Picture: Channel 4/Adam Lawrence/PA
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 was only in 2008 that the Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was given the platform.
So to hear instead that Fry - a national treasure and a powerful campaigner on issues including gay rights and mental health - will use this moment to raise awareness of the hatred and racism currently directed against the Jewish people , is very welcome.
Anti-Semitism has increased year after year, but the events of recent months have shocked many of us to our core. It is incredible that today, ninety years after Hitler came to power and almost eighty years after his anti-Semitic crimes were exposed to the world, we see anti-Semitism reaching levels I have never seen before in my life.
At the same time, we have seen a sharp increase in Islamophobia, and many people are feeling isolated and afraid.
And so much of the vitriol we've seen in recent months has taken place and been amplified on social media platforms.
For us at the Holocaust Educational Trust, as in any modern organisation, social media has long provided us with opportunities to reach new audiences and have important conversations. Still, last month we made the unprecedented decision to disable comments on a post on our X account (formerly Twitter) due to the sickening nature of the anti-Semitic responses we were receiving.
Reactions including "Holocaust is a fake Zionist Jewish story and did not happen" and "no one believes in Jewish lies anymore" [sic].
Amid the outright 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 being thrown into the trash; and a comment on Hamas that said: "They are freedom fighters fighting the occupiers [sic] they have all my support." These were all under one post.
The story continues
Once we bring back the rhetoric, we see the same old hatred. Six million Jews were murdered by it
You might assume this was in response to something that directly mentioned Israel, or to the anti-Semitism that continues to grow at a rapid pace as a result of the conflict, but you'd be wrong. These were earlier responses to a post marking the 85th anniversary of the arrival of Jewish children in Britain on the Kindertransport. They were posted below a video of 93-year-old Vera Schaufeld MBE, who recounted her own memories of leaving everything she knew in Czechoslovakia - including her family, who were later exterminated by the Nazis - and going to a safe. refuge in Great Britain.
This response to Schaufeld is unfortunately all too common these days. Since October 7, Holocaust organizations have faced a huge wave of anti-Semitic rhetoric. The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, which for years has posted photos and names of the 1.1 million men, women and children murdered in the camp, recently posted a photo of Naatje de Leeuw-Levie, a Dutch Jewish woman who went to the camp has been deported. As the museum said in its post, she did not survive. A comment immediately appeared underneath: "The thousands of Palestinians who were murdered in Auschwitz style were not killed either." The museum has reported that it has lost more than 6,000 followers since October 7, raising questions about why commemorating the Holocaust might conflict with people who want to support the Palestinian cause.
And it's not just institutions. I can personally confirm that those who speak out about the Holocaust or anti-Semitism suffer sickening abuse on a daily basis. My own reactions on social media since October 7 have become grim. But heaven forbid I speak out against it - if I bring up the deeply anti-Semitic comments I receive online every day, it will only fan the flames, proving that I am 'playing the victim card', 'using' the Holocaust, or claim anti-Semitism to deflect legitimate criticism of Israel.
There are countless commenters who respond to everything I post and claim that Israel or Zionism are equivalent to the Nazis. That the Jewish state is now waging 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 the inversion of the Holocaust, presenting the Jewish people, whom the Nazis sought to exterminate, as the modern-day equivalent.
This is just a very small insight into anti-Semitism on social media today, and the problem itself is much bigger. Even if messages are reported, the social media companies are unlikely to take action. A recent report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that X continued to host 99% of posts that CCDH researchers reported promoted hate speech, including anti-Semitism.
History and facts are replaced by emotion and a sense of justice
And the spread of these anti-Semitic conspiracies is already having damaging consequences. A recent study published in the Economist found that one in five Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 believe the Holocaust is a myth. Another study showed 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 levels not seen since the Holocaust. Since October 7, public debate has felt pointless, even impossible. Fueled by social media, individuals are forced to choose a side as if it were a football match.
History and facts are replaced by emotion and a sense of justice. Calling out anti-Semitism or posting a video of Holocaust survivors sharing their testimony is now claimed to be taking a side and is thus attacked ignorantly and hatefully. If you didn't see the response to Stephen Fry: look.
It is true that you can be shocked by the scenes we are witnessing in Gaza and critical of the choices the Israeli government has made without being an anti-Semite. But if anyone is still wondering whether the hatred we see is actually anti-Semitism, or just legitimate criticism of a nation-state, they need look no further.
Once we bring back the rhetoric, we see the same old hatred. People like Vera Schaufeld have experienced it once. People like 27-year-old Naatje de Leeuw-Levie were murdered by it. Let us not be fooled just because it is dressed up with new names and new politics.
Anti-Jewish hatred is on the rise, and this time the world must not turn its back. Let us all make it our New Year's resolution to finally eradicate 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 Educational Trust
* Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? To submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, please email it to us at [email protected]
