LONDON (EJP)--- A survey illustrating British attitudes to the Holocaust has shown that nearly a third of UK youngsters are not sure if the Holocaust was a myth.

With just a week to go until Holocaust Memorial Day, the international day which commemorates the millions of innocent civilians murdered by the Nazis, which included six millions Jews, the British Jewish community has voiced its concern about the results of the Yougov poll.

Asked whether the Holocaust was a “myth”, “had happened but its scale had been exaggerated”, or that “six million Jews had been killed”, 28 per cent of 18- to 29-year-olds responded that they did not know. And the overall percentage of people who answered that they did not know was 17 percent.

1,132 people from around Britain were surveyed for the poll which was published in last weekend’s Jewish Chronicle newspaper.

Communal concern

Auschwitz survivor Freddie Knoller, 85, told the Jewish Chronicle that he felt the results were “frightening”.

“I lecture to schools, mostly to children over 16, but this makes me think I should concentrate on that age group [18-29s],” he said. “I don’t know how to get hold of them, though.”

And Winston Pickett, spokesman for the umbrella group, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “This poll reinforces the necessity to observe the motto-Never Again.”

Although there were some concerning results from the survey, others were more encouraging.

Just one per cent of the overall survey of 1,132 people thought the Holocaust was a myth, and only four per cent believed that the extent of the atrocities had been deliberately exaggerated by Jewish or pro-Israel groups.

Genocide day

The national Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations in the UK, which mark the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland, have generated controversy with the Muslim Council of Britain boycotting them claiming that a more general “Genocide Day” should be observed.

Amongst participants in the poll, opinion was divided on whether HMD should be renamed Genocide Day, reflecting “victims of all persecution throughout the world.”

Thirty-five per cent considered that the main focus of the day should be on victims of Nazi persecution, while 31 per cent in were in favour of Genocide Day.

Among the over-50s, there was a 38-32 per cent majority for Genocide Day. In the overall response, 14 per cent felt that “the whole idea of any such day is wrong”.

Holocaust memorial Day will be marked in Britain at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, northeast England.

Another topical question was whether respondents felt that Holocaust denial should be a criminal offence in the UK as it is in Germany, Austria and a number of other European countries.

While Germany last week said it was aiming to make Holocaust denial a Europe-wide offence, only 16 per cent of respondents agreed, with 63 per cent specifically coming out against it.