by It was announced last week that Stephen Fry would be delivering this year’s alternative Christmas message on Channel 4.
What exciting news. After all, it was only in 2008 that the Holocaust-hating president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was given the platform.
So it is very welcome to use Fry – a national treasure and powerful campaigner on issues including gay rights and mental health – to raise awareness of the hatred and racism currently directed at Jews.
Anti-Semitism has increased year on year but the events of recent months have affected many of us. It is incredible that today, 90 years after Hitler came to power and almost 80 years since his anti-Semitic crimes were revealed to the world, anti-Semitism is reaching levels I have never seen before in my life.
At the same time we have seen a rise in Islamophobia, and many people are feeling isolated and scared.
And so much of the vitriol we’ve seen in recent months has occurred and amplified on social media platforms.
For us at the Holocaust Educational Trust, as in any modern organisation, we have long provided opportunities in social media to reach new audiences and hold important conversations. But last month we made the unprecedented decision to turn off comments on a post on our X (formerly Twitter) account due to the sickening nature of the anti-Semitic responses we were receiving.
Comments including “The Holocaust is a fake Zionist Jewish story and it didn’t happen” and “Nobody believes the Jews lie anymore” [sic].
Among the total denial of the Holocaust were slogans: “From the River to the Sea… Israel will never be”; “Keep the world clean” accompanied by an image of a star of David being thrown in the bin; and a statement about Hamas that said “they are freedom fighters who are fighting against the occupiers [sic] they have my full support”. These were all under one post.
When we peel back the rhetoric, we see the same old hatred. He killed six million Jews
You may assume that this was the answer to something that directly mentions Israel, or the anti-Semitism that is growing at a rapid rate as a result of the conflict, but you would be wrong. Rather, these were responses to a post marking the 85th anniversary of the arrival of Jewish children to safety in the UK on the Kindertransport. Posted below was a video of 93-year-old Vera Schaufeld MBE recounting her own memories of leaving behind everything she knew in Czechoslovakia – including her family, who went on to exterminate the Nazis by the Nazis – and coming safely. asylum in the UK.
Unfortunately this response to Schaufeld is all too common at the moment. Since October 7, Holocaust organizations have faced a major surge in anti-Semitic rhetoric. The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, which houses the pictures and names of the 1.1 million men, women and children murdered at the camp over the years, posted a photo of Naatje de Leeuw-Levie, a Dutch Jewish woman who was deported to the camp over the years. . As the museum said in its post, she did not survive. A comment came immediately below: “The thousands of Palestinians killed were not Auschwitz style either”. The museum has reported that it has lost more than 6,000 followers since October 7, raising the question of why people who want to support the Palestinian cause should feel compelled to remember the Holocaust.
And it’s not just institutions. I can personally attest that individuals who speak about the Holocaust or anti-Semitism receive sickening abuse every day. My own responses on social media since October 7th have made a terrible read. But, heaven forbid I speak out against him – if anything, I’ll only add to the highly anti-semitic responses I get online daily and fuel the fire, proving that I’m “playing the victim card” , “using” the Holocaust, or claiming. anti-Semitism to moderate legitimate criticism of Israel.
There are many commenters who respond to everything I post to claim that Israel or Zionism is the same as Nazis. That the Jewish state is now carrying out its own “final solution” – the Nazi horror of murdering 6 million Jewish men, women and children – against the Palestinians. All these are examples of the reversal of the Holocaust, presented by the Jews, who the Nazis tried to exterminate, as the equivalent of today.
This is just a very small glimpse of anti-Semitism on social media today and the problem itself is much bigger. Even when jobs are reported, social media companies are unlikely to act. A recent report by the Center for Digital Backlash found that X continued to host 99% of the posts reported by CCDH researchers to promote hate speech, including anti-Semitism.
Emotions and a sense of righteousness are being replaced by history and facts
And the spread of these antisemitic conspiracies is already having a damaging effect. A recent study published in the economist found that one in five Americans aged 18-29 believe 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 feels futile, even impossible. Because of social media, people are forced to choose outside as if this is a football game.
Emotions and a sense of righteousness are being replaced by history and facts. Calling anti-Semitism or posting a video of Holocaust survivors sharing their testimony and being so ignorantly and hatefully attacked is now said to be taking sides. If you haven’t seen the response to Stephen Fry, look.
It is true that you can be alarmed by the scenes we are seeing in Gaza and be critical of the choices made by the Israeli government, and not be a resistance. But if anyone is still wondering if the hatred we’re seeing is really anti-Semitism, or just legitimate criticism of a nation-state, they need look no further.
When we peel back the rhetoric, we see the same old hatred. People like Vera Schaufeld lived through that time. He killed people like 27-year-old Naatje de Leeuw-Levie. Don’t be fooled just because he’s dressed up with new names and new politics.
Anti-Jewish hatred is on the march, and this time the world should not turn its back. Let us all make it our new year’s resolution to end anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and hatred. Let’s make 2024 the year we finally find a cure for this poison.
• Karen Pollock CBE is chief executive of the Holocaust Education Trust
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