By Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Jewish Chronicle
This is the text of a speech delivered at the Holocaust Education Trust, warning that the distortion and inversion of the Holocaust is enabling a resurgence of antisemitism, with grave consequences for democratic societies
t is so important that all of us are here to mark the coming of Holocaust Memorial Day. This seems a fitting moment to talk about the use and abuse of history, the distortion and inversion of the Holocaust – and the devaluing of that unique historical tragedy and of the language we use to fight racism and antisemitism. That language has become formulaic and meaningless and it needs to be updated.
The Holocaust – the largest industrialised slaughter in the history of the world – is and always will be a vital historical event to understand human life and fate, to teach lessons and herald warnings about past and future. The way we see it also reflects our present. The shock of the Shoah and the Second World War – rightly – helped inspire the very definition of crimes against humanity, the taboo against antisemitism and the structure of the West. Now, we would all agree that all these achievements are in peril.
When I think about the distortion of history, I remember when I was updating my history of Jerusalem and a friend rang me and said she had an “indispensable history of the Jewish people that you have to read”. She sent it over all wrapped up. When I opened, I was surprised to find it was the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the antisemitic forgery created by the tsar’s secret police. History matters but more than ever today, we need to assert that it is based on real history.