignorance in the largest South American country about the systematic Nazi murder of one-third of the Jewish people, including 1.5 million children, is very troubling,'' said Shulamit Bahat, acting executive director of the American Jewish Committee. ``Latin America may be far removed from the events surrounding World War II, but we would hope that the greatest human tragedy of the 20th century would be an integral part of any country's educational system.''
Told directly about the ``Nazi extermination of the Jews during the Second World War,'' and asked ``Are you at all aware of the episode?'' 68 percent of Brazilians answer ``yes'' and 32 percent ``no,'' according to the AJC survey. With regard to the particulars of the Holocaust, only 5 percent of Brazilians correctly identify Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka as concentration camps, while 95 percent answer ``don't know.'' Similarly, only 8 percent of Brazilians correctly cite the yellow star or a variant as the symbol that Jews were forced to wear during the Second World War, while 86 percent answer ``don't know.''
Still, despite a weak knowledge base, a majority of Brazilians favor keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, according to the AJC survey.
* 63 percent of Brazilians maintain that Holocaust education should be included in schools, while 31 percent disagree.
* 67 percent of Brazilians feel that they "should keep remembrance of the Nazi extermination of the Jews strong even after the passage of time."
In contrast, 28 percent of Brazilians maintain that "more than 50 years after the end of World War II, it is time to put the memory of the Nazi extermination of the Jews behind us."
* 61 percent of Brazilians deem it "essential" or "very important" that "all Brazilians know about the Nazi extermination of the Jews," while 34 percent see it as "only somewhat important" or "not important."
The AJC survey found a measure of openness to Holocaust denial among Brazilians, a factor that may be a result of the widespread ignorance about the Holocaust. Eleven percent of Brazilians said it seems possible that the Nazi extermination of the Jews never happened, while 76 percent feel certain that it happened. The 11 percent figure was the highest among the 13 countries surveyed so far by the AJC.
The AJC survey also found negative feelings about Jews prevalent among a significant portion of the Brazilian population.
Asked about their willingness to live as neighbors with various minority groups, 37 percent ``prefer not to have'' Jewish neighbors, the highest figure for any of the 13 countries in which the AJC has fielded the question. Some 47 percent state that it ``wouldn't make any difference'' and 12 percent said they would like to have Jewish neighbors.
Brazilians also were asked to react to the statement ``Now, as in the past, Jews exert too much influence on world events.'' Forty-five percent ``agree'' (``strongly agree'': 21 percent; ``somewhat agree'': 24 percent), 32 percent ``disagree'' (``strongly disagree'': 18 percent; ``somewhat disagree'': 14 percent), and 22 percent ``don't know.''
The Jewish community in Brazil numbers 98,000, about 0.6 percent of the total population.
The survey was conducted for the American Jewish Committee by IBOPE, a leading opinion-research organization based in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, between March 22 and 25, 2001. The survey of 1,000 respondents, who were interviewed face to face, has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Since 1992, AJC has carried out public opinion polls on knowledge and remembrance of the Holocaust in the following countries: United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Russia, Australia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Argentina.
SOURCE: American Jewish Committee
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Thought for the Day:
"By God, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation."
(Robert, Lord Clive)