Mr Falter says the words ‘never again’ mean little as Jews are increasingly targeted (Image: Campaign Against Antisemitism)
We need to talk about Holocaust Memorial Day.
On January 27, Britain will join the world commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Allies 80 years ago.
The day was chosen as the occasion when we also memorialise the Holocaust, which is the word we use to describe the industrial slaughter by gas and bullet of six million Jewish men, women and children by the Nazis and their collaborators throughout Europe and beyond.
The word “genocide” was coined to describe what happened.
To some, the Holocaust is an event in history that we learn about in schools and commemorate once a year. We say the requisite “never again” and get on with other things. That’s understandable.
But for Jews, the Holocaust is not just a chapter in a history book: it remains in our collective consciousness from one generation to the next. You can’t lose one third of your people and expect the trauma to disappear after just a few decades. The Holocaust continues to live with us: our worst fear is that it could happen again.
But it’s not supposed to happen again, is it? That’s why everyone spends Holocaust Memorial Day promising “never again”. But rarely does anyone stop to finish the sentence: Never again will the world allow genocidal antisemites to target the Jews with impunity.
At some point, our society forgot what “never again” really means.
That’s why those words have by now lost their poignant meaning in our public discourse.
“Never again”, scream protesters in our nation’s capital, while in the same breath they chant slogans that call for the destruction of over half of the world’s Jews and their state.
“Never again”, say the placards at the regular anti- marches where demonstrators call for “intifada”. Intifadas are campaigns of violence against Jews.
“Never again”, declare speakers at these protests, while comparing to the Nazis.
How did the very words that represented the world’s commitment to protect the future of the Jews become a weapon used against them?
Many Jews feel unprotected in London, a city where generations have made their home (Image: File)
For over a year, we have all seen scarcely-contained antisemitism and extremism on our streets. That has been sickening enough. But it adds insult to injury when that ugly hatred exploits the memory of the Holocaust to turbo-charge its incitement and vilification against Jews.
Our society hasn’t just forgotten what “never again” means: it is turning a blind eye to those who use that slogan and the commitment it represents as a weapon to harass Jews. Society has let them not just flout the promise made to Jews after the Holocaust, but to own and pervert it.
This antisemitism is not only on our streets; it’s also appearing across our society, including on campuses.
Is it any surprise that our polling, conducted by YouGov, shows that young people are more likely to be ignorant about the Holocaust and, surely not coincidentally, sympathetic to Hamas and supportive of the anti- protests in our cities?
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.
Never again is now.
Gideon Falter is Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism.