Anti-Semitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, according to a new CNN poll which is presented in Tuesday’s edition of the Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
The poll, which was conducted in seven central European countries and in which thousands of people took part, found that more than a quarter of Europeans believe that Jews have too much influence on business and finance. Almost one in four Europeans says that Jews also have too much influence on areas of conflict and war around the world. One in five says they have too much influence on the media, and a similar percentage believes they have too much influence on politics.
At the same time, a third of the Europeans who participated in the survey admitted that they knew little or nothing at all about the Holocaust.
The poll, conducted by ComRes for CNN, surveyed 7,092 people from across Europe, with more than 1,000 polled in Austria, France, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Poland, and Sweden. The survey was commissioned and completed in September, before the murder of 11 people in the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
The poll found that one in 20 Europeans has never heard of the Holocaust. Ignorance about the Holocaust is especially evident among young people from France: One in five between the age of 18 to 34 in that country said they had never heard of the Holocaust.
In Austria, the birthplace of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, 12 percent of younger people said they had never heard of the Holocaust. Four out of ten Austrians who were polled admitted that they knew "little" about the Holocaust, the most among any country that was polled. Half of the respondents, from all European countries, said they knew "quite a lot" about the Holocaust, and one of five said he had "extensive knowledge." READ MORE
