British Jews feel the lessons of history have not been learnt (Image: Campaign Against Antisemitism )
Frightened British Jews say their worst fear is the Holocaust happening again.
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi regime’s notorious death camp, anti-semetic hate crimes are increasing and one in ten 18-24 year-olds now has a favourable view of Hamas.
The chilling rise of open prejudice and hate in the UK has sparked panic Jews are being targeted with impunity.
Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organisation committed to eradicating Jewish people. It managed to murder 1,200 of them on October 7, 2023. Hamas’s main sponsor is the tyrannical Iranian theocracy whose regime denies the Holocaust while it plots another.
“Their supporters have taken over our streets week after week and the effects are being felt in schools and universities, in hospitals and cultural institutions, on television and online.
“As a society, we have failed to learn the real lessons of the Holocaust, and, after fifteen months of unprecedented levels of antisemitism with no end in sight, our country is failing its Jews.”
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp is where 1.1 million were murdered in WW11 (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Anti-semetic hate crimes have now overtaken Islamophobic incidents with more reported abuses of Jews than Muslims.
Polling for the charity, set up in response to the 2014 -Gaza offensive by activists concerned about rising antisemitism, suggests disturbing levels of support for Hamas, especially among young people in Britain.
A YouGov survey of British adults’ attitudes towards Jews found almost one in ten 18-24 year-olds have a favourable view of Hamas, compared to three per cent of the general public.
Some 13 per cent of 18-24 year olds do not believe as “broadly true” reports Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis during the October 7 attacks compared to seven per cent of the wider public.
Sickeningly, 16 per cent of young British adults believe the attacks were justified, compared to seven per cent of the wider public. This figure rises to 28 per cent among people identifying as “very left-wing”. And 13 per cent of 18-24 year olds believe the British Government is wrong to classify Hamas as a terrorist group, compared to 7% of the British public and 31 per cent of those identifying as left-wing”.
A CAA spokesman said: “Extremism is becoming normalised in our country, and as ever Jews are the canaries in the coal mine.
“British society is changing before our eyes [and] most alarming of all, our young people are becoming radicalised at a far greater rate than the rest of the population, sympathising with terrorists and espousing extreme anti-Jewish racism. If the authorities continue to let radicalism run rampant on campuses and on social media, it will not be long before we are looking over our shoulders at generation hate.”
There were more than 5,500 antisemitic incidents recorded in the UK in the year between October 7, 2023, and September 30 last year.
The Community Security Trust [CST] said the figure was a three-fold increase of the 1,830 incidents in the previous 12-month period.
Some 4,583 were abusive behaviour, while 401 involved threats and 302 assaults.
The October 7 atrocity was the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The CST said: “I think we’ve reached the point where we say this isn’t a temporary blip any more…people have to just adjust to this new reality.”
The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during WWII (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
In an open letter to London’s Jewish communities in the wake of the Hamas massacre in , Met Police Deputy Commissioner Dame Lynne Owens promised “support and our solidarity”.
Dame Lynne said: “Nobody can fail to have been absolutely appalled by the acts of terrorism.
“We also understand that it has had a direct impact on people across the world, including right here in London, particularly those of you in our Jewish communities, including the Jewish officers and staff who work for the Met. We stand firmly with you and we will do all that we can to make sure you feel safe and protected here at home.”
But there is a prevailing feeling Jews feel targeted and unprotected, with Mr Falter saying Hamas supporters “have taken over our streets week after week and the effects are being felt in schools and universities, in hospitals and cultural institutions, on television and online”.
On Monday, the world will fall silent to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day with events being held in capital cities across the globe, including London.
The day marks the liberation by the Soviet Red Army of Auschwitz-Birkenau where 1.1 million perished, including 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma people, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and up to 15,000 other Europeans.
Those who were not systematically exterminated in gas chambers died of starvation, exhaustion, disease, or were individually executed, beaten to death or killed during medical experiments, as part of what the Third Reich chillingly called the Final Solution.
The commemorations also honour survivors of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution, and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
One prominent British Jewish celebrity, too frightened to speak publicly for fear of reprisals, told the Express: “I can’t understand how anyone can say [the Holocaust] didn’t happen, the mass extermination of Jews, organised genocide on an industrial scale of doctors, accountants and teachers, and the world stood by and let it happen.
“Anti-semitism, or anti-Jewish racism, is not just about Jewish people, it’s about a sickness in society that tolerates or allows this behaviour to flourish. It’s an indication something is going horribly wrong.
“It is everyone’s responsibility to keep the memories of what happened alive because if you forget the Holocaust you’ll forget all the other genocides that have followed. And if you can change one person’s mind, you’ve changed a mindset. We must never forget.”
Jewish barrister Jeremy Brier added: “History teaches us that what starts with the Jews never ends there. This is a time to determine what sort of society we want to live in: is it one where we are cowed by a mob which laughs at atrocities, or one which stands with Western democracies? This isn’t ’s problem. It’s ours”.