Jump to content

Holocaust inversion

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Holocaust inversion[1] occurs when comparisons of Jews or Israel to Nazis or Nazi Germany are made.[2]

Examples

[change | change source]

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) lists the following as examples of Holocaust inversion:[3]

Antisemitic poster spotted at an 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[5]was also used.
Antisemitic graffiti in Madrid, 2003, equating the Star of David with the dollar and Nazi swastika.

Academic views

[change | change source]

Holocaust inversion is antisemitic under the Working Definition of Antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).[6] This definition has been adopted by many Jewish,[7] European[8] and British parties[9][10] and other bodies worldwide.

Holocaust inversion is a form of Holocaust trivialization,[2] or Holocaust distortion,[11] sometimes considered offensive due to its ahistorical implication that Jews are somehow guilty for their own genocide in the same manner as the Holocaust's perpetrators, a rhetoric employed by some bad actors as a vehicle for their antisemitism.[3][11]

Bernard-Henri Lévy

[change | change source]

French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy believed that the prevalence of Holocaust inversion had encouraged violence against Jews:[12]

[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[13] way of justifying it must emerge.

Yossi Klein Halevi

[change | change source]

Author Yossi Klein Halevi believed that the comparison demonized Jews:[14]

The deepest source of anti-Israel animus[15] 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 The satanic Jew has been replaced by the satanic Jewish state.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. [...]

Alexandria Fanjoy Silver

[change | change source]
Further information: Secondary antisemitism § Poland

Jewish historian Dr. Alexandria Fanjoy Silver believed that many of those engaging in Holocaust inversion were motivated by secondary antisemitism, a special form of postwar antisemitism "rooted in the psychological process of guilt-deflection", reportedly common in countries with a long history of antisemitism and strong nationalism.[16][17] Dr. Silver added that Holocaust inversion,[16] and the gaslighting of Jews who faced antisemitic abuses,[16] showed secondary antisemitism to be a systemic issue in Western society,[16] making it hard for Jews to discuss their lived experiences.[16]

For instance, many Jews faced allegations of "talking too much about the Holocaust", being "anti-Palestinian" or "ignoring Islamophobia" for raising awareness about Hamas' atrocities on October 7, 2023,[16] despite Jews having suffered 68% of religion-based hate crimes in the United States (US) in 2023 as per FBI data,[18] while 46% of the world's adult population (around 2,200,000,000 people) were found to hold deeply entrenched antisemitic views as of January 2025.[19]

Dr. Silver considered those accusing Jews of being "genocidal" as being motivated by secondary antisemitism given that the accusers were "so uncomfortable in its immorality" that they had to "twist it into an expression of morality."[16] She also highlighted that secondary antisemitism was statistically the highest in Europe as of 2022 in relation to Holocaust memory, education and commemoration.[16][20]

Clemens Heni

[change | change source]

Jewish political scientist Dr. Clemens Heni maintained that secondary antisemitism often involved Holocaust inversion, in whose relevant propaganda tends to single out Israeli Jews for perceived wrongdoings.[21] Dr. Heni found that a common theme of those propaganda features the exaggeration of German suffering from Allied bombing operations,[21] such as the Dresden bombing in February 1945,[21] and false accusations of Israeli Jews "weaponizing" the Holocaust to "extort" from present Germans,[21] which he classified as "soft-core Holocaust denial"[21] – a synonym for Holocaust distortion.[1][22]

Those who distributed such propaganda include German author Jörg Friedrich, Martin Walser and sociologist Wolfgang Sofsky,[21] whose ideas contributed to a false claim by far-right National Democratic Party's parliamentarians at a Saxon State Parliament (Landtag) session that "the British committed a bombing Holocaust against the Germans in Dresden."[21] The post-war expulsion of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe was also phrased by the "soft-core" deniers as an expulsion Holocaust,[21] some of whom are academic leftists, such as Ward Churchill, Robert Kurz, Noam Chomsky and John Mearsheimer.[21]

Such academic leftists are said to have a history of accusing Jews of "controlling" America's government to support Israel[21] – with tropes like "US-Jewish leaders" and "Israel lobby"[21][23] – and "American capitalism" of having "caused the Holocaust" based on the unfounded claim that the Auschwitz was "the utmost consequence of Fordism."[21]

[change | change source]

References

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion". International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Retrieved October 17, 2024. Distortion of the Holocaust refers, inter alia, to:
    • Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany
    • Gross minimization of the number of the victims of the Holocaust in contradiction to reliable sources
    • Attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide
    • Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event. Those statements are not Holocaust denial but are closely connected to it as a radical form of antisemitism. They may suggest that the Holocaust did not go far enough in accomplishing its goal of "the Final Solution of the Jewish Question"
    • Attempts to blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by putting blame on other nations or ethnic groups
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *"Antisemitism defined: Why drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to the Nazis is antisemitic". World Jewish Congress. January 25, 2022. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
  4. ↑ A headdress worn by Arab men, consisting of a square of fabric fastened by a band round the crown of the head. Oxford Languages.
  5. ↑ A modified variant of the medieval European antisemitic slur Jewish pigs, later popularized by Martin Luther in the 16th century.
  6. ↑ "Working Definition Of Antisemitism". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
    IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism :
  7. ↑ "The Working Definition of Antisemitism". American Jewish Committee. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  8. ↑ The European Commission is the primary executive arm of the European Union (EU).
    "Definition of antisemitism". European Commission. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Labour's Antisemitism Policy". Labour Party (UK). Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Antisemitism". Liberal Democrats (UK). Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ Written or spoken communication or debate. Oxford Languages.
  14. ↑ Yossi Klein Halevi (October 10, 2024). "The End of the Post-Holocaust Era". Jewish Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  15. ↑ Hostility or ill feeling. Oxford Languages.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 "The Curious Phenomenon of Secondary Antisemitism". The Times of Israel. August 2, 2024. Retrieved February 8, 2025.
  17. ↑
  18. ↑
  19. ↑
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ 21.00 21.01 21.02 21.03 21.04 21.05 21.06 21.07 21.08 21.09 21.10 21.11 Heni, Clemens (November 2, 2008). "Secondary Anti-Semitism: From Hard-Core to Soft-Core Denial of the Shoah". Jewish Political Studies Review. Retrieved February 8, 2025.
  22. ↑
  23. ↑ "AJC's glossary of antisemitic terms, phrases, conspiracies, cartoons, themes, and memes" (PDF). American Jewish Committee (AJC). 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holocaust_inversion&oldid=10066008"