In recent years, the United Kingdom has seen a troubling increase in Holocaust denialism, fuelled by disinformation, a lack of historical education, and the actions of influential public figures. The surge in ignorance about the Holocaust and a disturbing normalisation of anti-semitic rhetoric point to a deepening cultural and societal issue which is actively proliferating on social media.
A Worrying Decline Knowledge and the Rise of Hatred
A recent study highlights the gaps in Holocaust knowledge among Britons. Over half (52%) of respondents were unaware that six million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust, while 22% grossly underestimated the number, believing it to be less than two million.
In addition, three out of four people admitted to not knowing about the Kindertransport – a major effort that saved thousands of Jewish children by relocating them to the UK during World War II. A similar study revealed that a third of young adults in the UK were unable to name Auschwitz or the other Nazi camps, signalling an erosion of collective memory and the long-term impacts of underfunded Holocaust education programs.
The resurgence of antisemitism compounds the issue of Holocaust denialism. The Jewish community in Britain has felt a growing sense of vulnerability and isolation. Nearly half of British Jews have contemplated leaving the UK in the past two years due to increasing antisemitic incidents, ranging from physical attacks to online hate speech. Public figures and watchdogs, such as Sir Peter Bazalgette, have warned that this trend is set to worsen over the next 20 years unless there is a meaningful change in education, legislation, and societal attitudes.
Role of Social Media
Social media platforms have become fertile ground for Holocaust denial, with their engagement-focused algorithms often amplifying sensationalist and harmful content. Posts that distort Holocaust history – such as minimizing the death toll or outright denial – spread rapidly, especially when supported by influential figures. These platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram, have faced criticism for inconsistent enforcement of policies against hate speech and disinformation.
Elon Musk’s rhetoric about free speech and his decision to reinstate banned accounts and boosting pro-Nazi content have created an environment where denialism and antisemitism thrive. Musk even tweeted support for a Tucker Carlson podcast with a well-known Holocaust denier. His recent “salute” and his response by posting Nazi-based puns have sparked controversy with various groups arguing that Musk’s actions trivialize the Holocaust and could spark violence.
The anonymity and viral potential of social media embolden denialists, fostering echo chambers where dangerous narratives flourish. A chilling reminder of how fascist propaganda can infest mainstream discourse. Without algorithmic reform, robust moderation, and greater accountability from figures like Musk, platforms will continue to undermine Holocaust education and collective historical memory. This neglect not only emboldens denialism but also poses a threat to societal understanding of truth and accountability.
What can be done?
Preventing the spread of Holocaust denial requires coordinated action by individuals, organizations, and governments. Investing in education is vital to preserving Holocaust memory. We should advocate for mandatory, well-funded Holocaust education programs in schools and push for the inclusion of survivor testimonies and multimedia resources. Universities that have courses/lectures on genocide could be encouraged to make such resources freely available.
The government and public organisations should hold social media platforms accountable for the content they amplify. Supporting policies and campaigns that push for stronger moderation of antisemitic content and Holocaust denialism. Transparency around algorithms, better fact-checking mechanisms, and penalties for platforms that allow the unchecked spread of harmful content must be prioritized.
However, platforms like X and Meta are doing the opposite. Curbing the rise of far-right disinformation is not something the UK can do on its own, we need to work with other governments. Individual efforts to counter disinformation can also make a difference. Amplifying accurate information, sharing resources, and calling out hate speech are small but meaningful ways to create an online environment hostile to denialism.
Liberals in government can work to enact or strengthen legislation that combats hate speech and denialism without infringing on free speech. Examples include laws that criminalize Holocaust denial like those already in place in Germany and France seem to have been successful.
Sir Keir has done a very good job at highlighting the issues with Holocaust denial. The PM as pledged to make Holocaust education “a truly national endeavour”. I think that a renewed focus on Holocaust education would also require the study of other genocides and democides from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I think Starmer shares this view saying “But as we remember, we must also act. Because we say ‘never again’ – but where was ‘never again’ in the genocides of Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur”. Being a skilled and successful human rights lawyer means that if any Prime Minister will successfully combat Holocaust and genocide denial it would be Starmer.
For many, the question of whether society can rise to meet this challenge remains unanswered. In the meantime, each act of indifference, each jest at the expense of historical trauma, tightens the grip of denialism over our collective memory. And in that silence, the echoes of six million lost lives grow fainter, leaving a scarred world with yet another tragic void.
To learn more about Holocaust denial, I recommend Denying the Holocaust and History on Trail by Deborah Lipstadt (she has done many interviews which are available online) and the video essay Appropriating Legitimacy: The History and Evolution of Holocaust Denial.
* Jack Wilkin is a PhD student at the University of Exeter researching past environmental change around the island of South Georgia. He is a registered supporter of the Lib Dems.
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24 Comments
A good piece on a serious and growing problem.
Our party should be leading on this issue, communicating in a way that makes it clear that it is nothing to do with how you feel about the current conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians.
Thank you for your keenly felt article.
Might it be more accurate/truthful and helpful to all societies in an increasingly predatory phase of history, if all the main victims of this particular predatory, obsessive Ideology were included?
Jews 6, million
Soviets 8.8 million
Poles 1.8 million
Serbs 310.000 plus
Disabled 270,000
Romani 25000-500,000
Freemasons 80,000
Homosexuals 5,000-15,000
Spanish Republicans 3,500
Jehovah’s Witness 1,700
(Data from Wikipedia)
Might such make it clearer that persecutions for political, theft and ego purposes etc. are not, alas, confined to particular times, geographical places, groups or ideologies?
Jack’s article raises an important issue about what he calls “Holocaust denialism” but leaves many questions unanswered. The ‘recent’ data about Holocaust awareness in the UK to which he provides a link (it’s more than three years out of date), showed that only 90% of people surveyed “had definitely heard about the Holocaust”, and that many did not know that as many as six million Jews had been killed, or could name some of the death camps. Exactly how that degree of ignorance relates to antisemitism is unclear. Not knowing something is not the same as denying that it happened.
Future generations must not be allowed to forget how the rising tide of right-wing nationalism in Germany in the 1930s ended in the awful tragedy of the Holocaust, and that is of particular importance now, given current trends in Europe, but one of the questions Jack avoids is the relationship between the actions of the Israeli state in Gaza and the West Bank, and antisemitic acts in the UK. No one would condone or excuse blaming British Jews for the destruction of Gaza, but there is a link, and pretending there isn’t is another example of ‘denialism’.
Sorry, I don’t see Holocaust denial as a serious problem. The elephant in the room is accusations against Israel of genocide in Gaza, something you don’t mention at all, and whether this is Israelophobic or, as the pro-Palestinians claim, an unarguable truth. I would tend to agree the Holocaust should have a special place in education and public discourse but then perhaps so should the Atlantic slave trade and climate science denialism.
@Mark Frankel
” The elephant in the room is accusations against Israel of genocide in Gaza, something you don’t mention at all, and whether this is Israelophobic or, as the pro-Palestinians claim, an unarguable truth.”
The OP has appeared a couple of days after Holocaust Memorial day – so hardly surprising that it might focus on allegations of Holocaust denial.
On allegations against Israel of genocide in Gaza – isn’t it reasonable to be concerned at the apparent level of indescriminate destruction inflicted by Israeli military there? I use the word ‘apparent’ because it seems western media outlets cannot get in to see for themselves – not allowed in by Israel it would appear. Why won’t Israel allow western media in to see what has happened Gaza? Do they have something to hide?
And what a surprise (not) after @Mohammed Amin makes the valid point that the Holocaust should not be used as a proxy for debates on the current Middle Eastern conflict, the subsequent posts do exactly that.
@Alex MacFie, subsequent posts are not using Holocaust Remembrance as a “proxy “for debate about the destruction of Gaza. One of reasons for reminding (or informing, if they didn’t know) current generations about the human capacity for demonising others on the grounds of race or beliefs is to prevent past mistakes from being repeated. You may see no parallel in the Israeli demonisation of the Palestinians in Gaza, but those of us who do see it feel a duty to point it out, for the sake of the Palestinians – and for the Israelis, many of whom have so sadly forgotten the lessons of history.
16 years olds at the school where two of my grand children attend, divert to and visit Auschwitz each year as part of a German week for that years cohort.
How many people know that the Concentration camp originated during the Boer War, the idea of Kitchener, women and children starved to death.
I did not know till watching a BBC historic programme this week that 100,000 people starved and died in Yorkshire and Northumbria generally when they rebelled against William during the Conquest.
How many know about 1916, the Balfour doctrine, Mandate, the British withdraw and all that has resulted?.
To their credit the TV News Channels carried Auschwitz this week in great and moving detail, but how many younger people watch those channels.
We have to accept that as generations move on history moves on with them and it is not surprising that ignorance prevails and increases.
My mother was a Holocaust survivor and utterly against what was being done to the Palestinians in her name as a Jew. Holocaust Remembrancve Day was particularly awful for me with the constant statements of ‘Never Again’ while we watched in horror at a genocide in real time in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, with little or no mention. Just the juxtopositon of thousands of people with few possessions sick and starving people, returning to the destruction of their homes. Knowing that there are Holocaust survivors and their decendents who are doing this to an innocent population, after having occupied their land and slowly dispossessed them bit by bit since 1948, is deeply upsetting and beyond comprehension. To speak of Holocaust denial, when right NOW there is genocide denial going on is a hypocricy. Remember the Holocaust. Do not deny the Holocaiust, but don’t dare to say NEVER AGAIN unless it is meant for everyone. Above all don’t forget what those decendants are doing to the Palestinians using the Holocaust as a feeble excuse.
@ theakes
“How many people know that the Concentration camp originated during the Boer War, the idea of Kitchener, women and children starved to death.”
This is wrong. They were developed in the Spanish – Cuban war. The British copied the idea.
“I did not know till watching a BBC historic programme this week that 100,000 people starved and died in Yorkshire and Northumbria generally when they rebelled against William during the Conquest.”
I’m surprised at this, back in the 70s we studied the Harrowing of the North and Hereward’s resistance in quite some detail. We were also taught about the effect this had on the development of the English language – which is not quite what most (mis)understand it to be. Back the though there was no national curriculum and teachers could pretty well teach as they wanted. I was at a school in north Derbyshire and my history teacher came from Bradford – he had a deep distrust of anybody from south of Birmingham.
How many know about 1916, the Balfour doctrine, Mandate, the British withdraw and all that has resulted?.
I learned about that as a young adult – that one was quite a surprise… but did you know about the special role played by C. P. Scott and the Guardian in facilitating the whole thing?
Might it help if critical and lateral thinking were prominent in the National Curriculum?
Might such help all students, and, possibly, their relatives and carers, to be better able to spot “propaganda history” and, no less importantly, “propaganda history by omission”?
I think I have just read a post from a Lib Dem member/supporter that the Nazi Holocaust where 6 million Jews died is similar to the climate crisis. While our failure to address the climate crisis may be a result of indecision, moral cowardice or indeed greed, to compare it to the pure wickedness (that word alone seems inadequate) of what the Nazis did suggests someone has disappeared down the progressive rabbit hole that allows Trumpism to gain traction.
@Steve Trevethan, might an attempt to minimise the unique significance of the tragedy experienced by the Jews in the Shoah (in which around two thirds of European Jews perished) be an example not only of “whataboutery” but also of Holocaust trivialisation?
Jack may be right to say ignorance about the Holocaust is a problem, but the far bigger problem is the way Holocaust Remembrance plays out. It’s harmless for Germany and other European countries to indulge in a bit of self-flagellation once a year, but in Israel it stirs up real fears that it could be repeated. This is used by right-wing politicians to justify Israel’s militaristic approach to problem-solving, and in its worst form this manifests as the desire to kill Palestinians, and/or drive them from their homeland. It seems paradoxical, but instead of reminding Israelis of the danger of branding others as an inferior race, remembering the Holocaust makes them more likely to repeat the same mistake. admittedly, even if it’s eventually judged to be Genocide, the wholesale destruction of Gaza and tens of thousands of its people doesn’t match what the Nazis did, but that doesn’t excuse it.
Israelis need to be told to stop fearing another annihilation when they think of the Holocaust, and to recognise it as a terrible crime which we all know was utterly wrong, but which can be made more bearable as a memory if the warning it provides is acted upon.
Michael Maybridge, when the memory of the Holocaust is used as an excuse to ethnically cleanse another population who were innocent of the Holocaust, then I have to agree with Steve Trevethan when he states, “better able to spot “propaganda history” and, no less importantly, “propaganda history by omission”?”. To omit the suffering imposed on the Palestinians by the decendents of the Holocaust, is to diminish the history of the Holocaust, because in the future their crimes will be remembered, along with those who allowed those crimes, with as much incedulity, as those who committed and allowed the crimes of the Holocaust to take place. If you want to avoid diminishing the memory of the Holocaust, then make it really mean ‘never again’ instead of what it has come to mean, never again for us, but not for those others, even called sub-human by Israeli leaders, who can be disspossessed and murdered with impunity.
There are many Jews in this country and around the world who feel the same as I do as can be seen by ther huge Jewish Block on the various demonstrations.
Might detailed information related to a persecution be significantly different from trivialisation as it may indicate that fabricated cruel persecution for purposes of political gain, status, wealth and psychopathic compulsions does not trivialise but generalises so that more of us and our children are aware of the dangers of such evils and so are more alert to their dangers?
@Steve Trevethan, your quoted information appears to come from the Wikipedia article on “Holocaust victims”, which claims that “Holocaust victims were people targeted by the government of Nazi Germany based on their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, disability or sexual orientation”. However the discussion here, on the page itself, makes clear that it’s one held by a small minority of scholars in the field. Wikipedia’s page on The Holocaust is much closer to a mainstream understanding when it defines it as “the genocide of European Jews during World War II”. From what you’ve said I have to assume you’re not aware of the particular historical features of the Jewish experience of the Holocaust, so I’ll very briefly summarise my understanding of them for you. Firstly, the sheer scale; secondly, its impact in relation to the Jewish population as a whole (I mentioned in my first post that around two thirds of European Jews died, which equates to about one third of the global population, while in Poland, for example, 90% were murdered); and thirdly its systematic, bureaucratic and industrialised nature. I’m curious – do you feel that, for example, in order to learn lessons from the Atlantic slave trade we need to generalise our understanding beyond its impact on people of African heritage
@Miranda Pinch, with respect, what the large Jewish block on demonstrations tells you is that many Jews support the Palestinian cause and are appalled by Israel’s actions in Gaza, not what their feelings about Holocaust remembrance may or may not be. You say above that your mother was a Holocaust survivor, which makes you one step closer than me since so was my grandmother. In any case, I’ve been a supporter of Palestinian freedom and equality for longer than I’ve been aware of my Jewish heritage, but I’m afraid I don’t see why I should be required to discuss the misdeeds of one particular group of the descendants of survivors as a condition of talking about the enormous crime that killed so many members of my family and made my Granny a refugee. They were, and are, no more responsible for the current actions of the Israeli government than you or I, and can rightly be held no more accountable for them than they can for, for example, genocides in Srebrenica or Rwanda. Yes, Netenyahu is absolutely wrong to use the Holocaust as cover for Israel’s crimes – I don’t believe he gets to determine how six million people who died before the State of Israel existed should be remembered, which is why I will continue to talk about both situations, as best I can, on their own terms.
First, a tip of the hat to Miranda Pinch!
Second, might it be that the Wikipedia sources given by Michael Maybridge and by me may not be consistent with each other?
My source is below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims
Might the article below be relevant?
https://www.worldatlas.com/disasters/the-10-worst-genocides-in-history.html
Might the article below be of relevant interest?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Violins_Stopped_Playing
@Steve Trevethan, might reading my previous post show that I said that the Wikipedia articles didn’t agree with each other? Might that post also contain a link to a discussion that shows that an expansive view of the correct use of the term “Holocaust” (to include all victims of Nazi persecution) is one held by a small minority of scholars? While I’m sure noone here, as liberals, will doubt your right to hold to a minority opinion, would it be reasonable to acknowledge that that is what it is, and that it is one with the potential to cause pain to many Jews who are conscious of the particular trauma experienced by their community and families? I also notice that you didn’t answer my question – do you always find it necessary to mention other groups of victims when a tragedy or act of oppression affecting one group is discussed? For example, when discussing the Atlantic Slave Trade, do you feel that we are only fully “aware of the dangers of such evils” if we generalise the conversation beyond its impact on people of African heritage?
Perhaps Holocaust awareness could be basically viewed from three choices?
1) An important memorial
2) An necessary warning and signpost to alertness and, if needed, future actions and restraint of actions
3) A combination of 1 and 2
Myself, I go for 3.
Might such be generally applicable to all human-created, and so avoidable horrors, along with their before, during and afterwards contexts?
Might a considered opinion be held according to its perceived merits rather than according to the number who agree with it?
@Steve Trevethan, while respecting a right to hold any opinion, “considered” or otherwise, might that opinion itself stand more chance of commanding wider respect if evidence and/or logical argument are presented in support of it? Might efforts to promote Holocaust awareness (and that of other genocides and crimes against humanity) as “an important memorial” be more successful and truthful if the particular, different experiences of different groups are acknowledged and respected, rather than being required to be lumped in with those of others (“generalised”)? Similarly, might efforts to use awareness of historical crimes as “A necessary warning and signpost to alertness” be more effective if the circumstances specific to the individual group, or groups, affected are carefully considered and given due weight, rather than being obscured by a premature focus on what is “generally applicable”? Finally, might a repeated failure to answer a direct question suggest some discomfort with the answer to that question, and, in this case, the possibility that there may, in the eyes of the one who fails to answer the question, be something about Jews in particular that renders their experience incapable, on its own, of furthering these goals?
The problem with remembering the Holocaust last monday, was not the remembering of the Holocaust, that needs remembering, but the statements made by many there and around the world of ‘never again’. The BBC news followed those statements with images of the plight of starving and frail Palestinians bearing few possessions, trudging to the rubble of their homes. The words ‘never again’ in those circumstances sound horribly as if the lives of the Palestinians are of no importance.
@Miranda Pinch, there you undoubtedly have a point. “Never again” is surely an appropriate, indeed necessary, resolution to be associated with Holocaust remembrance. But when we see one group of people treating another with hatred and contempt – be that in Gaza, Myanmar, Darfur or elsewhere – we know that, as a species, we have singularly failed to fulfill its spirit. We must do better.