Quarter of Dutch under 40 believe Holocaust was exaggerated

Dutch politicians reacted with shock Wednesday after a study showed almost a quarter of adults under 40 in the Netherlands believed the Holocaust was a myth or the number of deaths exaggerated.

The survey, done by the influential group Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany Conference in New York, found some 12 per cent of respondents overall shared the same view.

Researchers said that 23 per cent of Millennial and Generation Z respondents -- those born between the early 1980s and around 2010 -- thought the extermination of more than six million of Jews by the Nazis before and during World War II was a fallacy or overblown.

The findings "exposed a disturbing lack of awareness of key historical facts about the Holocaust and the Netherlands' own connection to Holocaust history," the Claims Conference group said.

"The numbers overall regarding denial and distortion are also higher compared to other countries we have surveyed," added the group's president Greg Schneider.

Other countries surveyed were Britain and Canada, where nine per cent of respondents overall held the same view, and Austria and France (10 per cent).

Although 89 per cent of 2,000 Dutch respondents...