Jump to content

Holocaust trivialization

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Auschwitz concentration camps, a testament that antisemitism caused the worst genocide in human history.
A Holocaust memorial outside Auschwitz concentration camp I.

Holocaust trivialization is the use of the word Holocaust in a way that decreases the perceived size or importance of the Holocaust: the genocide of at least 6,000,000 Jews (67% of pre-war European Jews).[1][2] More specifically, Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA), observed Holocaust trivialization as[3]

[A] tool for some ideologically [...] motivated activists to metaphorically compare phenomena they oppose to the industrial-scale destruction of the Jews [. ...] exaggerate the evil nature of a phenomenon they condemn.

Background

[change | change source]

Definition of the Holocaust

[change | change source]

As per the Holocaust Encyclopedia, run by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM),[4]

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators.

According to Yad Vashem:[5]

The Holocaust was unprecedented genocide, total and systematic, perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, with the aim of annihilating the Jewish people.

As per the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust:[6]

The Holocaust was the attempt by the Nazis and their collaborators to murder all the Jews in Europe.

According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA):[7]

[The Holocaust was] the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices during World War II, [also] known as [...] the Shoah.

Etymology

[change | change source]

The word holocaust originally described a religious sacrifice where animals were burned to ashes. At some point during the late 19th century, it also came to mean "large-scale destruction of a group of men". For instance, some people described the Armenian Genocide as a holocaust when it happened.[8] After World War II, the Nazis' genocide against the Jews became widely known as "the Holocaust."[9] This name was chosen to reflect how the bodies of concentration camp victims were burned to ash in fires or crematoria.[9]

Today, mainstream scholars say it is offensive to use the word holocaust to describe something other than the World War II-era Holocaust.[10] Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said that the word had become too trivialized. He pointed out examples of news networks using the word to describe a small-scale murder case or the defeat of a sports team.[11]

Forms of Holocaust trivialization

[change | change source]

Holocaust inversion

[change | change source]
Antisemitic poster spotted at an allegedly anti-war rally in San Francisco on February 16, 2003, which incorporated both the motifs of "happy merchant Jews" and "Zio-Nazis". The slur ZIONIST PIGS[12]was also used.
Antisemitic graffiti in Madrid, 2003, equating the Star of David with the dollar and Nazi swastika.

Today, the most common form of Holocaust trivialization is the ahistorical Holocaust inversion, which compares Jews or Israel to Nazis or Nazi Germany.[13][14] It is antisemitic under the definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).[15][16]

Increasingly, Holocaust inversion is considered antisemitic. Critics argue that it erases Jewish people's historical victimhood and implies that Jews are as guilty as the Holocaust's perpetrators for their own genocide.[17] Some people have used this rhetoric as a vehicle for their antisemitism.[18][17]

According to the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Holocaust inversion can take many forms, including:[19]

French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy wrote that Holocaust inversion has encouraged violence against Jews:[21]

[A] mass movement demanding the deaths of Jews will be unlikely to yell "Money Jews" or "They Killed Christ." [. ...] for people to feel once again [...] the right to burn all the synagogues they want, to attack boys wearing yarmulkes [...] an entirely new discourse way of justifying it must emerge.

Author Yossi Klein Halevi believed that the comparison demonized Jews:[22]

The deepest source of anti-Israel animus[23] is the symbolization of the Jew as embodiment of evil. The satanic Jew has been replaced by the satanic Jewish state. [...] The end of the post-Holocaust era is expressed most starkly in the inversion of the Holocaust. [...]

[change | change source]

References

[change | change source]
  1. ↑
    • Shapiro, P.A. (2007). "Faith, murder, resurrection: The Iron Guard and the Romanian Orthodox Church". Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence, and the Holocaust. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253116741. OCLC 191071016. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
    • Laqueur, Walter (July 30, 2009). "Towards the Holocaust". The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195341218. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
    • "Deportation of Hungarian Jews". Timeline of Events. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
    • Brosnan, Matt (12 June 2018). "What Was The Holocaust?". Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
    • "36 Questions About the Holocaust". Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Gerstenfeld, Manfred (April 9, 2008). "Holocaust Trivialization". Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA). Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Introduction to the Holocaust". Holocaust Encyclopedia. September 20, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Thematic and Chronological Narrative". Yad Vashem. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  6. ↑ "The Holocaust". Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  7. ↑ "Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion". International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Retrieved March 16, 2025.
  8. ↑ Suny, Ronald Grigor (2015). "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide. Princeton University Press. pp. xxi, 347, 369. ISBN 978-1-4008-6558-1.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "What Is the Origin of the Term Holocaust? | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-03-25.
  10. ↑ "Antisemitism and Hate in Canada". League for Human Rights of Canada. March 2000. Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  11. ↑ Cohen, Asher; Gelber, Joav; Wardi, Charlotte, eds. (1988). Comprehending the Holocaust: Historical and Literary Research. Bern: Peter Lang. p. 13. ISBN 978-3-63-140428-7. Retrieved 2 December 2020 – via Google Books.
  12. ↑ A modified variant of the medieval European antisemitic slur Jewish pigs, later popularized by Martin Luther in the 16th century.
  13. ↑ Major "Anti-Semitic Motifs in Arab Cartoons" Archived 17 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine. An Interview with Joël Kotek. Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism. No. 21. 1 June 2004
  14. ↑ Gerstenfeld, Manfred (1 November 2005). "The Twenty-first-century Total War Against Israel and the Jews". Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism (38). Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  15. ↑ "Working Definition Of Antisemitism". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
    IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism:
  16. ↑ An intergovernmental organization on the history of antisemitism and the Holocaust.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 *"Holocaust Glorification, Distortion and Trivialization Following the Hamas Massacre of October 7". B’nai B’rith International. January 26, 2024. Retrieved February 2, 2025.
  18. ↑ "Holocaust Inversion and contemporary antisemitism". Fathom Journal.
  19. ↑ "Antisemitism defined: Why drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to the Nazis is antisemitic". World Jewish Congress.
  20. ↑ A headdress worn by Arab men, consisting of a square of fabric fastened by a band round the crown of the head. Oxford Languages.
  21. ↑ *Marcus, Kenneth L. (30 August 2010). Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-49119-8.
  22. ↑ Yossi Klein Halevi (October 10, 2024). "The End of the Post-Holocaust Era". Jewish Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  23. ↑ Hostility or ill feeling. Oxford Languages.
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holocaust_trivialization&oldid=10175887"