If you care about the Holocaust, don’t ignore anti-Semitism today
It is an incontrovertible fact that the Holocaust was the result of anti-Semitism. It happened, and could only happen, on the back of two millennia of anti-Semitism, and after years of anti-Jewish hate was woven into the fabric of German society by the Nazis.
Every January, as I see people of all backgrounds coming together to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, I take comfort in knowing that here in the UK, commemorating the Holocaust – the murder of 6 million Jewish people – is an important part of the fabric of our country.
At the Holocaust Educational Trust our mission is to ensure that this history is taught about, understood, and remembered, so the recent polling undertaken by Ipsos is good news. It showed that 85 per cent of people in the UK think it is important that the Holocaust is discussed, and that 73 per cent feel fairly confident in their knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust.
But whilst that is positive, polling released earlier this week by the Claims Conference shows that 17 per cent of the adult population of the UK believe that the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust has been inaccurately described, and according to the results, 22 per cent of 18-29-year-olds think that. This is worrying.
This research points towards a creep of misinformation and disinformation. The Holocaust is the most well-documented crime ever committed. It was documented by victims, who risked their lives to ensure that their experiences would be remembered, burying letters in the ground for us to find; it was documented by survivors, who have spent decades sharing their most painful memories; and crucially it was documented by the perpetrators, with the Nazis keeping meticulous records.
And yet, according to this research, somewhere up to 9.2 million people question this slew of evidence. There remain people – here in the UK – who question that 6 million Jews were murdered. And it does not go unnoticed that Ipsos’ research indicated that only 39 per cent of the adult population of the UK believes that anti-Semitism is a problem here today.
As Jewish people today live under the threat of anti-Semitism at a level not seen since the end of the Second World War, people do not see or perhaps care that anti-Jewish racism is being spewed online, on protests, in football stands, in classrooms, on the streets.
The Holocaust did not come from nowhere. It was, and will always be, a stark reminder of what happened when anti-Semitism went unchallenged and reached its most extreme form.
As we mark Holocaust Memorial Day, 80 years since the liberation of the former Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, we must remember those who were murdered, and we must honour those who survived. But we must go further and acknowledge that anti-Semitism did not end with the liberation of the camps – we all have a duty and responsibility to ensure that we acknowledge and challenge anti-Semitism wherever we see it today.
This polling is a blunt reminder that we still have work to do. We need to find ways to ensure that those people who believe that the Holocaust is important, also believe that 6 million Jews were murdered in it. We need to find ways to ensure that the disinformation that runs rampant online is combatted, and that it is rebutted with facts. We need to find ways to educate people so that they can connect the dots and recognise that Jewish people being targeted simply because they are Jewish is anti-Semitism, is racism, is hatred – and that it is unacceptable for this to exist, anywhere, at any time.
If you care about learning about the Holocaust, if you think that the world should always remember, and if you know that this crime shows us where anti-Semitism once led, then it stands to reason that you should also care about the anti-Semitism we see today.