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Report on Holocaust Remembrance Survey
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
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The average age of the respondents was 13 years old and 97.8% of the total respondents reported being female. The majority of you taking this survey were the oldest in your family (37%), while the youngest in the family comprised of 27%, middle children 20%, only children, 12%, and those choosing not to answer 4%.
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| Age of Respondents |
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| Age |
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The majority of our Smartgirl respondents that wrote in were of a European descent. The other ethnicities are listed below giving the amount of people who answered, their given ethnicity, and the percentage that they represent from the total pool of people. Our Smartgirls who answered this survey are not only ethnically diverse, but they also live in many different countries. Many of our Smartgirls live in the United States, England, and Australia, but they come from as far as Malaysia, Scotland, Bangladesh, Germany, and many more! It's great to generate results and opinions from Smartgirls spanning the globe!
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| Race/Ethnicity |
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count | percent |
ethnicity
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| africa |
19 | 6.79 |
| asia |
11 | 3.93 |
| europe |
139 | 49.64 |
| latin |
20 | 7.14 |
| middleeast |
6 | 2.14 |
| namerica |
5 | 1.79 |
| pacific |
1 | 0.36 |
| multi |
28 | 10 |
| no answer |
51 | 18.21 |
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Many of you agreed that you knew a lot of the Holocaust (32.73%) and some of you even said you strongly agreed with the statement that you knew a lot (29.86%), but a large percent (37.41%) disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. After reading through some of the responses to this survey, we hope we can open everyone's eyes to the history of the holocaust and spark interest into exploring more in this world history topic.
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| I know a lot about the Holocaust... |
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The Holocaust was during World War II, and fortunately was a thing of the past for us. Currently there are situations arising and being fought over in regards to relations between the United States and other countries worldwide. We asked out Smartgirls about who thought they knew a lot about what was going on right now. A whopping 81.95% of our respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they knew a lot! That proves your Smartgirl status by being well informed of the current events around you. It's important to study history as well as it is to keep ourselves informed of today's issues that can affect our tomorrows.
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| I know a lot about the war(s) happening right now... |
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This questioned was presented to our readers and many of you expressed similar emotions towards this topic. Feelings of horror and dismay laced our Smartgirls' comment. Here are some comments that you made:
"I thought it was unbelievable that someone could judge people the way Hitler did. I thought it was absolutely terrible that he was so discriminative and followed through with all the terrible things he did."
"The Holocaust was an awful, terrible occurrence. No human being deserves to endure physical, emotional, and mental torture as the Jews did in the Holocaust. It is horrible how men, women, and children were separated from their loved ones. What’s even sicker is that the Holocaust was hateful against a specific group of people, the Jews!"
"I was appalled. Not only because I am Jewish myself, but the thought of so many innocent lives being taken away, all because of their religion. Just something they believed, that one man didn't agree with. I thought it was horrible."
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Words that our Smartgirls commonly associated with the Holocaust were: Tragedy (11.41%), hate (10.39%), sadness (10.21%), fear (9.67), as well as the various other words stated in the table. A few of you associated the Holocaust with words like “courage” and “strength”. This shows that although we may all agree about the events that happened in the holocaust, different people can see various perspectives on the outcomes of the Holocaust.
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| What words do you most associate with the Holocaust? |
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count | percent |
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Word Identify
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| Celebration |
6 | 0.36 |
| Fear |
161 | 9.67 |
| Anger |
148 | 8.89 |
| Sadness |
170 | 10.21 |
| Hate |
173 | 10.39 |
| Violence |
166 | 9.97 |
| Discrimination |
147 | 8.83 |
| Supremecy |
55 | 3.3 |
| Shame |
91 | 5.47 |
| Hope |
48 | 2.88 |
| Tragedy |
190 | 11.41 |
| Criminal |
82 | 4.92 |
| Justice |
24 | 1.44 |
| Strength |
59 | 3.54 |
| Courage |
81 | 4.86 |
| Perseverance |
51 | 3.06 |
| Horror |
10 | 0.6 |
| other |
3 | 0.18 |
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Smartgirls can gain access to historical information from various people and forms of media. So we asked you various questions about each realm of knowledge. You responses to these questions were quite interesting. Check it out below.
Question #1:
"What have you learned from school about the Holocaust? "
Answers:
"About half the stuff I know about the Holocaust I learned in school. The rest I have learned on my own. In school, I was taught about the death camps (what they were like, the little food people were given, the Nazi's brutality, the gas chambers, etc.) I have learned of the historical events leading up to the Holocaust (timeline of events during the war, Hitler's rise to power, etc.) We once had a guest speaker who was a survivor of a death camp give a presentation about the Holocaust. It was very moving. I have seen lots of pictures and read the book by Eli Weasel called 'Night.' "
"A lot. My history teacher is Jewish and his family was in Austria-Hungry at the time of the Holocaust. His parents were lucky enough to escape and come to the U.S.A., but his other family members were not so lucky. He told us that he doesn't know whether or not they survived the camps, but he knows they didn't escape."
"The exact things that Hitler did to the Jews; such as gassing them, murdering them, torturing them etc. "
Question #2:
"What have you learned from your family about the Holocaust? "
Answers:
"That almost all of the wars that take place are based on religion. People need to understand other people’s beliefs."
"Most of my family is from Russia and my family and I don't talk about it much, but when we do, I can see the emotions running high. I have learned that the Holocaust, although it occurred years ago, caused wounds that are still fresh today and people are still grieving over it."
"I went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. (USA) with my two moms. It was an extremely moving experience, seeing piles of gold and silver jewelry along with tennis shoes taken from people going into Concentration Camps with my family. My mom always encouraged me to read about the Holocaust when I was younger."
Question #3:
"What have you learned from the media about the Holocaust?"
Answers:
"The media has shown the more emotional side of it e.g. documentaries featuring survivors’ testimonies etc. Also films such as Schindler's List mean that more people know more about the Holocaust - films are good ways of teaching people about it, especially as many people may find information form text books etc. too boring or difficult to understand. The Holocaust is not really something that people can learn about from textbooks - their needs to be other mediums such as the media, which focus on the 'humane' aspect of it."
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There is no concrete right or wrong answer to this question because the reasons behind the Holocaust will never truly be defined because it was all stored in the mind of the crazed Adolph Hitler. There were a few Smartgirls that stated they had no idea why, but a consensus was made as to the main reasons Smartgirls thought the Holocaust existed; most thought that the Holocaust occurred as a crime out of hate, ignorance, power, and discrimination.
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| What do you think are some of the reasons the Holocaust happened? |
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Wow did we get an overwhelming number of responses to this question! There were so many questions regarding how and why. Here were some of our favorites:
"How do you feel about Hitler committing suicide? Do you think it was fear of some one killing him because of his horrible actions?"
"How did you have the strength to go on in the face of so much horror and adversity?"
"Do you have any resentment against the Germans (the ones alive right now) or non-Semitic people?"
"How did you keep yourself alive -- meaning, what outside forces kept you going (family, faith, etc)?"
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The second part to our question was "If you could ask Adolph Hitler one question about the Holocaust, what would it be?” Many people expressed harsh anger towards Hitler and wanted to ask him so many questions as to what exactly he was thinking. Some questions that you wrote in that sparked interest and controversy were:
"You were part Jewish, why did you do it?"
"Why is it that you don't fit your ideal type (i.e. Why do you place blond-haired, blue-eyed people over all others when you do not have blond hair or blue eyes)?"
"Why did you specifically target the Jews rather than another minority groups?"
"Why couldn't you make a plan to improve Germany's economy without discrimination instead of blaming poverty on someone else?"
"If you [Hitler] had a second chance, would the Holocaust have still happened?"
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A controversy that has plagued our history is that some people believe that the Holocaust never really happened. We asked all the Smartgirls what you had to say about that statement and here are some of the things you expressed:
"How can you prove that it didn't happen?!?!? The Nazis paraded the fact that they meticulously recorded every person who entered a Ghetto, a camp, and who was killed and how--every aspect!!! They have pictures. They have videos. The most outright proof is that the camps are still there, the old bunks are still there, and the mass graves are still there. Those people who claim such things never happen should look on the walls of the gas chambers: scratch marks from peoples nails digging in the walls and the walls dyed blue from the gas they used. Tell them to go talk to the survivors, there are many still left! Look at their arms; see their tattooed numbers from the Nazis."
"How can you deny that it happened with so much proof that it did? How can you believe that - if the Holocaust did not happen then where did almost 6 million European Jews disappear to and what was the purpose of camps like Auschwitz, which still remain standing today?"
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Given the current events of today, many people speculate that a reoccurrence of the Holocaust or a similar event to it could happen; here's what our Smartgirls had to say about that. Despite everyone's hope for world of peace and equality, 49.28% of you stated that you thought history could repeat itself in some way or another. Some of you even strongly agreed with this statement (12.68%). The other respondents concluded that they disagreed with this statement. We can only hope that in their answer lies the truth because the Holocaust was a global tragedy that would be horrid to undergo again.
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| I think that the Holocaust or an event similar to it could be repeated in the future... |
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count | percent |
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Repeated
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| Strongly Disagree |
26 | 9.42 |
| Disagree |
79 | 28.62 |
| Agree |
136 | 49.28 |
| Strongly Agree |
35 | 12.68 |
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After acquiring new information, many people's minds accommodate the newly presented information. We asked our Smartgirls, "Since you first heard about the Holocaust, how has your thinking changed? Why?". Some of the answers we pulled out were:
"I've realized that too much power for just one person can be more dangerous than we may think. I can't help wondering what it would have been like to live in such a horrible time and place."
"I think as a world we have to work with other to prevent situations like this from happening again, unfortunately this is not happening and I believe it is a failure on the worlds part that many horrific experiences are being committed in countries and that they largely go unnoticed by western society."
"I tend to be a lot more considerate of others and definitely do not take my life for granted. After learning about the holocaust life had a different meaning for me."
"I believe more in the old idea that history is important because if you know history, you can avoid repeating it."
"Hearing about the Holocaust, I've learned not to judge people on what they believe, because hate only causes pain. Ignorance never helped anyone and I honestly thing that intolerance and ignorance are the worst things in the world. Prejudging someone before you even know him or her is just wrong. Just because someone believes in something you don't, that's no reason to kill him or her—they are people, too."
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2000.
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