For many months, different followers have asked me to write a post on Holocaust envy. Thus far, I’ve avoided doing so, not because I don’t think it’s a real phenomenon – unfortunately, it seems pretty evident to me that it is – but because I find it really difficult, almost impossible, to wrap my head around the idea that anyone would be envious of the genocide that almost annihilated my family and nearly eradicated the Jewish people. For the longest time, I just didn’t even know where to begin. I also didn’t know if I could write this post without appearing to downplay anyone else’s suffering, which has never been my intention.
I hope I can do this topic justice.
SECONDARY ANTISEMITISM
The term “secondary antisemitism” was coined by Peter Schönbach in the aftermath of World War II to describe antisemitism in Germany caused by the Holocaust, rather than antisemitism that persisted in spite of it. It is both a deflection of guilt and resentment for the “attention” that the Holocaust received.
"The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz."
- attributed to Israeli psychoanalyst Zvi Rix
PROJECTING GRIEVANCES
There is something really interesting about the bizarre phenomenon of Holocaust envy: those reimagining themselves as Holocaust victims do not let their grievances and suffering stand on their own.
Over the past two years – and truthfully, long before that – antizionists have persistently drawn parallels between the Holocaust and Gaza: equating October 7th to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising or the Sonderkommando Revolt in Auschwitz, accusing Nova attendees of “partying next to a concentration camp,” and now, labeling survivors of the war “Holocaust survivors.”
This pattern begs two important questions:
- If Palestinians in Gaza are suffering so greatly — and it seems very clear that they are — why is their suffering not grave enough to stand on its own? Consider this, for example: when Jews speak of the Holocaust, we do not feel the need to equate it to slavery in America or other earlier atrocities or injustices.
- Out of all the atrocities, injustices, wars, and genocides in history, why is Gaza only equated to the Holocaust? I recommend my post WHY HOLOCAUST INVERSION IS ALWAYS ANTISEMITIC for more.
AN INCOMPATIBLE DICHOTOMY
For the average antisemite, the fact that the Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust creates a problematic dichotomy.
Antisemitic patterns of thinking have been firmly engrained into global and local discourse for over two millennia. To the antisemite, the Jew is always positioned as the oppressor, as the subjugator.
At the same time, in light of the Nazis’ war of aggression, which wrecked so many countries, the Nazis became the ultimate villain. This perception of the Nazis as the generic avatar for the “bad guy” has only been reinforced by Hollywood’s fascination with World War II.
If Jews are perceived as the ultimate oppressor, but the Nazis are the ultimate villain…how do you begin to square that contradiction? The only way for this to work is if the Jews weren’t the real victims of the Nazis; if, in the end, the Holocaust was not about our suffering, but about yours.
Furthermore, in a world where oppression has become a sort of bizarre social currency, theoretically, nothing should be as valuable as being the victim of the ultimate villains — the Nazis.
TOO MUCH ATTENTION?
According to my observations, another source of Holocaust envy is the idea that the Holocaust receives “too much attention,” in contrast to other genocides and injustices. This accusation has long originated from neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, but in recent decades, it has also been adopted by other marginalized groups who feel frustrated that their plights have not garnered as much public interest.
Here’s the issue with that assessment.
Is the Holocaust talked about a lot? Undoubtedly. Is it talked about more than other genocides? It certainly appears like it.
But the problem lies in the fact that the Holocaust is hardly ever discussed in a way that centers its victims, and it’s certainly not often addressed in a manner that adequately tackles what drove the Nazis to begin with: virulent, genocidal antisemitism.
This is hardly just my opinion. Though, in recent years, more and more states have made Holocaust education mandatory, contemporary antisemitism continues to rise sharply. Of course, correlation does not equate causation, but maybe we should ask ourselves some questions about what, exactly, it is that we are teaching. Consider this: the first Holocaust curriculums in the United States were crafted by non-Jewish people in the 1970s, with the stated intent to teach not about the Jews, and not about antisemitism, but about “morality in a secular society.” This is not surprising. Since the earliest days of Christianity, Jews have been reduced to a tool for the non-Jewish world to contemplate what it means to be a good person.
Thus, the “attention” that the Holocaust receives is not attention to the plight of its victims or survivors, and it’s certainly not something anyone should envy. Instead, the Holocaust becomes a tool, a point of comparison, and a measuring stick.
"[Holocaust universalization turns the Holocaust into] a joke, a mere moment in history that is no longer relevant unless through an exaggerated comparison, [and] terms of reference that have lost all depth and all substance."
- Holocaust historian Dr. Elana Heidenman
THE ROOT OF THE ISSUE
At the end of the day, Holocaust envy is rooted in one thing: antisemitism.
In fact, in most cases, Holocaust envy is not Holocaust envy at all (who in their right mind would want to suffer through Buchenwald or Bergen-Belsen? Who in their right mind would want to experience the Warsaw Ghetto? Who in their right mind would want to suffocate in a gas chamber?). Instead, Holocaust envy is really rooted in the (antisemitic and blatantly false) idea that Jews get special “perks” or privilege for having experienced the Holocaust, whether these alleged perks are attention, legitimacy, validation as “oppressed” people, a state, or something else.
Hopefully this goes without saying, but there are absolutely no perks or privileges to the Holocaust. In 1939, there were 16.6 million Jews in the world. Today, the worldwide Jewish population stands at just 15.7 million. In other words, nearly eight decades later, our population has still not recovered. A third of Holocaust survivors live in poverty. Survivors, their children, and their grandchildren are at increased risk for a number of psychiatric conditions, and we suffer from intergenerational trauma.
For a full bibliography of my sources, please head over to my Instagram and Patreon.