By Meital Nahmias
You may not be aware of it, but there has been an intense and ongoing discussion on social media questioning the number of victims of the Holocaust. What was once confined to the margins is increasingly entering the mainstream, and that alone should deeply concern anyone who cares about historical truth.
Until the attack against Israel on October 7th, 2023, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, those who denied the Holocaust or sought to downplay its scale were still largely viewed as fringe figures. They were pushed to the edges of society and met with justified condemnation. While that fringe was growing, Holocaust denial was broadly understood as dangerous and unacceptable.
Yet even after more than 850 days, we still struggle to explain how the atrocities committed on October 7th fueled a surge in antisemitism, and how voices that deny, relativize, or distort the Holocaust have become louder, more popular, and disturbingly normalized.
The historical facts are not complicated. The Holocaust was the systematic extermination of six million Jews in Europe. This is not a matter for debate or negotiation, period. It was a crime committed against the Jewish people, not a vague tragedy that happened to people in general, as it has been referred to by the BBC and other prominent figures on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Recognizing this truth does not deny that the Nazi regime also persecuted and murdered millions of others, whose suffering deserves remembrance and respect. The Jewish people do not forget those victims. But historical accuracy matters. Erasing the Jewish specificity of the Holocaust distorts both its meaning and its lessons.
The Holocaust is not some distant or ancient chapter of history. It took place in Europe, carried out by a radical regime that meticulously documented its crimes. Despite this, there have been decades of attempts to place responsibility solely on Nazi leadership, while avoiding acknowledgment that many Europeans collaborated with the regime or chose not to oppose it. The sites of the atrocities still exist. The evidence still exists. Survivors are still alive and continue to testify to what they endured.
There should, of course, be memorial days for all victims of the Nazi regime. There were millions. However, attempts to universalize Holocaust Remembrance Day to include all victims are fundamentally wrong. Even when many try to deny that the mass murder of six million Jews was different in its nature, intent, scale, and planning, it remains historically clear that it was unique. Any attempt to universalize this day is an attempt to deny Jewish victims and survivors their memory, and to avoid confronting Europe’s own history.
Saying Never Again once a year, while turning this day into a vague commemoration disconnected from Jewish victims, is effectively saying that Europe has no real intention of upholding that promise toward the Jewish people.
In the more than two years since October 7th, one thing has become painfully clear and personally infuriating, the hijacking of Holocaust Remembrance Day by shifting the focus to Gaza. This is part of a broader attempt to take this day away from the Jewish people. Over the last 850 plus days, we have seen the Holocaust weaponized against Jews and against Israel on a massive scale.
Ignorant voices are quick to misuse Holocaust related terms and imagery to describe Israel’s war against a terrorist organization. Comparisons of Gaza to Auschwitz, Israeli leaders labeled as Nazis, the use of Holocaust slogans and symbols, and even the abuse of Holocaust victims against Jews and Israel have become disturbingly common.
One clear example is the manipulation of the memory of Anne Frank. Her image dressed in a keffiyeh, her memorials vandalized, her diary stripped of historical context, and her life in hiding distorted to fit unrelated political narratives, including modern US immigration debates. This is not remembrance. It is exploitation.
It does not take much to understand that many who engage in this rhetoric are the product of years of antisemitic incitement, now accelerated by social media. This becomes even more alarming when such language is echoed by elected officials. While ignorance or the pursuit of likes and visibility may explain behavior online, where antisemitism has sadly become profitable, it does not excuse those entrusted with leadership and responsibility.
We should expect and demand more from those elected to lead others.
The lessons of the Holocaust are not abstract, and remembrance is not optional. We cannot allow ignorance, manipulation, or political agendas to distort the truth. Holocaust Remembrance Day must remain what it was meant to be in the first place and that alone. It is not a day to debate Gaza, it is not a tool for anti Israel propaganda, and it is not a platform to rewrite history.
Holocaust Remembrance Day belongs to the victims, the survivors, and the truth. How we honor it defines the kind of society we choose to be. Not learning from history puts us all at risk of repeating it.
Meital Nahmias is a writer fcusing on antisemitism, Israel and European affairs, and EJA digital communication officer.