In May 1995, 50 years after the end of the second World War, Ireland’s minister for equality and law reform, Mervyn Taylor, opened the “Garden of Europe” in Listowel, Co Kerry, which contained the only Holocaust memorial in Ireland. Speaking as an Irish Jew, he said: “I can only say how much this gesture by the people of Listowel is appreciated by my own community.”

More than 30 years on, Mervyn’s son, Gideon Taylor, president of the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference), established in 1951 to seek reparation from Germany on behalf of Jewish victims, has been speaking about one of his Conference’s surveys. It suggests almost one in 10 Irish people aged between 18 and 29 believe the Holocaust is a “myth”, while 19 per cent in this age group believe it happened but believe its scale has been “greatly exaggerated”. These findings align with similar surveys in the US and other parts of Europe, albeit with parallel robust support for education about the Holocaust.

Taylor suggests these findings come at a particularly poignant moment: “Soon we are going to live in a world without Holocaust survivors, without a Holocaust survivor voice.” The findings follow the recent deaths of Ireland’s oldest man, Holocaust survivor........

© The Irish Times