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Encouraging Findings from the 2018 Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Study

, I'm a political strategist, pollster, author and commentator. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Last week, we observed Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, to commemorate the approximatively six million Jews who lost their lives in The Holocaust.

As time passes and The Holocaust becomes a more distant point in history, it is vital that we remain not just aware of The Holocaust, but also ensure that future generations are educated about the important details of one of the most horrific mass genocides in world history.

While prior research exists on baseline Holocaust awareness and denial in the United States, there had been no published study to date that assessed what attitudes that Americans have towards the current state of Holocaust education in the United States, or what detailed knowledge American adults have about The Holocaust.

To better understand the state of Holocaust education and knowledge in the United States, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a group that negotiates for grants from the German government to protect survivors and support Holocaust education, commissioned my firm, Schoen Consulting, to conduct the first comprehensive study of Holocaust awareness, knowledge, and education in the United States.

WARSAW, POLAND - APRIL 12: Sunlight reflects on an inscription in the sidewalk that shows the border of the former Warsaw Ghetto in Chlodna Street on April 12, 2018 in Warsaw, Poland. Poland will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19. The Warsaw Ghetto was a prison created by the German military during its occupation of Warsaw during World War II. Starting in 1940, 400,000 Jews were confined to a walled-in neighborhood of 3.4 square kilometers under horrific conditions. With assistance from Polish partisans the Jews rose up in armed resistance in 1943 and held off the Germans for several weeks until the Germans annihilated the ghetto, killing 13,000 people. In all 392,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto were killed, most of them after deportation to the Treblinka death camp. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Encouragingly, our findings reveal that most Americans are aware that The Holocaust occurred, understand the significance of Holocaust education and knowledge, and support further enhancing such.

Broadly, Holocaust awareness in the United States is high. According to our findings, nearly 9 in 10 US adults, or 89 percent, know what The Holocaust is.

Nevertheless, there were certain troubling elements of our findings that should not be overlooked. Namely, that many Americans are not familiar with specific details of The Holocaust, such as specific names of ghettos and concentration camps.