American Jewish Committee Survey of Czech Republic Shows Support for Holocaust Remembrance, Property Restitution, But Mixed Knowledge of Holocaust Facts

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 6 October 1999

A substantial majority of Czechs favor keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, but knowledge about the annihilation of European Jewry is mixed, according to a new American Jewish Committee survey.

"Knowledge and Remembrance of the Holocaust in the Czech Republic" is the first in a new series of AJC national surveys dealing with Holocaust knowledge and remembrance in various countries.

The AJC survey covers such broad themes as factual knowledge about the Holocaust, feelings about Holocaust remembrance, attitudes toward Jews and other minorities, including Gypsies, and awareness of the Czech Jewish experience.

AJC's Director of Research, David Singer, presented the survey results today at the opening of The Holocaust Phenomenon Conference, a three-day gathering in Prague hosted by Czech President Vaclav Havel.

AJC President Bruce M. Ramer, addressing the conference, said: "By examining the phenomenon of the Holocaust here in Czech lands, you also help to reestablish the roots of the small, but reviving Jewish community that, perhaps miraculously, does exist today in the Czech Republic. There was a shared history, and we believe there should be a shared future that connects Czech Jews with their fellow citizens."

Other AJC officials participating in the conference include Ralph Grunewald, Assistant Executive Director for Policy and Programs, and Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of European Affairs. Mr. Grunewald, while in his previous position at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, was one of the conference's principal organizers.

Among the AJC survey's key findings on Holocaust remembrance and knowledge:

- 74 percent of Czechs feel that "we should keep the remembrance of the Nazi extermination of the Jews strong even after the passage of time," while 17 percent maintain that "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."

- While 92 percent of respondents correctly identify Auschwitz, Dachau and Treblinka as concentration camps, only 31 percent of Czechs chose "6 million" as the approximate number of Jews killed by the Nazis, with 40 percent choosing much lower figures and 20 percent answering "don't know."

- Fifty-seven percent of Czechs said Holocaust education should be mandatory in Czech schools, and 30 percent disagreed.

- A large majority support some form of property restitution: 36 percent of Czechs maintain that all property seized during World War II should be returned to the Jews, while 35 percent take the position that only buildings serving religious purposes should be returned to the Jews. And 18 percent insist that "nothing should be returned to the Jews."

In a generally encouraging picture, there were a few areas of concern regarding attitudes toward Jews.

- While only 8 percent of Czechs think that Jews have "too much influence" in the Czech Republic, 34 percent believe that "Jews exert too much influence on world events."

- While 70 percent of Czechs indicated it "wouldn't make any difference" if neighbors are Jews, 8 percent said they would "like to have" Jews as neighbors and 17 percent would "prefer not."

- Some 23 percent of Czechs "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree" that "Jews are exploiting the memory of the Nazi extermination of the Jews for their own purposes."

The AJC survey also showed that Czechs with higher education are more knowledgeable about the Holocaust and more concerned about remembrance.

Some 96 percent of Czechs with university level education know that Auschwitz, Dachau and Treblinka were concentration camps, and 53 percent of Czechs with university education consider it "very important" for Czechs to "know about and understand the Nazi extermination of the Jews."

In a study of Czech curricula issued last October, the AJC concluded that Czech textbooks published in the last few years provide significant coverage of the Holocaust. But the report, "The Treatment of Jewish Themes in Czech Schools," also found scant attention given to the presence and contributions of the Jewish community in the Czech Republic.

"Exposure to things Jewish in the Czech Republic is limited," said Dr. Singer.

The attitudinal survey released this week shows that 34 percent of Czechs claim to know someone who is Jewish. While 41 percent of Czechs have visited the Jewish ghetto memorial in Terezin, only 16 percent have been to the Jewish Museum in Prague.

The survey was conducted for the American Jewish Committee by Sofres Factum, a leading opinion-research organization based in Prague between August 27 and September 3, 1999. The survey of nearly 1,200 Czechs has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Between 1992 and 1996, the AJC carried out a series of public opinion surveys probing issues related to knowledge and remembrance of the Holocaust. The United States, Great Britain, France, Slovakia, Australia, Germany, Austria, Poland and Russia were included in that research effort.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org