ZGram - 7/31/2001 - "Brazilian stats"

[Ingrid Rimland]

Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

July 31, 2001

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Why the dickens Brazilians, of all people, should concern themselves with
matters of the "Holocaust" is something left for the reader to ponder.
However, self-serving surveys tell a story - and there is an interesting
story enbedded in this one:

[START]

Thursday July 26, 8:08 am Eastern Time

  Press Release

  SOURCE: American Jewish Committee

   American Jewish Committee Survey: One-Third of Brazilians Completely
Unaware of Holocaust

       SAO PAULO, Brazil, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- One-third of Brazilians
have no awareness at all of the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War
II, and 11 percent say it is possible that the Holocaust never happened,
according to a new American Jewish Committee survey released today at a
news conference in Sao Paulo.

  ``The level of ignorance in the largest South American country about the
systematic Nazi murder of one-third of the Jewish people, including 1.5
million children, is very troubling,'' said Shulamit Bahat, acting
executive director of the American Jewish Committee. ``Latin America may be
far removed from the events surrounding World War II, but we would hope
that the greatest human tragedy of the 20th century would be an integral
part of any country's educational system.''

  Told directly about the ``Nazi extermination of the Jews during the
Second World War,'' and asked ``Are you at all aware of the episode?'' 68
percent of Brazilians answer ``yes'' and 32 percent ``no,'' according to
the AJC survey.  With regard to the particulars of the Holocaust, only 5
percent of Brazilians correctly identify Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka
as concentration camps, while 95 percent answer ``don't know.'' Similarly,
only 8 percent of Brazilians correctly cite the yellow star or a variant as
the symbol that Jews were forced to wear during the Second World War, while
86 percent answer ``don't know.''

  Still, despite a weak knowledge base, a majority of Brazilians favor
keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, according to the AJC survey.

  * 63 percent of Brazilians maintain that Holocaust education should be
included in schools, while 31 percent disagree.

       * 67 percent of Brazilians feel that they "should keep remembrance
of the Nazi extermination of the Jews strong even after the passage of
time."

In contrast, 28 percent of Brazilians maintain that "more than 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."

       * 61 percent of Brazilians deem it "essential" or "very important"
that "all Brazilians know about the Nazi extermination of the Jews," while
34 percent see it as "only somewhat important" or "not important."

  The AJC survey found a measure of openness to Holocaust denial among
Brazilians, a factor that may be a result of the widespread ignorance about
the Holocaust. Eleven percent of Brazilians said it seems possible that the
Nazi extermination of the Jews never happened, while 76 percent feel
certain that it happened. The 11 percent figure was the highest among the
13 countries surveyed so far by the AJC.

  The AJC survey also found negative feelings about Jews prevalent among a
significant portion of the Brazilian population.

  Asked about their willingness to live as neighbors with various minority
groups, 37 percent ``prefer not to have'' Jewish neighbors, the highest
figure for any of the 13 countries in which the AJC has fielded the
question. Some 47 percent state that it ``wouldn't make any difference''
and 12 percent said they would like to have Jewish neighbors.

  Brazilians also were asked to react to the statement ``Now, as in the
past, Jews exert too much influence on world events.'' Forty-five percent
``agree'' (``strongly agree'': 21 percent; ``somewhat agree'': 24 percent),
32 percent ``disagree'' (``strongly disagree'': 18 percent; ``somewhat
disagree'': 14 percent), and 22 percent ``don't know.''

   The Jewish community in Brazil numbers 98,000, about 0.6 percent of the
total population.

   The survey was conducted for the American Jewish Committee by IBOPE, a
leading opinion-research organization based in Sao Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro, between March 22 and 25, 2001. The survey of 1,000 respondents,
who were interviewed face to face, has a margin of error of plus or minus
three percentage points.

   Since 1992, AJC has carried out public opinion polls on knowledge and
remembrance of the Holocaust in the following countries: United States,
Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Russia, Australia, Czech
Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Argentina.

  SOURCE: American Jewish Committee

[END]

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Thought for the Day:

"By God, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation."

(Robert, Lord Clive)