Interpreting social influences on Holocaust knowledge
Katherine Bischoping1996, Contemporary Jewry
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Abstract
The effects of generation, eduation, ethnicity, and gender on Holocaust knowledge are explored, using data from a United States national survey, a university student survey and qualitatfve interviews with university students. Knowledge levels are greatest among more educated respondents, respondents whose political corn mg of age was during the Holocaust, and among Jewish respondents. Results for gender are sample-specific. Indepth interviews, which complement survey data, indicate that social psychological processes of identification with Holocaust victims influence knowledge and underlie demographic effects. Thus, public knowledge about the Holocaust is not determined statically by individuals' social structural characteristics. Rather, public knowledge is flexible and could be enhanced by Holocm~t education that emphasizes identification. Implications of the results for theories linking generation to knowledge and for methodological issues m sample design are identified As concern about Holocaust denial and distortion mounts , recent studies have attempted to assess the level of Holocaust knowledge various groups possess (Golub and Cohen 1993;. This study examines Holocaust knowledge with the goal ofdeterminm~ whether, and how, various social factors influence it. To do so, I use ,ht~ flora a United States national sample, a University of Michigan student sample, and qualitative, in-depth interviews with a student sample to study the relation.~h'm of Holocaust knowledge to four social influences: generation, education, ethnicity, and gender.
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