One out of every five Hungarians believe that most of the horrors of the Holocaust was invented by Jews, a new study reveals.
While there is no significant growth in anti-Semitic views in Hungarian society, there is a notable increase in views of Holocaust relativization – shows a newly published study named “Anti-Semitic views in the Hungarian society, 2018”. The study was conducted by the Action and Protection Foundation (Tett és Védelem Alapítvány) together with the Median Research Institute.
The number of people who believe that there was no gas chambers (15%), or who hold, that Holocaust was invented by the Jews (21%) or those who believe, that there was significantly less victims, than the Jews claim (26%), was never this high since 2016- the organizations highlight in their press release.
However, there was also many other factors and trends they studied:
There is a growth in those who look at Israel favorably (from 3% to 9%). Also 50% stated that there should be more taught in schools about the Holocaust, this number was 42% in 2017.
Most Hungarians also believe that Jews are safer in Hungary, than in western-Europe.
The Action and Protection Foundation publishes a monthly report on anti-Semitic incidents since 2013. Anti-Semitic incidents have decreased in 2018, based on the study that was published just recently.
32 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in 2018 as opposed to 37 in the year before. 19 of them was anti-Semitic hate speech, 10 was abuse against property and only 3 was physical attacks.
The newly published study reveals, that perception towards Israel significantly improved. Those who look at the Jewish State favorably increased from 3 to 9%, while those who look at it unfavorably only grew from 4 to 5%.
One of the most debated issues is whether the government’s anti-Soros campaign has fueled anti-Semitism or not: only 1% equates George Soros with the Jews. Interestingly enough, this number is only 2% even among the supporters of the far-right Jobbik party.