by Last week it was announced that Stephen Fry would be delivering this year’s alternative Christmas message on Channel 4.
What refreshing news. After all, it wasn’t until 2008 that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating president, was given the platform.
So hearing that Fry – a national treasure and a powerful activist on issues like gay rights and mental health – will use this moment to raise awareness about the hate and racism directed at Jewish people right now is very welcome.
Anti-Semitism has increased year after year, but the events of recent months have shaken many of us to our core. It is incredible that today, 90 years after Hitler came to power and almost 80 years since his anti-Semitic crimes were exposed to the world, we are seeing anti-Semitism reach levels I have never witnessed before in my lifetime.
At the same time, we have seen a sharp rise in Islamophobia and many people feel isolated and scared.
And much of the vitriol we’ve seen in recent months has taken place and been amplified on social media platforms.
For us at Holocaust Educational Trust, as in any modern organisation, social media has long provided us with opportunities to reach new audiences and have important conversations. However, last month we made the unprecedented decision to disable comments on a post on our X account (formerly Twitter) due to the disgusting nature of the anti-Semitic responses we were receiving.
Comments including “The Holocaust is a false history of the Zionist Jews and it did not happen” and “No one believes the lies of the Jews anymore.” [sic].
Among the absolute denial of the Holocaust were slogans: “From the river to the sea… Israel will never exist”; “Keep the world clean” accompanied by an image of the Star of David thrown into the trash; and a comment about Hamas that said “they are freedom fighters fighting against the occupier forces.” [sic] “They have my full support.” All of these were under one position.
Once we strip away the rhetoric, we see the same old hate. Six million Jews were murdered by him.
You might assume that this was a response to something that directly mentions Israel, or to the anti-Semitism that continues to grow at a rapid rate as a result of the conflict, but you would be wrong. Rather, they were responses to a post marking the 85th anniversary of the arrival of Jewish children to safety in the UK on the Kindertransport. They were posted below a video of Vera Schaufeld MBE, 93, recounting her own memories of how she left behind everything she knew in Czechoslovakia (including her family, who were exterminated by the Nazis) and came to a safe place. paradise in the UK.
Unfortunately, this response to Schaufeld is very common these days. Since October 7, Holocaust organizations have faced a huge increase in anti-Semitic rhetoric. The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, which for years has published photographs and names of the 1.1 million men, women and children murdered at the camp, recently published a photograph of Naatje de Leeuw-Levie, a Dutch Jewish woman who was deported to field. . As the museum said in its post, she did not survive. A comment immediately appeared below: “Nor the thousands of Palestinians who were murdered Auschwitz style.” The museum has reported that it has lost more than 6,000 followers since October 7, raising the question of why remembering the Holocaust can be counterintuitive for people who want to support the Palestinian cause.
And it’s not just about institutions. I can personally attest that people who speak out about the Holocaust or anti-Semitism receive sickening abuse on a daily basis. My own responses on social media since October 7 have made disheartening reading. However, God forbid that I speak against it; If anything, me raising the deeply anti-Semitic responses I receive daily online will only fuel the fire, showing that I am “playing the victim card,” “using” the Holocaust, or claiming anti-Semitism to deflect legitimate criticism of Israel.
There are countless commenters who respond to everything I post to claim that Israel or Zionism is equivalent to the Nazis. That the Jewish state is now carrying out its own “final solution” – the Nazi euphemism for the murder of 6 million Jewish men, women and children – against the Palestinians. These are all examples of Holocaust reversals, presenting the Jewish people, whom the Nazis attempted to exterminate, as their modern equivalent.
This is just a small sample of the current anti-Semitism on social media and the problem itself is much bigger. Even when posts are reported, social media companies are unlikely to act. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that X continued to host 99% of the posts that CCDH researchers reported for promoting hate speech, including anti-Semitism.
History and facts are being replaced by emotion and a sense of righteousness.
And the spread of these anti-Semitic conspiracies is already having a detrimental effect. A recent study published in the Economist found that one in five Americans ages 18 to 29 believes the Holocaust is a myth. Another survey found that almost a quarter of Dutch people born after 1980 also believe that it is a myth or that the number of victims is greatly exaggerated.
Anti-Semitism is now at a level not seen since the Holocaust. Since October 7, public discourse seems useless, even impossible. Driven by social media, people are forced to choose a side as if it were a football match.
History and facts are being replaced by emotion and a sense of righteousness. It is now claimed that speaking out against anti-Semitism or posting a video of Holocaust survivors sharing their testimony is taking sides and is therefore attacked with ignorance and hatred. If you haven’t seen Stephen Fry’s reaction, have a look.
It is true that one can be shocked by the scenes we are witnessing in Gaza and criticize the decisions made by the Israeli government, and not be anti-Semitic. But if anyone is still wondering whether the hate we’re seeing is actually anti-Semitism or simply legitimate criticism of a nation state, they need look no further.
Once we strip away the rhetoric, we see the same old hate. People like Vera Schaufeld once lived this. People like 27-year-old Naatje de Leeuw-Levie were killed because of it. Let’s not be fooled just because she dresses up with new names and new policies.
Anti-Jewish hatred is on the march, and this time the world must not turn its back on it. Let’s make it our New Year’s resolution to finally eradicate anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and hate. Let’s make 2024 the year we finally find a cure for this poison.
• Karen Pollock CBE is chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust
