Announcing Holocaust Denial, Distortion, and Celebration Memes

This Friday is Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day which beckons us to reflect not only on the sheer scale of the tragedy of the Shoah, but also about how it was made possible in the first place.

77 years since the end of the Holocaust, we unfortunately have to recognize that antisemitism has not gone away. Similarly, while the facts of the Holocaust have been researched extensively, there remains communities of steadfast deniers, who use social media and memes to promote their hateful beliefs.

When we began our inquiry into hateful online spaces, we had no expectation to write a report specifically on the theme of the Holocaust. Yet, of the over 2900 memes we collected and analyzed for our study, 6% directly mentioned the Holocaust.

This report demonstrates that the Holocaust remains one of the most important themes in hateful ideologies. It also creates new knowledge about the use of humour, irony, and the language of dogwhistles to weaponize the memory of one of the worst crimes against humanity in recorded history.

Holocaust Denial, Distortion, and Celebration in Memes is now available for free at the following link. It can also be found at https://hatepedia.ca/educate.

Together, we can raise awareness of these tactics in order to fight back against online hate.

- Étienne and Daniel from the Hatepedia team.

For media inquiries or general questions, please contact us at equintal@ujafed.org and dcohen-collier@ujafed.org.