(AFP) They grew up in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia and can place Israel on a map, but many young refugees in Sweden have never heard of the Holocaust.
Their first contact with Jewish history in Europe is often in the classroom and sometimes from the teachers themselves.
“One of my teachers was harassed by other students. He’s Jewish and they made fun of him all of the time,” says Nergis Resne, a 19-year-old born in Sweden to Turkish-Macedonian parents.
She has since joined the group Young People Against Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia founded by Siavosh Derakthi in Malmo, Sweden’s third-biggest city where one in three inhabitants was born abroad.
Organisations and a foundation started by Stieg Larsson, the late author of the best-selling “Millennium” crime trilogy, are taking on the challenge of helping students and teachers fight against anti-Semitism.
