Holocaust

Holocaust-related antisemitism can feel paradoxical. The Holocaust is widely recognised as a moral rupture, a symbol of where hatred can lead. And yet, Holocaust memory is constantly distorted, minimised, or weaponised in ways that keep antisemitism alive.

In this section we focus on three broad patterns.

First, denial and minimisation: claims that the Holocaust did not happen, that the numbers are fabricated or exaggerated, or that it has been "overplayed" for sympathy or political gain. This is not just historical illiteracy. It is a way of rehabilitating the ideologies that produced the genocide, and of stripping Jews of the right to name their own trauma.

Second, inversion: framing Jews, Israel, or "Zionists" as the new Nazis, or suggesting that Jews have "become what they suffered". Sometimes this is presented as moral critique. In practice it often functions as a form of humiliation, a way of turning Holocaust memory into a stick with which to beat Jews, and of placing Jews outside the normal boundaries of empathy and moral complexity.

Third, exploitation: using the Holocaust as an all-purpose rhetorical tool, either to silence Jewish voices ("you're playing the Holocaust card") or to advance unrelated agendas. This too rests on an old antisemitic idea: that Jews manipulate suffering for power.

None of this means that the Holocaust is beyond discussion, criticism, or historical debate. It means that there are recognisable patterns of distortion that do not illuminate history, but serve contemporary hostility.

The examples here show how Holocaust-related antisemitism appears online and in public discourse, why it is harmful, and how to recognise the difference between serious engagement with history and the use of Holocaust language as a weapon.