An international study conducted in 2025 on a sample of 9,157 respondents from six Central European countries shows that distortions of Holocaust history are widespread across the region and closely linked to populist attitudes. Nearly 4 in 10 respondents equate Israel’s policies with Nazi genocide, while a significant share of the population believes that their nations suffered more than Jews during the Second World War. The study also revealed substantial overestimation of the extent to which fellow citizens helped Jews during the Holocaust, as well as support for the idea that history should serve present-day national interests, even at the cost of concealing certain historical facts. Across all countries studied, populist attitudes emerged as the most consistent factor associated with endorsement of these narratives. In addition, qualitative interviews with teachers in Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary showed that populist politics also affects the teaching of the Holocaust and may lead to self-censorship or the avoidance of sensitive topics in school environments.
The findings were produced within the framework of the IHRA-funded project “Holocaust Distortions in Central and Eastern Europe” (2024–26), led by Michal Bilewicz from the University of Warsaw, with participation from research teams at Eötvös Loránd University and the Institute for Research in Social Communication of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. You can read the full report here.
The full report is available here.
Foto: Horst Baltzer/ Pixabay