Nearly one-third of American adults, if alive during the Holocaust, would refuse to shelter a Jew from the Nazis, a recent poll found.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the poll was conducted as part of a unique marketing ploy to promote the digital release of Return to the Hiding Place which tells the story of a group of Christians who hid Jews during World War II.
Peter Spencer, who directed and co-produced the film, got the idea for the poll after one of its stars, John Rhys-Davies, asked interviewers during a promotional appearance if they would have risked their lives to shelter Jews.
"It's a moral dilemma that we've never had to face, but you know those kids did, and their families did, and a lot of them lost their lives because of it," Rhys-Davies told the co-hosts of the Hallmark's Channel Home & Family program.
Barna Research conducted the poll, asking 1,000 Americans to "think back to World War II when Jews in Europe were forced into concentration camps and many were killed by the Nazis."
Respondents were then asked: "If you were living in this time period, would you have risked the possible imprisonment and death of yourself and your family to hide Jews?"
Sixty-nine percent said they would agree to risk their lives to hide Jews, while 31 percent said they would not.
According to an analysis of the data, males were more likely than females to shelter Jews, as were married people and homosexuals over singles and heterosexuals, respectively.
In addition, religious people were more likely to answer yes than secular people, as were Southerners over those from the Northeast.