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Interpreting social influences on holocaust knowledge

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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 qualitative interviews with university students. Knowledge levels are greatest among more educated respondents, respondents whose political coming 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 Holocaust education that emphasizes identification. Implications of the results for theories linking generation to knowledge and for methodological issues in sample design are identified.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. York University, York

    Katherine Bischoping

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  1. Katherine Bischoping
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I thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Horace Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan for their support Chris Bettinger. Maria Krysan, Chuck Peck, Howard Schuman. and the Research Methods students were helpful in the survey design, data collection, and coding. Renee Anspach. James House, and Andre Modigliani provided many thoughtful comments on an earlier draft.

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Bischoping, K. Interpreting social influences on holocaust knowledge. Cont Jewry 17, 106–135 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02965408

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