Holocaust Memorial Day trust slammed over Gaza omission

Jewish Holocaust survivors have fiercely criticised the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) over its decision to exclude any reference to Gaza from its official invitation to the 2025 Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony.

The row began when HMDT issued an official invitation for the event on January 27, which marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The invitation initially included a reference to “the devastating violence against Palestinian civilians in Gaza”.

But the inclusion of this text was met with sharp disapproval, particularly from some Holocaust survivors and Jewish community leaders, who accused the trust of trivialising the memory of the Holocaust by making an equivalence between the atrocities of the Nazi regime and the violence in Gaza.

In response to the backlash, HMDT issued a swift and “unreserved” apology, admitting that the inclusion of the Gaza reference was inappropriate. HMDT Chair Laura Marks stated that the mention of Gaza should not have been made following the pressure.

However, other Holocaust survivors have expressed deep frustration with both the apology and accused the organisation of their experience.

Stephen Kapos, a Holocaust survivor who was just seven years old when the Nazi regime reached his hometown of Budapest, has been one of the most vocal critics.

The 87-year-old, who spent part of his childhood in the ghetto and was forced into hiding during the Holocaust, has drawn direct comparisons between his childhood experiences and the ongoing suffering in Gaza. He believes the Palestinians’ situation mirrors the genocide he lived through as a child.

“When I look at Gaza today, I feel the same pain. I have a very strong link from experience about what it is like to be in constant danger and under bombardment,” he told The New Arab.

Kapos acknowledges that the Holocaust had unique features, notably its industrial scale and the systematic nature of the Nazi genocide. However, he argues that the emotional and physical impact of both genocides cannot be dismissed.

“I think that the comparison between what happened with the Holocaust and the current genocide in Gaza, which I believe it is, is not wrong,” he says. “It is completely wrong to use the Holocaust as any kind of justification or explanation for the genocide in Gaza.”

“History is continuous, and we cannot learn the lessons for today without making comparisons and analyses of the past.”

Kapos’ view is shared by many who believe that Holocaust Memorial Day should not be confined solely to remembering the past but should also serve as a call to prevent future atrocities.

Mark Etkind, a co-organiser of the group Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Against Gaza Genocide, has also condemned the HMDT for their decision. 

Etkind, whose activism is rooted in his personal family history of Holocaust survival, insists that the trust’s decision to distance itself from Gaza is rooted in political expediency rather than historical integrity.

“The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust made the apology because they’re terrified of these politicians and other supporters of Israel who criticised them very harshly.” he told The New Arab. “What the Trust said in their letter was completely innocuous. It’s completely appropriate to mention a contemporary war crime or genocide in such a letter.”

“The main reason to have Holocaust Commemoration is to prevent further massacres, atrocities and genocides taking place in the present and the future,” Etkind added. 

He accused Western politicians of hypocrisy and of frequently invoking the Holocaust to critique the actions of regimes like Stalin’s Russia or Nazi Germany, but draw a distinct line when it comes to atrocities committed by the state of Israel in Gaza.

The activist says: “It makes me feel genuinely vulnerable because we have a political class that don’t care about human rights.

“They commemorate the Jewish genocide of 80 years ago, while they themselves are committing atrocities and genocide today. It is outrageous and very scary.”

The New Arab has contacted the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for comment.