(JTA) — As the world marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, one of Germany’s most prominent Holocaust scholars says twisting the facts about the Nazi extermination of 6 million Jews is far more harmful than outright denial — and that such distortion is “a stepping stone from antisemitism into the mainstream.”
Kathrin Meyer, secretary-general of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, said she considers Holocaust distortion particularly dangerous, especially as the number of survivors dwindles with each passing year. This week, when the world focuses on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, only 50 survivors took part in ceremonies at the Nazi death camp in Poland – down from 300 just five years ago.
“Obviously, it’s an insult to the victims, but it’s also a threat to our democracy because you will not find a single radical, anti-democratic, nationalistic, imperialistic group ideology that does not have a distorted view of the Holocaust,” Meyer said about distortions that are often disguised as differing opinions rather than outright lies.
Tracking Holocaust denial and distortion is part of its wider mandate to address “contemporary challenges related to the Holocaust and genocide of the Roma people,” according to its website.
One example Meyer offered is that of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s constant vilification of neighboring Ukraine as a “Nazi government” despite the fact that Ukraine’s Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was democratically elected.
“It’s always those who attack freedom, liberal views, diversity and pluralistic societies,” said Meyer, who is stepping down from her position after two decades. “They use Holocaust distortion for their political gain.”
Meyer, who is not Jewish, has led the Berlin-based IHRA as the definition of antisemitism it developed became a flashpoint in political debates.
While many Jewish groups and a number of governments and municipalities have adopted the definition as a useful tool in identifying and fighting antisemitism, some critics say it could stifle free speech by chilling or criminalizing legitimate criticism of Israeli policy.
Meyer recalled that it took IHRA three years to adopt a definition of antisemitism that satisfied all its members, which include 35 member states, eight observer countries and nine global partners including the United Nations, the European Union, UNESCO and the Claims Conference.
That definition, Meyer said, is now “one of the most important tools ever” in the fight against Jew hatred.
“Before the adoption of this definition, I was confronted time and again with statements like ‘Oh, in our country, there is no antisemitism.’ We don’t have this discussion any longer,” said Meyer. “We discuss what should and shouldn’t be considered antisemitism, but antisemitism as such is acknowledged as a problem in all our societies.”
IHRA defines antisemitism as having a “certain perception of Jews that may be expressed as hatred” toward them. That perception includes certain kinds of rhetoric and action aimed at Israel and its supporters — for example, denying Jews the right to self-determination or calling Israel a “racist endeavor.”
The definition's many proponents
Proponents of the definition see those examples as an important response to events like the sharp rise in vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries, verbal and physical attacks against Jews and “anti-Zionist” incitement since the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion by Hamas and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza.
“The events of Oct. 7 have tragically proven us right. There cannot be a debate on antisemitism without looking into the completely biased criticism of Israel that we often see,” Meyer said. “This dramatic increase in antisemitic incidents came right after the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. The fact that this didn’t lead to more solidarity but to more antisemitism shows how deep this hatred goes, and how irrational it often is.”
Meyer, 60, knows a thing or two about deep and irrational hatred of Jews — and about the power of pushing back against it. She was born and raised in Celle, a village in Lower Saxony, just a few kilometers from the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where Anne Frank died.
“This really picturesque little town, with these medieval houses and a castle, looks almost like a Disneyland film set. It wasn’t affected by the war. No bombings, no nothing,” she recalled. “I was born in 1964, only 19 years after World War II ended. But there was a big silence in my town about Bergen-Belsen.”
That silence extended to her own family, said Meyer, describing her “liberation” at facing the facts of what her country had done to the Jews.
“I was among the first Germans for whom the Holocaust was part of the school curriculum,” she said. “My mother’s side of the family was very much opposed to the Nazi system, but my grandmother on my father’s side was a very committed Nazi. I grew up with her views as well, and I’ve had to fight that my entire lifetime.”
Later on, she earned a master’s degree in educational science and a PhD in history from Berlin’s Technical University, specializing in denazification and reeducation in Germany after 1945.
“For me, it was liberating to face the facts, to step up to the responsibility I have as a German of this generation — and to not shy away from it,” she said.
IHRA was founded as a temporary task force by then-Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson. Along with Britain’s Tony Blair and U.S. President Bill Clinton, he organized a Stockholm forum held 25 years ago — on Jan. 27, 2000, that was attended by 46 heads of state and foreign ministers. There, they signed the Stockholm Declaration and committed their countries to support Holocaust education remembrance and research.
“That was revolutionary, because until then, it was mainly Jewish organizations that had commemorated the Holocaust, but it was never really seen as a governmental responsibility,” she said. “This is where we started. We had very few member countries at that point, but the others were invited. The snowball effect started, and soon it became an international institution with 35 member countries and global impact.”
Besides Jewish victims, IHRA also advocates on behalf of the Roma people, the minority ethnic group which Meyer said “are definitely the most discriminated group in Europe when it comes to hate crimes on a daily level.”
During World War II, the Nazis operated a concentration camp near Prague specifically for slaughtering the Roma. For years after the war, Czech farmers used the camp as a pig pen. Eventually, local authorities erected a small memorial.
“However, when I visited this place in 2016, I was astonished,” she said. “You see these plaques and rebuilt barracks, and some references to the Roma community that was destroyed, and then in the background, you hear these pigs screaming and you smell ammonia. It was so terrible.”
Thanks to IHRA’s then-president, Romanian diplomat Mihnea Constantinescu, Czech authorities moved the pig farm elsewhere and constructed a proper memorial site.
One of Meyer’s biggest concerns is the immense power of Big Tech, she said, citing “the problems we face just with Meta getting rid of fact-checking” on Facebook, and the increasing virulent hate speech spread on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
A recent UNESCO study of 4,000 pieces of content collected in June and July 2021 showed that 10% of such content on Facebook, 15% on Twitter (now X) and nearly half on Telegram either denied or distorted Holocaust history.
“These tech giants do whatever they want, and I have the feeling this is so unbalanced. It’s something that worries me tremendously,” Meyer said, though she’s not necessarily concerned that artificial intelligence will worsen those problems.
“There’s no question AI brings huge risks, but it also brings great opportunities, because AI cannot only be used by the bad guys. It can be used by us too—for example, in keeping the memory of survivors alive,” she said. “It’s not a curse. It’s in our world, and we need to use it.”
Asked about her legacy, Meyer said she’s proud to have helped turn IHRA into a “global player” while putting Holocaust distortion on the agenda.
“Making that a major topic was definitely one of the big passions I brought to this job,” she said. “We live in a world of deep divisions within our societies, and since we’re a consensus-based organization, we need to keep the consensus alive to confront antisemitism, extremism, hate speech and the challenge posed by AI and social media. This is a huge challenge, but I think that’s also the only way to go.”
Meyer’s successor at IHRA is Michaela Küchler, a veteran German diplomat who chaired the organization in 2021, and who currently serves as Germany’s consul-general in Chennai, India.
“She brings the drive we need to move this organization ahead and to not shy away from challenges,” Meyer said of Küchler, adding that “after 20 years in this business, I need a break.”