Turning the Memory of the Holocaust Against Jews A Debate in Germany and Far Beyond

Key Findings:

This essay illustrates how the memory of the Holocaust is being inaccurately reframed and thus turned against Jews, particularly by Europeans and Germans.

Mainstream and left-leaning organizations in Europe and Germany have attempted to make Holocaust memory more inclusive by honoring all victims of Nazism. While sometimes well-meaning, this shift can result in a failure to fully memorialize the weight of what the Holocaust meant for the Jewish population. An inclusive understanding of the Holocaust dissociates it more and more from antisemitism. 

Instead of being recognized as a singular atrocity, the Holocaust is increasingly grouped into a general history of violence. Gallner argues that it is crucial to emphasize what made the Holocaust different from other tragedies. Failing to define and remember it accurately, as a genocide with the specific goal to exterminate Jews, can weaken the collective understanding of the Holocaust, and increase the risk of history repeating itself. 

Gallner cites current examples, such as the reaction to the events of October 7. Rather than being acknowledged as a massacre targeting Jews, the attack was labeled by many as an act of resistance, and thus justified. The author shares echoing sentiments that mirror the antisemitism of the past, noting how people feel oppressed by Israel in the same way the Nazis felt oppressed by the Jews in Europe. This echoes Primo Levi’s warning “It happened, therefore it can happen again”. 

The author highlights the many blindspots of antisemitism, and how this form of hatred can be very easily undetected due to its shape shifting nature – especially by those who harbor it and believe they are on the right side of history.