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Antisemitism has existed in Christianity since the Catholic Church was founded in the Roman Empire.[1]

Background

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Classical antiquity

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In 380 AD, when Christianity became Roman Empire's state religion, the Catholic Church became the empire's state church.[1][2] In the first millennium, the following doctrines became common in many European kingdoms:[1][2]

  • All Jews are responsible for the Crucifixion of Jesus[1][3]
  • The Catholic Church has replaced Jews as the chosen people since the Jews killed Jesus[1][3]
  • The Roman destruction of Jerusalem was God's punishment on Jews for their murder of Jesus and rejection of Christianity[1][3]

Many historians believe that these doctrines contributed to state policies in European kingdoms that resulted in over a millennium of genocides, expulsions and persecutions of Jews across different regions,[1][4] including the Inquisition (c. 1229 – 1834) and the Holocaust.[1][4] Despite the Holocaust and post-war Church reforms, antisemitism still exists among some Catholic communities.[5]

20th century

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Second Vatican Council

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In 1965, Pope Paul VI issued the Nostra aetate at the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) to reject the doctrines as mentioned,[3][6] Particularly, Pope Paul VI no longer blamed Jews for the death of Jesus,[3][6]

What happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.

Since Pope Paul VI rejected the aforementioned doctrines with a view to reconciling with Jews,[7] the Roman Catholic Church has become divided.[8][9] Dozens of conservative Catholic organizations, collectively known as the radical traditionalist Catholics,[8][9] emerged to oppose the Vatican II, most of which are still active in the 21st century.[8][9]

2000 apology

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On behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II made a brief apology on March 12, 2000 for the "errors" and "violence" that some co-religionists committed throughout history.[10] Academics are uncertain whether John Paul II referred to the Crusades, Inquisition, burning of alleged heretics or forced conversions.[10] Israel's Chief Rabbi Meir Lau was reportedly "deeply frustrated" with the Church's failure to mention the Holocaust by name.[10]

Before and after the Pope's apology, strong resistance was noted among hardliners associated with radical traditionalist Catholicism, who were more concerned about the apology being misused by those "hostile to the Church" than the victims of the historical Church atrocities.[10]

Radical traditionalist Catholics

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Bishop Vitus Huonder celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (Low Mass) at Society of St. Pius X's Sancta Maria Institute in Wangs, Switzerland.

A significant proportion of radical traditionalist Catholics are considered Neo-Nazis[8][11] and Holocaust deniers,[8][11] who have a substantial presence on large forums, including Reddit's subreddits r/Catholicism (240K members) and r/AskAChristian (21K members), while Reddit has long been criticized for unbridled antisemitism.[12] As per the American civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), radical traditionalist Catholics tend to believe the following myths:[8][9]

  • Catholics cannot trust Jews
  • Jews are the "perpetual enemy" of Christ
  • Adolf Hitler was the end-product of the "culture war" of the "Freemason" Otto von Bismarck
  • Jews have "infiltrated" the Catholic Church to induce changes in their favor
  • The Vatican II dialogue with Jews is a pantomime to destroy Catholic militancy against Judaism
  • Nazism was the result of a "Talmudist-backed" 400-year "revolution" against the "Divine Plan" to effect man's return to Him via His Catholic Church

The SPLC identified 13 radical traditionalist Catholic organizations active in the English-speaking world: The Fidelity Press, the Remnant, St. Joseph Forum, Tradition in Action, Legion of St. Louis, St. Michael's Parish, Society of St. Pius X, Catholic Counterpoint, Catholic Family Ministries, Omni Christian Book Club, Catholic Apologetics International, International Fatima Rosary Crusade and Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.[8]

Influential radical traditionalist Catholic groups

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Society of St. Pius X

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See the main article: Society of Saint Pius X
Further information: Antisemitism in France

Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is one of the largest radical traditionalist Catholic organizations in the world. The SSPX was founded by late French archbishop Marcel-François Lefebvre in Ecône, Switzerland in 1970 to resist the liberalized Roman Catholic Church.[8][9] Marcel-François Lefebvre was a supporter of the Nazi puppet state Vichy France,[8] who said that the liberation of France was the "victory of Freemasonry against the Catholic order of Petain."[8]

The SSPX rejected mediation attempts from the Vatican over their theological disagreements and got excommunicated. Since then, the SSPX has been the biggest Catholic publisher of Holocaust-denying materials,[8][9] with Canada being one of the countries that has banned SSPX publications.[8][9]

In 2016, it is estimated by scholars that the SSPX has 103 chapels, 25 schools and up to 30,000 followers.[13] E. Michael Jones, one of its loyal members, were also found to have promoted Nazism to his students.[13] As of October 2024, the SSPX has 700 priests worldwide, 180 of whom were based in France operating 250 places of worship and hosting at least 35,000 attendees.[14]

Richard Williamson

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Richard Williamson (March 8, 1940 – January 25, 2025) is an SSPX bishop who publicly engaged in Holocaust denial for several times. Williamson denied the existence of gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp,[11][13] claimed that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were true and insisted that fewer than 300,000 Jews had died in the Holocaust[11] in a Swedish TV interview,[15] which caused him to get fined €10,000 in Germany for Holocaust denial.[11][15] Despite his longstanding antisemitism and Holocaust denial, the Roman Catholic Church made him as a bishop again, sparking controversy over the influence of radical traditionalist Catholics within the Church hierarchy.[11]

Mel Gibson

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Mel Gibson,[16] an American movie director seen by some as a radical traditionalist Catholic,[16] was revealed by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas to have referred to Jews as "Hebes", "Jewboys" and "oven-dodgers"[17] and the Holocaust as "mostly a lot of horses**t" during their production of a film about the Book of Maccabees.[16] The film's sources included highly antisemitic writings by two nuns.[16][18]

Mel Gibson also believed in the antisemitic trope that the Torah "made reference to the sacrifice of Christian babies and infants."[16] He was also accused of harassing Jewish-American actress Winona Ryder by asking her whether she was an "oven-dodger."[16]

Influence on U.S. politics

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In the United States, radical traditionalist Catholics have substantial influence over politics. A 2022 poll conducted by the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations (IJCR) – 57 years after Pope Paul VI announced the Nostra aetate – found that 11% American Catholics still blamed Jews for the Crucifixion of Jesus,[19] while 13.3% saw Jews as being "cursed by God" and 15.8% believed that God's covenant with Jews had ended.[19] The poll also found that 11.4% American Catholics supported Palestine over the Israel–Palestine conflict, around the same percentage as those who still blamed Jews for the Crucifixion of Jesus.[19]

In the November 2024 presidential election, an exit poll by The Washington Post found that 56% of Catholic voters favored Donald Trump, while 41% favored Kamala Harris.[20][21] Among Catholics who voted for Trump, most were found to hold fairly conservative views on social issues.[20][21]

FBI memo incident

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In April 2024, the FBI was forced to withdraw an internal memo on antisemitic violence committed by radical traditionalist Catholics due to backlash from some conservative Republican Congress members,[22] who misrepresented FBI's moves as "persecution of Catholics".[22]

In one of the FBI-handled cases, a young SSPX member, who claimed to be "anti-Zionist" and "anti-progressive", was arrested for the illegal possession of 6 smoke bombs, 8 molotov cocktails and the firearms components of an intact Glock 19 upper receiver, a lower parts kit, a 3D-printed Glock 19 frame, a magazine as well as 9mm ammunition.[22]

Later, a 120-day congressional review found no evidence of FBI bias against Catholics.[23] Since then, no apparent actions have been taken by the U.S. authorities against radical traditionalist Catholics who promote antisemitic violence.

Expansion

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A rising number of American Catholic churches have drifted towards radical traditionalist Catholicism,[24] rejecting the Vatican II that renounced antisemitism.[24] Radical traditionalist Catholic organizations, including but not limited to the FOCUS and Newman Centers, have also seen a massive spike in youth membership,[24] alongside the drastic expansion of viewership of their allied cable TV networks (e.g. EWTN).[24]

Academics

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Antisemitism among Catholics in the 21st century is not limited to those who belong to Catholic churches but also scholars with Catholic background in Anglo-American academia.

Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

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Marek Jan Chodakiewicz (born July 15, 1962 in Warsaw, Poland), a Polish-American historian who promoted controversial views about the Holocaust, is identified with the Polish Catholic Church.[25] Chodakiewicz believed that the murder of Jewish survivors returning to their homeland[26][27] was "not antisemitic" due to what he alleged to be "many Jews collaborating with Soviet Communists [. ...] Jews more likely to kill Poles after WWII."[25]

Many historians, including Princeton University history professor Jan T. Gross and University of Toronto Polish history professor Piotr Wróbel, said that Chodakiewicz had written several pieces trivializing the Holocaust and the violent antisemitism of many Polish Catholics,[25] including his 2003 book After the Holocaust: Polish Jewish Relations in the Wake of World War II where he underestimated the number of Jews killed by Polish Catholics in post-war pogroms[26][27] and accused many of the victims of being "Jewish Communists."[25]

Chodakiewicz also appeared in traditionalist Catholic media, such as the Radio Maryja that has a history of promoting conspiracy theories about Jews.[25] In a 2001 interview by this radio, he accused "Jewish memoirists" of "bragging about" the shooting of hundreds of Poles by "Jewish partisans."[25] Despite Chodakiewicz's track record, he was appointed by U.S. President George W. Bush as a member of the oversight board of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in the American capital, serving until 2010.[25]

Inquisition denial

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Background

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Main articles: Inquisition and Spanish Inquisition

In 1229, Dominicans in Rome set up the permanent Inquisition to persecute heretics and non-Christians,[28] especially Jews. Meanwhile, the Spanish Inquisition was founded in 1478 and run until 1834, during which the Catholic Spanish Empire unleashed a systematic campaign of persecution of Jews,[4][29] due to its racist belief that Jews who converted to Catholicism (conversos) were mostly faking as Christians,[4][29] including those forcibly converted following the Alhambra Decree, or the Edict of Expulsion.[4][29] As many as 300,000 Jews under Catholic Spanish rule were killed over false charges of "crypto-Judaism,"[4][29] a charge slapped on Jews who were forcibly converted.[4][29]

The Vatican

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In 2004, the Roman Catholic Church published so-called findings that the judges of the Inquisition were "not as brutal as previously believed."[30] The Roman Catholic Church also, based on questionable evidence, denied that most trials were carried out by Catholic courts,[30] while whitewashing them by alleging that the victims put on trial were often "tortured for only 15 minutes in the presence of doctors" as if it was justified.[30]

Spain

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Further information: Antisemitism in Europe § Spain

For the past decade, Catholic-led movements within Spain (67.4% Catholic in 2018[31]) have emerged to rewrite the history of the Spanish Inquisition.[32] Members of the movements released a series of books, films, TV programs and mobile exhibitions[32] to beautify the Inquisition-associated Spanish history.[32]

Meanwhile, a 2023 ADL poll found that 26% of Spain's population held extensive antisemitic beliefs,[33] followed by Belgium (24%), France (17%), Germany (12%) and the UK (10%).[33]

In 2024, Spanish Jews make up 0.093% of Spain's population of 48,370,000. In April, the Observatory for Religious Freedom and Conscience found that at least 36 attacks had happened to Spanish Jews between 7 October 2023 and 19 April 2024, about six attacks per month.[34] In July, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that 78% of Spanish Jews saw antisemitism as a big problem in Spain.[35]

Responses

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United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

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On December 11, 2024, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop (USCCB) announced the adoption of the Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition[36] drafted together with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in response to worsening antisemitism in America since 7 October 2023.[37]

As of December 30, 2024, the 1985 revision of the USCCB Guidelines for Catholic-Jewish Relations is still in place.[38] The General Principles of the Guidelines include but not limited to[38]

  1. Prayer in common with Jews should be encouraged when mutually acceptable
  2. Proselytism, which does not respect human freedom, is carefully to be avoided
  3. Catholic–Jewish meetings are dedicated to fostering mutual respect and eliminating misunderstandings
  4. A commission or secretariat is recommended to be assigned to Catholic–Jewish relations in each diocese

Meanwhile, the Recommended Programs under the Guidelines encourage the[38]

  1. Advancement of Catholic–Jewish relations on all levels
  2. Removal of content from catechesis and homilies that blames all Jews for the Crucifixion of Jesus
  3. Rejection of the historically inaccurate notion that Judaism was a "decadent formalism and hypocrisy"
  4. Further analysis of such phrases as "the Jews" by St. John in modern context to erase negative undertones about Jews
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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7
    • "Antisemitism in History: From the Early Church to 1400". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
    • "Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Retrieved December 28, 2024.
    • "The Early Church and the Beginnings of Anti-Semitism". Jewish Virtual Library (JVL). Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6
  5. ↑ Tausch, Arno; Obirek, Stanislaw (2020). Global Catholicism, Tolerance and the Open Society: An Empirical Study of the Value Systems of Roman Catholics. ISBN 978-3-030-23241-2. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1
    • "The resurrection of Christian antisemitism". The Jerusalem Post. June 18, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2024. John the Golden-Throat (a.k.a. Chrysostom), ascended the pulpit in 347 CE where he began the first of eight sermons in a series titled, Adversus Judaeos; in English, Against The Jews [. ...] Chrysostom began his diatribe against all Jews by attacking Christians who celebrated Jewish holy days honoring the same God as Christianity, agreeing to disagree about Jesus. "We must first root this ailment out," he said, "and then take thought of matters outside. We must first cure our own." They are sick, he said, "with the Judaizing disease [...] deserving stronger condemnation than any Jew.
    • Berger, J. M.; Broschowitz, Michael S. (April 25, 2024). "John Chrysostom: The Architect of Antisemitism". Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism. Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Retrieved October 6, 2024. Modern antisemitism is informed by concepts articulated more than 1,600 years ago by John Chrysostom, an early father of the Christian Church [. ...] Chrysostom articulated several key tropes [...] including the belief that Jewish people are "schemers" and that they engage in human sacrifice [. ...] introduced dehumanizing language that foreshadowed the genocidal rhetoric of the Nazis who cited John Chrysostom [... .] Chrysostom is still cited by antisemitic extremists online and offline on a daily basis.
    • Rev Tim Gutmann (May 10, 2024). "Christians can't let history repeat itself when it comes to antisemitism". Premier Christianity. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  7. ↑ Fumagalli, Pier Francesco. "The Roots of Anti-Judaism in the Christian Environment". The Vatican. Retrieved December 12, 2018. Finally, two points are repudiated which in the past were the roots of persecution: the accusation that the Jewish people were collectively and forever responsible for the death of Christ (the so-called deicide) and anti-Semitism.
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Radical Powerhouse". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2024. The Society of St. Pius X, which has chapels and schools across the United States, remains a font of anti-Semitic propaganda.
  14. ↑ Lasserre, Matthieu (October 10, 2024). "36 years after the schism, what does the Society of Saint Pius X represent?". La Croix International. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Meikle, James (April 16, 2010). "German court fines British bishop for Holocaust denial". The Guardian. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 McDermott, Jim (January 13, 2023). "Mel Gibson and the dangers of Catholic antisemitism". American Magazine. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  17. ↑ An insult to Holocaust survivors who had not been burned in the ovens at the Auschwitz concentration camp run by Nazi troops in occupied Poland.
  18. ↑ Hier, Marvin; Brackman, Harold (June 22, 2003). "Mel's Passion". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Gfeller, Kevin (April 20, 2023). "First-of-its-kind Survey Reveals American Catholics' Attitudes Toward Jews Have Improved in Last Century". Saint Joseph's University. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Exit polls from the 2024 presidential election". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Catholic voters favoured Trump over Harris, according to polls". The Tablet. November 6, 2024. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Pattison, Mark (April 24, 2024). "FBI memo examined activities of far-right radical Catholics ahead of 2024 election". La Croix International.
  23. ↑ "No Bias Found in F.B.I. Report on Catholic Extremists". The New York Times. April 18, 2024. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Sullivan, Tim (May 1, 2024). "'A step back in time': America's Catholic Church sees an immense shift toward the old ways". Associated Press (AP). Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 25.6 Keller, Larry (November 29, 2009). "Historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz with Controversial Views Served on Holocaust Museum Board". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved December 29, 2024. A historian with unusual views — some call them anti-Semitic — helps oversee a key institution memorializing the Holocaust
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1
  28. ↑ Lea, Henry Charles (1888). "VII". A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages: Volume 1. ISBN 1-152-29621-3. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2
  31. ↑ "2018 Report on International Religious Freedom: Spain" (PDF). U.S. Department of State. 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 Jones, Sam (April 29, 2018). "Spain fights to dispel legend of Inquisition and imperial atrocities". The Guardian. Retrieved December 24, 2024. Campaigners want to reclaim the country's past from 'distorted propaganda'
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 "Antisemitism is deeply ingrained in European society, says EU official". The Guardian. October 30, 2023. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  34. ↑ "36 attacks in 6 months against Jews in Spain, with a government praised by Hamas". Contando Estrelas. April 22, 2024. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
  35. ↑ Grave-Lazie, Lidar (November 21, 2024). "Is it safe to be Jewish in Spain?". Ynetnews. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  36. ↑ "Translate Hate: The Catholic Edition" (PDF). American Jewish Committee (AJC). Retrieved December 30, 2024.
  37. ↑ "New Glossary Breaks Ground in Tackling Antisemitism Through a Catholic Lens". United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). December 11, 2024. Retrieved December 30, 2024.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 "Guidelines for Catholic-Jewish Relations". United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Retrieved December 30, 2024.


Since the 1980s, there has been a continuous debate on whether the Holocaust[1][2] was a unique event in history.[3]

History

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The debate is said to have started in West Germany in the 1980s, when some German historians doubted the uniqueness of the Holocaust after reviewing the separate history of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.[3] However, many historians, including but not limited to Emil Fackenheim, Yehuda Bauer, Deborah Lipstadt and Daniel Goldhagen, disagreed with those who doubted the uniqueness of the Holocaust,[3] arguing that their doubts are a form of Holocaust trivialization.[3][4]

Academic views

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Support for Holocaust uniqueness

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Emil Fackenheim

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In his book To Mend the World, Jewish philosopher Emil Fackenheim gave the following reasons for why he believed the Holocaust to be unique:[5][6]

  • Anyone seen by Nazi officials as having "Jewish blood" was assigned to be killed
  • The Holocaust was not seen by Nazi officials as a means to an end, but an end itself
  • The Final Solution was made by Nazi officials to kill every Jewish person they could identify, regardless of the person's religion or ideology
  • Holocaust perpetrators involved a sizeable proportion of ordinary citizens, who participated in the systematic genocide of Jews as part of their jobs

David Patterson

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David Patterson, another Jewish philosopher, agreed with Emil Fackenheim's view by adding that the Nazis did not only seek the annihilation of the Jews but also Judaism, Jewish custom and the way that God, the world and humanity is understood by the Jews,[7] a fact that is not acknowledged by those on the far left or the far right.[7]

Clemens Heni

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Jewish political scientist Dr. Clemens Heni believed that many of those who doubted the uniqueness of the Holocaust were motivated by antisemitism.[8][9] Among those found to have rejected Holocaust uniqueness, some of them trivialized the Holocaust by exaggerating Germans' suffering from Allied bombing operations (e.g. Dresden bombing in February 1945) and falsely accusing Israeli Jews of "weaponizing" the Holocaust to "extort" from modern Germans.[8] Dr. Heni classified such rhetoric as "soft-core Holocaust denial"[8] – a synonym for Holocaust distortion.[1][2]

Germans scholars who rejected Holocaust uniqueness include Jörg Friedrich, Martin Walser and sociologist Wolfgang Sofsky,[8] whose ideas contributed to false claims made by the far-right National Democratic Party parliamentarians at a Saxon State Parliament (Landtag) session that "the British committed a bombing Holocaust against the Germans in Dresden".[8]

The post-war expulsion of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe was also phrased by them as an expulsion Holocaust,[8] some of whom are left-wing academics, such as Ward Churchill, Robert Kurz, Noam Chomsky and John Mearsheimer.[8] Dr. Heni added that the said academics also had a history of accusing Jews of "controlling America's government to support Israel"[8] – with tropes like "US-Jewish leaders" and "Israel lobby".[8][10]

Manfred Gerstenfeld

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Historian Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld (d. 2021) criticized scholars who rejected Holocaust uniqueness,[7] calling their behavior "historical manipulation".[7] He believed that they had encouraged antisemitism in academia.[7]

Ingo Elbe

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Philosopher Ingo Elbe observed that anti-Zionism partly presented itself as "attacks on German memory culture".[7] Elbe said that it was founded on the "post-colonial concept of memory",[7] which falsely assumes that an emphasis on the Holocaust's uniqueness would create "indifference to others' suffering".[7]

Wolfgang Benz

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German historian Wolfgang Benz (1941 – ) considered the Holocaust "a unique crime in the history of mankind".[11]

Annette F. Timm

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Canadian historian Annette F. Timm considered the Holocaust unique due to the Nazis' "categorical rejection of any single Jewish person from being assimilated",[12] which partly contributed to their decision to kill every Jew they could identify.[12]

Objection to Holocaust uniqueness

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Further information: Holocaust denial

Objections to Holocaust uniqueness have historically been associated with Holocaust denial.[13] Such objections are found to be one of the most common themes of Holocaust deniers' propaganda.[13] For historians not known to have held antisemitic views, they objected to Holocaust uniqueness by accusing the concept of being "Eurocentric",[14] even though Jews are not European.[15]

Institute for Historical Review

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The Institute for Historical Review (IHR), a self-declared academic group that has been promoting Holocaust denial since 1978,[13][16] is noted for rejecting Holocaust uniqueness.[16] In several of its papers, the IHR compared the Holocaust to Allied bombings of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.[13][16] While claiming to be neutral, the IHR promotes the antisemitic trope that "the Holocaust was invented by Jews to further Jewish-Zionist interests".[13][16]

Ken Livingstone after speaking in the BBC Radio 4 Any Questions? programme at the Nexus Methodist Church, Bath, on 15 January 2016. This photograph is taken in the basement for coffee after the programme.

The IHR also alleges that "Nazi Germany actively supported Zionism" by presenting relevant history without context.[13][16] IHR's rejection of Holocaust uniqueness is shared by figures across the political spectrum. For instance, former London mayor Ken Livingstone (1945 – ), who was a British Labour Party member until 2018, rejected Holocaust uniqueness in a similar manner to the IHR.[17] so did PA's leader[18] and American Trotskyist activist writer Lenni Brenner (1937 – ) who published a book endorsing the claim.[19][20]

Richard C. Lukas

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Photo of author and historian, Richard C. Lukas.

Richard C. Lukas (1937 – ) is an American scholar rejecting Holocaust uniqueness.[21][22] In his 1986 book The Forgotten Holocaust, Lukas claimed that a "separate Holocaust against ethnic Poles" had happened under Nazi occupation.[21][22]

Lukas also tried to expand the definition of the Holocaust to include every other group targeted by the Nazi Germans,[21][22] arguing that "Jewish historians" were "controlling Holocaust history".[21][9] David Engel, a historian specialized in the Holocaust, wrote a 30-page article in the journal Slavic Review to criticize his claims,[22][23] pointing out that Lukas invented facts, ignored archival sources and failed to assess secondary sources.[22][23]

Pierre Guillaume

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Pierre Guillaume (1940 – 2023), a French ultra-left anarcho-Marxist activist, rejected Holocaust uniqueness.[24] Guillaume argued that the Holocaust was no different from any other racially motivated massacres in history, going as far as calling the Holocaust as "a distraction from class struggle" that "played into the hands of Zionism and Stalinism".[24]

Guillaume's views were adopted by the French far right,[24] many of whom also believed that the Holocaust was no different from the alleged Judean massacres of the Canaanites or the Native American genocide.[25] They believed that Jewish claims of Holocaust uniqueness are "excuses for extorting compensations from European countries.[26]

David Duke

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White supremacist David Duke in the Saxony region of Germany, summer 2002.
Further information: Ku Klux Klan and Racism in the United States

David Duke (1950 – ), leader of the White supremacist group Ku Klux Klan (KKK) between 1974 and 1980, also rejected Holocaust uniqueness.[27] On December 11 – 13, 2006, Duke attended a Holocaust-denying conference in Iran upon invitation from Iran's regime.[27] In expressing his rejection of Holocaust uniqueness, Duke accused "Zionists [of] weaponizing the Holocaust to deny the rights of the Palestinians".[27] He went on to argue that "[T]he Holocaust [...] is the pillar of Zionist imperialism, Zionist aggression, Zionist terror and Zionist murder."[27][2] He was one of the 70 participants of the conference.[27]

[change | change source]

References

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "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
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3
  4. ↑ Gerstenfeld, Manfred (April 9, 2008). "Holocaust Trivialization". Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA). Retrieved February 28, 2025. [Holocaust trivialization is 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.
  5. ↑ Emil Fackenheim, To Mend the World, (IN: Indiana University Press, 1994).
  6. ↑ "The Holocaust: What Makes the Holocaust Unique?". Jewish Virtual Library (JVL). Retrieved February 28, 2025.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Gerstenfeld, Manfred (July 13, 2020). "The Attacks on the Uniqueness of the Holocaust". Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA). Retrieved March 1, 2025.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 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.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Working Definition Of Antisemitism". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
    IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism :
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ Benz, Wolfgang (1999). The Holocaust: A German Historian Examines the Genocide (1st ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 152. ISBN 0-231-11215-7.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Timm, Annette F. (2022). Graziosi, Andrea; Sysyn, Frank E. (eds.). Genocide: The Power and Problems of a Concept. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-2280-0951-1.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5
  14. ↑
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 "Institute for Historical Review (IHR)". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved February 6, 2025.
  17. ↑ "Ken Livingstone repeats claim about Nazi-Zionist collaboration". The Guardian. March 30, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
  18. ↑
  19. ↑
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Richard Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986). David Engel, “Poles, Jews, and Historical Objectivity,” Slavic Review, vol. 46, no. 3/4 (1987): pp. 568–80.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 Grabowski, Jan; Klein, Shira (February 9, 2023). "Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust". The Journal of Holocaust Research. 37 (2): 133–190. doi:10.1080/25785648.2023.2168939. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Engel, David (1991). "David Engel Replies to Richard C. Lukas". Slavic Review. 50 (3): 742–747. doi:10.1017/S0037677900115955. Retrieved February 28, 2025. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2
  25. ↑ "Dans le mensuel "Globe" les propos antisémites de M. Claude Autant-Lara député européen". Le Monde. September 8, 1989. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  26. ↑ Levy, Richard S.; Donahue, William Collins; Madigan, Kevin; Morse, Jonathan; Shevitz, Amy Hill; Stillman, Norman A.; Bell, Dean Phillip (2005). "Bardèche, Maurice (1909–1998)". Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851094394. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 "Iranian leader says Israel will be 'wiped out'". NBC News. December 11, 2006. Retrieved February 27, 2025.
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