Ever since the dual shock of the Trump election and the Brexit referendum result in 2016, concern has spread across the western world about the rising influence of the far right, and its support for growing levels of xenophobia and intolerance.

This has been a particular concern in Europe, with parties such as the AfD in Germany and National Rally in France symbolic of a far right that has secured worrying levels of support.  New research from Rice University argues that support for such parties can be correlated with proximity to former Nazi concentration camps.

The researchers wanted to understand who parts of Europe seemed more susceptible to far right tendencies.  They looked across Europe for clues, but focused primarily on Germany, with data from the European Values Study meshed with the German General Social Survey to provide a degree of context to recent election results in the country.

Pernicious influence

Surprisingly, the researchers found that people who live near to concentration camp sites were much more likely to be xenophobic and intolerant of Muslims, Jews and immigrants, with this translating into support for far-right political parties.

“We believe that individuals living near concentration camps during World War II were more likely to conform to the beliefs system of the regime,” the researchers say. “And we think this was because of cognitive dissonance.”

Cognitive dissonance is when we try and justify new information and beliefs, even when they don’t align with our core values, and therefore eliminate any potential feelings of guilt or discomfort.  The authors believe that this has resulted in beliefs being passed down from generation to generation, especially surrounding the Holocaust.

“While the causes of the Holocaust have attracted ample scholarly attention, its long-term sociopolitical consequences are less understood,” they say. “Our evidence proves that when it comes to political attitudes, these consequences are real and measurable even today. The prejudice that this racist and inhumane institution instilled in the local population is hard to erase even after the institution itself is long gone.”

The paper describes how similar phenomenon have been observed in terms of slave encampments, with people living nearby having disproportionately racist or extreme views.  The authors believe their findings are especially timely as a result of political developments across Europe and the United States, where the (mis)treatment of marginalized groups has been in the spotlight.

“It is important to understand both contemporary factors and historical legacies that make exclusionary political appeals attractive,” they conclude.