The Damage done by False Antisemitism Claims and the Weaponisation of the Holocaust

Last year I wrote about the false anti-Semitism smear campaigns being carried out, mainly on social media but also in mainstream media. I wrote about the group of people, collectively known as ‘Gnasherjew’, whose main targets appeared to be left wing Labour party members and supporters; left wing Jews and those who dared to criticise Israel for its occupation of Palestine and the Human Rights violations being carried out. Many people were suspended and even expelled from both the Labour party and social media platforms. Many reputations were ruined and some victims of this campaign lost their jobs. It seemed to go quiet on social media for a long time which I suspect had a lot to do with Jeremy Corbyn stepping down as leader of the Labour party and being replaced by centrist Keir Starmer. The Labour party is no longer a threat to the Israel lobby or indeed Israel.

The anti-Semitism smear campaign seems to have begun again though not quite as rabidly intense as it was before. One of the targets is venerated poet and author Michael Rosen who is in fact Jewish. He lost family members during the Holocaust and wrote a book called ‘*The Missing*‘ about his family in World War II and the fact that nobody knew what had happened to some of them. Although this book is actually written for older children I would highly recommend reading it. The fact that some people on social media were calling Michael anti-Semitic, despite his being Jewish and never having written or said anything anti-Semitic, coupled with the fact that he had just started to recover from Covid19 after a long battle, absolutely infuriated me. I also noticed that somebody I had followed for quite a while on Twitter and who, like Michael, had never written anything that could even vaguely be construed as anti-Semitic was also being targeted and this just added to my anger. The person targeting him seemed to have become rather obsessed with harassing him and was mentioning him in tweets that were not even about him or what he tweeted. I had this strong feeling of deja-vu and decided I was going to write about this from a different angle.

Here is a brief explanation of the term ‘anti-Semitism’ and when it was first used:
“In 1879, German journalist Wilhelm Marr originated the term *antisemitism*, denoting the hatred of Jews, and also hatred of various liberal, cosmopolitan, and international political trends of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often associated with Jews. The trends under attack included equal civil rights, constitutional democracy, free trade, socialism, finance capitalism, and pacifism”.
The targeting of and hatred towards the Jews has actually been going on for many centuries and during the Middle Ages and early modern era, antagonism existed against Europe’s Jews which resulted in anti-Jewish legislation, violence and in some cases expulsion. A lot of Europe had policies and laws which segregated Jews from others and forbade them from performing certain jobs and owning land. During the nineteenth century many of these restrictions were lifted throughout Europe but Tsarist Russia kept these laws until 1917. The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi party) did not create antisemitism or use the term for the first time.

On the weaponisation of false anti-Semitism charges Noam Chomsky states ” Any critic, any proponent of Palestinian rights, can be tarred as an anti-Semite. This weapon has recently been wielded to great effect against Jeremy Corbyn in a campaign of vulgar deceit and slander that is shocking even beyond the disgraceful norm”. This brings me to why I am writing this article. During the time the media obsessively focussed on the almost non-existent anti-Semitism within the Labour party, they were paying minimal attention to the growing number of anti-Jewish attacks which have been part of an increase in racism in many parts of the world. This is why false anti-Semitism claims are so dangerous, not only do they ruin the lives of the people targeted in these claims but mainstream media and the public fail to notice the rise of neo-Nazi and other far right movements. Anti-Semitic attacks in the USA increased by nearly 60% between 2016 – 2017 which is the largest one year increase in 40 years. In 2018 there was a horrific attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Eleven people were killed and at least six others were wounded. This attack was described as ” amongst the deadliest against the Jewish community in the United States”. Apparently the gunman had posted anti-Semitic content online and said he wanted to kill all Jews as he saw them as a threat to himself and other non-Jews. Six months later one person was killed and three injured at the Chabad of Poway synagogue outside San Diego. In 2019 the Anti-Defamation League in America released a report which stated that “American Jews faced a significant threat” and that white supremacists were the biggest danger facing America. This was demonstrated in Charlottesville on 11-12 August 2017 during the ‘Unite the Right’ rally. On the Friday night the University of Virgina was stormed by white supremacists chanting ” blood and soil” which was a slogan used by Nazis in Germany, and “Jews will not replace us”. On the Saturday a white supremacist drove his car into a group of counterprotestors and killed Heather Heyer aged 32. Some of those who attended the rally could be seen carrying flags with the Swastika on them.

In 2018 it was reported that anti-Semitic hate crimes had reached record levels in the UK with the Jewish community being targeted at least four times a day in 2017. There were 1,382 anti-Jewish incidents recorded by the Community Security Trust in 2017. This was the highest number recorded for a calendar year since the Trust had begun to gather data in 1984. Although there did not appear to be any specific reason for this increase in incidents, it appeared that the levels of all hate crime rose after the EU referendum in 2016, and following the publicity surrounding the false claims of anti-Semitism within the Labour party. I think it is worth noting that all the mainstream media’s attention has been on the claims of anti-Semitism within the Labour party, and none on equal claims of anti-Semitism within the Conservative party. In fact Boris Johnson depicted Jews as “controlling the media and being able to fiddle elections ” in his 2004 novel Seventy Two virgins. He was pronounced “unfit to be prime minister” over passages from this book which also included questionable and offensive portrayals of other ethnic minorities. It would seem that Johnson, and others including Donald Trump, are either unaware do not care or intentionally say things that will set an example to their followers, albeit a very negative example.

“Holocaust denial is a form of antisemitism. The only reason to deny the Holocaust is to inculcate and foster antisemitism. The Holocaust has the dubious distinction of being the best documented genocide in the world so for anybody to disbelieve, they’ve got to come to it with some sort of preconceived notion.”

Holocaust denial is the attempt to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jews. The Holocaust has been similarly weaponised and the same people who have false anti-Semitism claims made against them are also often called Holocaust deniers, which again is not true in their cases. There are Holocaust deniers out there, and even more disturbing there are people who think Hitler was a great leader and openly admire him. One of the most famous Holocaust deniers has to be David Irving who was written about by Deborah Lipstadt in her book *Denying the Holocaust*
(1993). Irving famously sued Lipstadt over his inclusion in the book but he lost his case. Denial began as soon as the war ended, one of the main reasons being that nobody could quite believe that any humans were capable of committing such atrocities against other humans. Even Jews living in ghettos around Europe during the war could not believe the stories they were hearing about places like Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor and most famously Auschwitz-Birkenau. They talk about this lack of belief in documentaries featuring Holocaust survivors. Many Jews were lied to and conned into thinking they were being transported to places where they would have a better future. There were Jews who gave up all their possessions and money so they would be sent to Theresienstadt under the illusion that they would be having a good life free of persecution there. There were six death camps, all located in Poland, and many forced labour camps and concentration camps, the most famous of which is probably Dachau, which was in Germany and had been open since 22 March 1933. In all there were 23 main concentration camps and most had a system of satellite camps. There were more than 1000 concentration camps, including subcamps, established during Nazi Germany’s history.

Holocaust deniers often claim that Jews say that 6 million Jews were murdered in Auschwitz, this is not true they have never said that. It took a long time to calculate how many were murdered between the year 1941-45 by the Nazi’s and their collaborators, but the number murdered at Auschwitz was 1.1 million. The number 6 million refers to the total number of Jews who were murdered or died of illness in all the camps ( death, forced labour and concentration); those killed in villages and towns; those murdered along the roadside and those murdered in places like Babi Yar, a ravine northwest of Kiev, were (according to reports by Einsatzgruppe) 33,771 Jewish men, women and children were massacred over a two day period.

Holocaust denial and/or distortion are in themselves anti-Semitism and in general claim that the Holocaust was invented or exaggerated by Jews in order to advance their own interests. I, personally, find this belief or claim to be absolutely ludicrous and believe that Holocaust denial should be treated as a hate crime. There are so many documentaries and films which document what happened during the Holocaust which makes it impossible for me to understand how people can possibly claim it was a hoax. A lot of the film was taken by American, British and Russian soldiers who had trained to be cameramen. Weaponising the Holocaust by accusing people of Holocaust denial just adds to the hoax theory that the true deniers believe. By targeting people who are not guilty of Holocaust denial the mainstream media once again draw attention away from the true anti-Semites.

There are some new social media platforms which have no censorship and apart from child pornography and bestiality anything would seem to be allowable. There is a large number of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Hitler fans and Holocaust deniers on these sites. There are also websites devoted to denying the Holocaust happened and/or that Jews control banks, the media and most aspects of life. These sites include sites called ‘Holohoax’ ‘Holocartoons’ and ‘Jew Watch’.

In conclusion I would just like to say that although I have included links for you to visit this is my opinion only. I would also like to add that I am against Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the siege of Gaza. This means I am against the Israeli government and its policies not Jewish people. I was married to a man whose father was an Ashkenazi Jew and so my son ( who is the most important person in my life) is part Ashkenazi Jew. I do hope that what I have written gives you food for thought and that I have passed on some of my horror at what the Nazi party did and racists continue to do. There are loads of really educational books and documentaries on World War II, the evolution of fascism and the Nazi party and the Holocaust and murder of over 6 million Jews, communists, Poles, Slavs, Russian prisoners of war, Jehovah Witnesses, disabled, homosexual, ethnic minorities, Roma gypsies and political dissidents.

Is the Tory handling of the Covid 19 crisis really sheer incompetence, or is there something shady going on behind the scenes?

I have never been one for believing in conspiracy theories but after the past twelve months I am beginning to wonder if the Tories can really be as incompetent as they appear to be. I have hesitated and procrastinated before sitting down to write this because I fear I may well end up by being viewed as a total crank by some who read this … BUT I have nothing really to loose and writing this may stop me thinking about it instead of sleeping. As ever all of this is just my opinion and I will try and insert links for you to click on and read what others have to say.

I am sure that you are familiar with the term ‘eugenics’, if not then here is a quick definition for you:

“Eugenics, the selection of desired heritable characteristics in order to improve future generations, typically in reference to humans. The term eugenics was coined in 1883 by British explorer and natural scientist Francis Galton, who, influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, advocated a system that would allow “the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable” Philip K Wilson (Medical Historian).

Eugenics is a racist pseudoscience which groups people together according to their “position on an evolutionary hierarchy” which associates value with being white and able, and labels ethnic minorities and the disabled for “eugenic deselection”.

Michael Rosen, a well known and respected author and poet, shared this comment on Twitter ““Not to put too fine a point on it, from an entirely disinterested economic perspective, the Covid-19 might even prove mildly beneficial in the long term by disproportionately culling elderly dependents.” (Jeremy Warner Daily Telegraph March 3 2020). Having had a long battle with Covid 19 himself, Michael Rosen (aged 74) was understandably disgusted and horrified by this remark by conservative business and economics commentator Jeremy Warner who is assistant editor for the Telegraph. I lost my dear Dad on April 5th 2020 and my partner on may 15th 2020, both died because of Covid 19, my Dad was 79 and my partner 71. To say Warner’s comment made me angry and disgusted would be an understatement, but, it did make me wonder if maybe I was not as mad as I thought when thinking that maybe the Tories had some kind of nasty grand plan going on.

Michael Rosen, astute and wonderful man that he is, also posted this on Twitter on December 22nd 2020 “In early March 2020 a fascistic (not fascist) crept up on us: that 100s of thousands of people were dispensable; that Britain knew better than WHO how to deal with Covid; we didn’t all need to test, trace, isolate; we didn’t need to mask, distance, wash”. This described the general laissez-faire attitude of Boris Johnson and the Tory party when talking about Covid 19 at that time.

On 16th March 2020 Matt Hancock, the so called Health secretary, told the House of Commons that all social contact should cease but it was not until March 23rd 2020 that Boris Johnson told us that we should all stay at home and non-essential businesses should close. It took the Tories from 29 January 2020, when the first two cases of Covid 19 in the UK were reported, until 23 March 2020 to take any kind of action over Covid 19. (These first two patients were Chinese nationals from Wuhan which is, of course, where Covid 19 first appeared.) British Airways took action immediately, after these patients were confirmed as having contracted Covid 19, and suspended all flights to and from mainland China. If an airline company could take action that quickly why didn’t the Tory government?

The first eleven doctors to die from Covid 19 in the UK were all from ethnic minority backgrounds. There is indisputable evidence that BAME communities are disproportionately affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. This highlights the existing inequalities within our society and supports the strong links between ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status and health outcomes. The council areas where there is ethnic diversity are suffering from Covid 19 infections up to four times more than white areas only a few miles away and health experts have said that the UK has paid the price for not tackling structural racism. In Blackburn the Covid 19 ‘hotspots’ were in the poorest and most ethnically diverse communities. The lack of real support from the government has meant that those who are in receipt of benefits or on zero hours contracts have suffered disproportionally throughout the crisis with few signs from the Tory government that they are doing anything to help or support them.

There have been reports of little or no help or support for the disabled in our communities. On 24th June 2020 Inclusion London published its interim report based on responses to their Social Care survey. The report painted a picture of a heartless government with little or no compassion, or understanding of the needs of disabled people. The report states that “disabled people have been discriminated against, forgotten, and in some cases abandoned as policy makers have ignored our needs”. Disabled people have seen the loss of rights, and resource rationing which has led to many disabled people struggling to get the bare necessities and losing any support they had as well as their independence. One group that has remained completely absent from any of the Tory government’s Covid strategies is people with learning disabilities. There have even been reports of people with learning disabilities living in care homes being told that they are “unlikely to be prioritised for hospital care if they develop Covid 19“. I have no words to convey my severe disgust at that attitude.

On 19 March 2020 it was government policy to send elderly patients back to care homes without being tested for Covid 19. In fact there was no requirement to test patients being discharged from hospital to return to care homes until 15 April 2020, although some trusts were testing patients before that date. In the week ending May 1 2020, there were 2,423 Covid related deaths in UK care homes. That week 38% of deaths in care homes were Covid related, the week before it was 35% and the week ending 17 April 2020 it was 28%. There was a feeling that older people living in care homes had been abandoned and left to die amongst government failings during the Covid 19 pandemic. As well as the lack of testing of patients before discharging them back to care homes there was also the introduction of blanket DNARs without the consultation of family members or in most cases the person themselves. Only a doctor can make a DNAR decision or issue a DNAR form BUT wherever possible this should be done in consultation with the patient and/or those close to them.

What I have written is a very brief synopsis of what I have discovered when researching this piece of writing but it has made me question the Tory motives even more. Can any Prime Minister or government really be this grossly incompetent? It all reminds me too much of eugenics programs in the USA and more obviously Nazi Germany. The USA had a brief fling with eugenics in the early 1900s. The movement was lead by Charles Davenport, a biologist (1866-1944) and Harry Laughlin, a former teacher. Eugenicists in the USA believed in the genetic superiority of Nordic, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon people. They supported strict immigration laws and the forced sterilisation of the poor and disabled.

We are all familiar with the atrocities performed by the Nazi party under the rule of Adolf Hitler. The belief of Adolf Hitler, and other high ranking members of the Nazi party such as Heinrich Himmler, that the Aryan race was a genetically superior race led to one of the darkest periods in human history. This belief coupled with Hitler’s pathological hatred of the Jews led to what was termed as the Final Solution. Hitler had also admired the eugenics program in the USA. Jews, those from Slavic regions, Jehovah Witnesses, Roma gypsies, ethnic minorities, homosexuals, communists, Poles, Russian prisoners of war, the sick and the disabled were all thought of as untermenschen (racially or socially inferior). The Nazi’s embarked on the most brutal eugenics program and it is virtually impossible to say how many people were actually murdered by them. Not only were there six death camps but thousands were murdered in villages and towns, on the roadside, in forests and in lorries ( which were adapted to be the first gas chambers). It is estimated that over 6 million people were murdered between 1941-45.

The way the Tories have not made provision for the elderly, ethnic minorities, those who are disadvantaged socioeconomically, the sick and disabled has seen me comparing their lack of provision and their total lack of any remorse to those who have used eugenics programs to get rid of those they consider unworthy or a burden on society. You are probably thinking I am a crank by now but as I said at the beginning I am not one of those ‘flat earther’ types and I do not hold with conspiracy theories but I cannot help but wonder just how incompetent a nations leader and government can actually be.

Home

Gn asherjew and Fake Anti-Semitism Claims on Facebook

Gnasherjew, LAAS, Sussex Friends of Israel and their latest tool – “Labour Anti-Semitism Map

Why? (The colonisation of Palestine by Israel and the constant screams of ‘anti-semitism’)

Rachel Riley, Endemol Shine UK and that T-Shirt

Anti-Semitism Smear Campaign Continues Part One

Anti-Semitism from one of Labour’s Loudest Anti-Semitism Accusers

A Legacy Squandered

How Did Labour Come To This?

Chief Rabbi, Mainstream Media and the smears against Jeremy Corbyn (Guest post by Peter Gregson) Chairperson of LAZIR)

History Repeating Itself Trump and Fascism

The Damage done by False AntiSemitism Claims and the Weaponisation of the Holocaust

Way Past Time to Hold China to Account

The Rise in Islamophobia

Anti-semitism campaign continues part two

Labour Is Now Officially The Puppet of the Israel Lobby

British Actor Spearheads Twitter Dogpiling on Twitter User

The Lies and Incompetence Continue

Smearmongers Attack Professor David Miller

History Repeating Itself – Trump and Fascism

Fascism is a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. (Merriam Webster)

I am a long time history enthusiast and student and have always been intrigued by how people like Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler and, in recent times, Donald Trump became as powerful as they did and developed such a massive following. I have watched many documentaries and read many books on Mussolini and Hitler in an attempt to help me understand the appeal these men had. Whilst doing this the similarities between probably the two most famous fascists in history and Donald Trump have become more and more striking (and perhaps a bit scary).

After the Capitol siege on January 6th 2021, historian and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat took to social media and compared the siege to Mussolini’s march on Rome in late October 1922. This was the insurrection by which Mussolini came to power and which marked the start of fascist rule and the end of the preceding socialist and liberal parliaments. On October 27th 1922 the Fascist movement attempted to cut off all lines of communication to the capital so they could prepare to march on Rome and seize power in a coup. The Fascist movement was no match for the Italian military but despite this when the government became aware of the plans they tried to accommodate the Fascists. This was because Italy had already been torn apart by political factionalism and the government were afraid that there would be a civil war. Mussolini was not happy when he was offered a subordinate role in the new government and so he was promoted to premier. On October 29th 1922 the planned coup became a march of celebration by Mussolini’s blackshirt supporters.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat also drew comparisons between Republicans turning on Donald Trump to the Fascists who voted Mussolini out of power in 1943. This was not to reinstate democracy but to save fascism. In the same way it could be said that members of the GOP have turned against the insurrectionist-in-chief in order to redeem and save the Republican party. Up until the Capitol siege on January 6th Ruth Ben-Ghiat had been more comfortable calling Donald Trump “authoritarian” as opposed to “fascist”. Robert Paxton, a Columbia University historian of fascism, had also been reluctant to call Trump a “fascist” before the January 6th siege. The use of violence against democratic institutions changed Paxton’s views as this crossed the “red line”. On January 11th Paxton wrote an opinion piece for Newsweek entitled ‘I’ve Hesitated to call Donald Trump a Fascist. Until Now‘ in which he tells how in 2016 “a newsreel clip of Trump’s plane taxiing up to a hangar where cheering supporters awaited reminded me eerily of Adolf Hitler’s electoral campaign in July 1932, the first airborne campaign in history, where the arrival of the Fuhrer’s plane electrified the crowd”.

Trump supporters and their blind loyalty to their racist hero remind me of Hitler’s Einzatskommando or Mussolini’s squadristi. This is despite the fact that Trump supporters wearing of a MAGA baseball cap is not the wearing of a full uniform. In August 2017 different neo-nazi and white supremacist groups converged on Charlottesville Virginia supposedly to protest the planned removal of a statue of confederate leader Robert E Lee. This was the “Unite the right” rally. Many of the far right activists were holocaust deniers and blatant antisemites. Baseball caps with the acronym MAGA could be seen wherever the cameras pointed whilst the rally was being filmed. The night before the rally there was a march on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. Activists could be heard chanting various Nazi slogans including “Sieg heil” and “blood and soil” as well as antisemitic chants such as “Jews will not replace us”. What I found most disturbing was how a neo-Nazi leader called the rally “an absolutely stunning success” despite the fact that 32 year old Heather Heyer was killed when James Fields drove his car into a crowd of anti-Fascism protesters (he has since been imprisoned for her murder). At the time both Republican and Democrat leaders denounced the explicit racism of the activists saying it was a betrayal of American ideals. Trump was not amongst those leaders. Trump, who was playing golf at his golf resort in New Jersey, instead condemned the “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides”, he repeated “many sides” but at no time did he condemn the blatant racism of the white nationalist activists.

Trump has also shown similarities in the way that he has mastered the art of back-and-forth exchanges with his captivated audience just like Mussolini and Hitler had done. He has also shown that just like them he understands the antagonistic feelings that some parts of American society have towards established leaders and organisations. Trump has mastered electronic media, especially social media, in the same way that Hitler mastered radio to reach his loyal supporters and fan base. He has now lost the use of social media due to his being permanently suspended from many platforms because of the fear that he will incite more violence in the same way he had in the weeks and days leading up to the siege on January 6th.

Trumps’s incitement to violence in the days before and during the rally that preceded the invasion of the Capitol on June 6th, has shown that he deserves to be labelled as a “fascist” as well as a sore loser. He openly encouraged civil violence to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory. Robert Paxton compares the siege of the Capitol to an openly fascist demonstration in the streets of Paris on the night of February 6, 1934. This was a milestone on the road to fascism in Europe. Thousands of World War I veterans had become bitter when they heard of rumours of corruption in the French parliament. The veterans tried to invade the parliamentary chamber at the same time that a new questionable government was being voted into power. The veterans had been rallied by right-wing groups who wished to replace the weak parliamentary government with a fascist dictatorship on the same model of Hitler and Mussolini.

If, as feared, America sees more violence on 20th January when Joe Biden is inaugurated as 46th President of USA it will confirm the hold that fascist leader Trump has over his blindly loyal supporters. In my opinion it will signify that this is perhaps not the end of Trump’s desire for ultimate power nor the end of his support despite many Republicans turning against him. Hitler did not win his first attempt at supreme leadership when his attempted coup, the Beer Hall Putsch, on 8-9 November 1923 failed and he was convicted of treason and imprisoned for five years. I, like many others, hope that Trump is charged for his many crimes, especially for his treason and sedition, and serves a long jail sentence but sadly it is not cast in stone.

The following links will take you to other articles which helped me with writing this piece:

‘Jews will not replace us’: Vice film lays bare horror of neo-Nazis in America

How Charlottesville became the symbolic prize of the far right

Is Donald Trump a fascist?