Holocaust Survivors Condemn Anti-Vaccine Protesters’ Use Of Nazi Imagery

Topline

Holocaust survivors, Jewish advocacy groups and Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday by condemning anti-vaccine activists who likened Covid-19 response measures to the Holocaust and comparing healthcare officials to Nazis.

Key Facts

Protesters against Covid-19 measures who liken themselves to Jews under Nazism fuel anti-Semitism and contribute to trivialization of the Holocaust, according to a report published Thursday by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.

Margot Friedlaender, who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt concentration camp and whose mother and brother were killed at Auschwitz, said Thursday she was incredulous and outraged to see “the new enemies of democracy” presenting themselves as victims by wearing yellow Stars of David like the badges the Nazis compelled Jews to wear.

Holocaust survivors Joan Salter, Estelle Nadel and Gabriella Karin told Insider that using Holocaust imagery to protest vaccines was an insult to both living and deceased Holocaust victims.

Comparisons of Covid-19 measures to Nazism have been made by U.S. Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), by Republican Washington state Rep. Jim Walsh, by Republican Idaho state Rep. Heather Scott, by Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Lara Logan, and by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suggested that modern Americans opposed to vaccines were more persecuted than Anne Frank.

Some anti-Semitic agitators have taken the opposite angle, distributing flyers Sunday in Denver, San Francisco and Miami claiming that the Covid-19 crisis is the result of a Jewish conspiracy—a claim echoed by online agitators, the Diaspora Affairs Ministry reported.

Key Background

As imagery from liberated concentration camps spread around the world, Nazism grew into an ahistorical symbol for pure evil, said University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Brian Scott Johnson. The Nazis and Adolf Hitler have proven convenient symbols for people wishing to vilify their political opponents, from Donald Trump to Nelson Mandela. In 1990, this tendency was codified by attorney Mike Godwin as Godwin’s law, which states that the longer an online discussion continues, the more probable a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler becomes. According to Godwin, the first person to fulfill Godwin’s law has lost the argument.

Crucial Quote

“Covid brought Holocaust trivialization to a summit,” Dani Dayan, chairman of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, told the i24NEWS TV network.

Big Number

1.2 million. That’s how many online discussions took place from 2020 to 2021 linking Covid-19 to the Holocaust, according to the nonprofit Combat Antisemitism Movement. Of 63.7 million posts, comments and other engagements identified, 56.9 million took place in English.

Tangent

International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place on January 27, the day Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Red Army.

Further Reading

“RFK Jr. Apologizes For ‘Anne Frank’ Comparison At Anti-Vax Rally—As Wife Cheryl Hines Calls Comment ‘Reprehensible’” (Forbes)