Survey: 23% of Israelis forgive Germany for Holocaust

70% of Israelis do not forgive, 7% unsure; Center for Academic Studies notes that the older the respondents, the more they agreed to forgive.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Holocaust Education (photo credit: Screenshot)
Holocaust Education
(photo credit: Screenshot)
Just under a quarter of Israelis forgive the German people for the Nazis’ crimes, according to a survey released on Sunday by the Center for Academic Studies.
The Geocartography Institute interviewed 500 men and women over the age of 18, a representative sample of the Jewish population in Israel.
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Survey participants were asked, “Today, 65 years after the Holocaust took place in Europe, is it time to forgive the German people and Germany for crimes committed in the Holocaust?” Twenty-three percent of respondents said that they forgive the Germans, while 70% said they do not. Seven percent said they are unsure.
The older the respondents, the more likely they are to forgive the German people.
More secular Jews than Orthodox are forgiving toward Germany.
Aaron Bock, the spokesman of the Jewish community in Germany, said, “The number of forgivers is surprising. It seems that the Israeli public understands more than in the past that Germany should no longer be punished for the Holocaust, because today there is a different Germany with Germans from another generation.”