Every year, when Holocaust Memorial Day comes around, we at CUFI try our best to share the truth about this atrocity and help our supporters reflect upon the events through various resources and events. We do this because we believe that learning from history helps us to better understand antisemitism today.
Sadly, the Holocaust has now become a battleground. There is a sinister attempt to undermine the memory of the Jewish victims and rewrite history in order to demonise Jews who live today.
Antisemitism reaches a fever pitch around Holocaust Memorial Day. As the peddlers of antisemitism, from the Neo-Nazis, the Islamists, the Far-Left radicals, and anti-Israel extremists all join forces to spread lies, libels, and hatred against the Jews.
Sadly, Christians too are promoting hatred against Jews and belittling the tragedy of the Holocaust. Some pastors are even claiming that those who honour the Holocaust are partaking in a new religion of “Holocaustianity” that they say is teaching the West to “hate White people”. We know that may sound absurd, but that’s really what is being said.
Our own social media posts have this year seen a huge influx of Holocaust denial and antisemitic comments. We’ve been flooded with “fake news” and “Holohoax” comments. We’ve seen these coming from all angles of politics. In fact, the only thing these radical groups seem to agree on is that they hate Jews and Israel.
We need to be clear here. Those who are distorting the Holocaust are not doing it because they care about historical accuracy. They’re doing it because they hate Jews.
The Holocaust is the most documented genocide in history. There are literally millions of pieces of documented evidence of the genocide. The Nazis were meticulous record keepers. They documented everything they did. Not to mention the fact that before the genocide even happened the Nazis said this is what they were going to do. There are hand written plans by Adolf Eichmann detailing the extermination tactics they would use. There are televised speeches and published books from Adolf Hitler talking about wanting to erase the Jewish people. Then, following the war, involved in the Holocaust, from the Nazis perpetrators, to the Jewish victims, to the Allied and Soviet liberators, all said that it happened.
Additionally, there are tens of thousands of historians who all agree that the Holocaust happened and that six million Jews died. Out of those six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, more than 5 million of them have been named and listed. They were all real people. They all had the breath of life in them that was snuffed out too soon.
And yes, there were other victims of Nazi atrocities also, particularly the Roma gypsies, the disabled, and homosexuals, albeit in smaller numbers. However, it seems that only the Jewish victims are disputed. There is a global campaign to erase the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. And it is said that to not remember is to kill the victims a second time.
Holocaust denial mutates with one objective – to demonise Jews
One thing we see, particularly in the Muslim world, is the contradictory views of Holocaust denial married with praise for Hitler for carrying out the mass murder of Jews.
Here are some examples:
- Hitler is described as being a “good man” by some “because he killed lots of Jews.”
- Hitler is also jokingly described as not being good “because he didn’t kill enough Jews.”
- Hitler is also said to have not killed all the Jews to show the world why he was justified in doing it.
In each case, Hitler is seen as good while the Jews are seen as bad.
An example of the third saying is from a 2023 speech at a mosque in Blackburn, UK, imam Adil Shahzad referenced Adolf Hitler positively in an anti-Israel rant, saying: “I’m only going to leave a few of them, so that you can see and realise why.”
This phrase did not originate from this speech, as it is a widespread view, particularly in Islamist anti-Israel discourse and within Palestinian culture.
The antisemitism of the Nazis and the antisemitism of the Palestinian cause have long been bedfellows.
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammad Amin al-Husseinei, famously met Hitler and is photographed touring a Nazi death camp in 1943. You can read more about that here.
Long before the Nazis took power, al-Husseinei already hated Jews. He was involved in inciting violence against Jews trying to worship peacefully at the Western Wall and played a part in inciting the 1929 riots against Jews in Jerusalem, which led to over 133 Jews being murdered in the streets by Arabs. So it wasn’t that the Grand Mufti went to Nazi Germany and became radicalised, it was that he went there because he admired Hitler. After visiting Germany, the Grand Mufti pledged in a radio broadcast to carry out the same horrors in the Middle East against the Jews.
They only acknowledge the Holocaust to demonise Jews
Likewise, while there are widespread claims in Islamist circles that either the Holocaust didn’t happen, or that it is hugely overblown, they will choose to acknowledge the Holocaust, not to honour the victims, but to paint Israel as evil. They claim that Israel is committing a “Holocaust” in Gaza. They claim that the Israelis are the new Nazis. We’ve even seen these blood libels on placards at anti-Israel marches in London for over a decade.
The antisemites keep changing the goal posts because that is the goal all along. They will distort the truth of the Holocaust in whatever way they can in order to demonise Jews.
It is pure antisemitism from the pit of hell. They are exploiting Jewish victims in order to victimise Jews today.
It comes from the top down in Palestinian society.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a 2023 speech to Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, claimed: “They say that Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews… No. It was clearly explained that they fought them because of their social role and not their religion.”
This is victim blaming is interesting considering that Mahmoud Abbas wrote his university thesis, completed in 1982 in Moscow, titled “The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement 1933–1945”.
Abbas claimed that there was a secret agreement between the Nazis and the Zionists. That the number of six million was inflated and that it was less than one million. And claimed that the Holocaust was a deliberate “plot” of the Zionists to incite the Nazis to murder Jews to force Jewish immigration to ‘Palestine’.
So, when it suits him, Abbas will claim that Jews were not victims, but perpetrators. Or that the Nazis were just innocent victims of the “Zionists”. And that actually it was “only” one million Jews who were murdered.
In 2022, Abbas infamously claimed, while standing in Germany next to the German President, that Israel had committed “50 Holocausts” against the Palestinians. This is an evil lie which demonstrates that Mahmoud Abbas is happy to exploit the Holocaust in order to demonise the Jews.
These are wild antisemitic conspiracy theories from the current president of the Palestinian Authority are shocking, but they are par for the course. Abbas subscribes to the same antisemitic hatred as the Nazis, Hamas, the far-left, and whoever else. His antisemitism mutates as much as the rest of them.
But Abbas doesn’t just spread blood libels against Israelis; his regime also funds terrorism against Israel in a “pay to slay” reward system where terrorists are paid more depending on how many Jews they kill.
The antisemitic evil of the Nazis goes hand in hand with the antisemitic evil of Palestinian terrorism.
It’s the same evil as that of the Iranian regime that wishes to wipe out the world’s only Jewish state, or the Muslim Brotherhood that promotes fighting the Jews until they are all wiped off the earth. Or the far-left expresses when they chant about wanting to “free Palestine from the River to the Sea”.
This is all blatant antisemitism, but none of it is new.
Over 3,000 years ago, in Egypt, Pharaoh wanted to wipe out the Jewish people and ended up as fish food in the Red Sea. Around 2,500 years ago, Haman wanted to mass execute all Jews, but was instead hanged on the very gallows he built for them. King David wrote in Psalm 83:4 that Israel’s enemies say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
The hatred against God’s people is nothing new. As the Bible says, there is nothing new under the sun. The antisemitism that led to the Holocaust did not die out with Hitler and his Nazis. Antisemitism is alive and well today.
Just as Hitler said the Jews were the “adversary of all humanity.” So too the Palestinians say Israel is the enemy of humanity. For example, anti-Israel activist Mohammed El-Kurd, said, “we must abolish Zionism for the sake of humanity.”
Hitler sought “the complete annihilation of the Jews.” Meanwhile, Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, states, “Allah willing, we will destroy Israel.” And radical Islam teaches that an end-time war against the Jews is necessary to bring about global shariah.
Satan was behind the Holocaust, and now he’s trying to turn the world against Jews to enact an even greater one in the future.
Sadly, we are also seeing anti-Zionism and antisemitism taking hold within the Church. The Church is the one place that should be a bulwark against antisemitism. Instead, wolves in sheep clothing are finding their way in and leading people astray. They are distorting the Word of God and turning Christians against not only Israel but also the Jewish people. Replacement Theology is a sin. Just as hating the Jewish people is a sin.
The reason for this article is not to discourage you, but instead to encourage you to do more to speak up for Zion’s Sake.
At CUFI, we often proclaim Isaiah 62:1 because we want Christians to speak out for Zion’s sake. However, the verse is actually God speaking!
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.” – Isaiah 62:1
God promises that He Himself will not keep silent. That’s why it’s so important for the Church to speak out.
We are realising more and more that part of defending Israel involves educating and remembering the Holocaust. In fact, we believe you cannot fully honour the victims of the Holocaust without standing with Israel today. The same evil that denies Israel’s existence is the same evil that denies the Holocaust happened. The same evil that wants to wipe out Israel is the same evil that fuelled the Holocaust.
So as a challenge to you, please keep the memory of the Holocaust alive. Educate yourself often about this dark time in history. Stand up for the truth wherever you can. Do not allow falsehoods and lies to be taught in your church about either Israel or the Holocaust. And be bold in proclaiming Biblical truth.
God loves Israel and the Jewish people. He is the reason their light will continue to shine bright in this dark world.
