According to a recent poll, over 80 percent of Jewish Israelis believe the Holocaust will lose its historical significance

More than 80 percent of Israel’s Jewish citizens believe that, in a few years, the memory of the Holocaust could fade to become just one of many historical events in the national consciousness, according to a recent study.

Israel’s NRG news reported that the study was conducted by Geocartography for the Center of the Organizations of Holocaust Survivors ahead of Yom HaShoah, which will be commemorated next week.

Over one-third of respondents (36.6 percent) said that the memory of the Holocaust would fade, and 45 percent responded that there was a possibility that it could happen. Only 17.5 percent said that such an outcome would not occur.

Significantly, adults found it harder than young people to believe that the memory of the Holocaust would lose its centrality and significance with the course of time. 30 percent of those aged fifty-five and up said that it would not, compared with only 17.4 percent of those aged 35-54 and 11.5 percent of those aged 18-34.

Education also seemed to play a role in the respondents’ opinions. Those whose highest level of education was a high school degree (19.8 percent), and those with below-average income (21.1 percent), found it hard to believe that the memory of the Holocaust would weaken. By comparison, those with an academic-level education and above-average income were more likely to agree that the Holocaust would lose its significance with time, with 14.3 percent and 12.7 percent agreeing, respectively.

Almost half of those surveyed said that the memory of the Holocaust affects Israelis on a personal level and the Jewish state on a national level when it comes to decision-making, according to NRG.

The survey was conducted among a representative sample of 500 people from the adult Jewish population in Israel. Its aim was to investigate whether the public’s memory of the Holocaust still influences daily decision-making, and the possibility of the Holocaust becoming one of many vague historical events, considering the fact that very few Holocaust survivors remain alive.