The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany has launched #CancelHate, a digital initiative in which Holocaust survivors worldwide read antisemitic comments that proliferate widely on social media and respond.
Holocaust survivors are participating in the #CancelHate campaign to show hate will NOT win. Survivors who read the vile social media posts that deny the Holocaust are putting their discomfort aside to ensure generations understand the harm of unchecked hatred. #WordsMatter
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— Claims Conference (@ClaimsCon) May 2, 2024
In stark videos, the survivors steel themselves to read slurs like "The Holocaust was a lie – Stop spreading misinformation" and "There were no gas chambers...I have the same goals as Hitler: Exile the Jews and keep their degeneracy out of society." They then counter with searing testimony validating the atrocities they endured and witnessed firsthand.
"I survived the Holocaust, but 13 members of my immediate family were murdered because they were Jewish," states Abe Foxman, a US survivor participating in #CancelHate. "Holocaust denial on social media isn't just another post...Posts that deny the Holocaust are hateful and deny the suffering of millions."
The potency of the campaign lies in its undeniable truth emanating from the last remaining survivors. As Hedi Argent, a UK citizen, recounts, "My family was turned out of our home because we were Jews...17 members were murdered...The Holocaust did happen."
Their voices take on profound urgency amid studies showing Holocaust knowledge waning perilously among younger generations, leaving them vulnerable to distortions. Nearly half of US millennials and Gen Z report seeing denial rhetoric online, mirroring trends in other countries like the UK.
"I could never have imagined...Holocaust survivors confronting such a tremendous wave of denial and distortion, but sadly, that day is here," laments Greg Schneider of the Claims Conference. "We saw what unchecked hatred led to – words of hate and antisemitism sparked deportations, gas chambers, crematoria."
In a world where social platforms enable hatred to spread unabated, this campaign harnesses survivors' firsthand experiences as an indomitable barrier against those seeking to rewrite the past. "Words matter," affirms German survivor Herbert Rubinstein. "Six million were murdered...I am fighting Holocaust denial with all my might and strength."
For 30 days, #CancelHate's videos will tell survivors' truths to those propagating revisionism and hate under the virtual cloak of anonymity. Their words serve as a defiant rallying cry for a world still susceptible to the dangerous consequences of allowing hate speech to go unchecked.
