The Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute commissioned a survey that examined German society’s knowledge and attitudes towards 20th century history, the Second World War and the history of Poland. Germans were asked, among other things: whether Poles had received adequate compensation for the Second World War.
A detailed analysis of the study results is currently being prepared. In the press release, the Pilecki Institute in Berlin included a brief initial selection of the results of the research project.
When asked about the extent of anti-Semitism in various European countries before World War II, respondents said that anti-Semitism was most prominent in Nazi Germany (55 percent believed anti-Semitism was fairly strong or very strong), followed by the Soviet Union (38 percent) and Poland (34 percent). In countries such as France (29 percent), Romania (26 percent), the Netherlands (21 percent) and Denmark (16 percent), the prevalence of anti-Semitism was lower, according to respondents.
Terrible test results
In 2024, the majority of German society is convinced that the victims of the Holocaust were mainly their fellow citizens living in Germany at the time, German Jews. 59 percent said so. respondents. Only 28 percent indicated Polish Jews as the largest group of victims, and Poland as the country of origin of most Holocaust victims. In fact, the number of German Jews murdered was about 165,000 (out of a Jewish community that numbered about half a million in Germany before 1933) – compared to about 3 million Polish Jews murdered.
— we read in the statement from the Pilecki Institute.
According to respondents, the penalties for aiding Jews were the harshest in the Third Reich, while in occupied countries, including Poland, the penalties were milder. 46 percent of respondents assessed that in Germany it was punishable by death, while far fewer respondents – 31 percent – chose this answer in relation to occupied Poland.
Although the system in occupied Poland was highly repressive compared to other occupied countries, respondents assessed that it was Germans who suffered the harshest penalties.
– it was written in the information.
One of the topics of international debate on 20th century history is the question of how different countries perceive their responsibility for the Holocaust in relation to their actual responsibility under the Nazi occupation of Europe. The survey also asked a “blame question”. More than half of the respondents (57%) said they believed that Germany and collaborating representatives of the conquered nations were equally responsible for the Holocaust. Far fewer (34%) chose the answer that it was “primarily Germans”, and only 9%. chose the answer “only Germany”.
Have the crimes been solved?!
The majority of respondents believe that the crimes committed by Nazi Germany against Polish victims have been at least partially (53%) or completely (25%) resolved. 23% are of the opposite opinion. respondents.
Germans are more likely to believe that Polish victims of World War II have already received adequate or relatively adequate compensation from the German state (39%) than that they have not received such compensation (25%).
To show how historical stereotypes work, the study also asked questions about Germans’ perceptions of Poland and France.
The head of the Pilecki Institute’s Berlin branch, Hanna Radziejowska, said in an August interview with PAP that “to questions about women’s rights in Poland and France before the war, we receive answers that characteristically show ‘gaps in knowledge.’” In pre-war Poland, which was one of the first countries in the world to grant women full political rights in 1918 (also before Germany), about 36 percent of German respondents said women had no rights at all before the war, and only 13 percent said they had full or almost full rights. Germans. When asked the same question about pre-war France, where women’s rights were only granted in 1945, Germans see it differently: 22 percent. said they had no rights, while 26 percent said they had full rights before the war.” She added that almost half of Germans answered “don’t know” to both questions.
The study, which involved 2,000 respondents, was conducted on behalf of the Pilecki Institute in Berlin by Ipsos GmbH.
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NT/PAP
