Jewish groups denounce the use of the yellow Star of David by anti-vaccines

“Manipulating the Holocaust in this way trivializes the horrible atrocities that were perpetrated and denigrates the memory of victims and survivors,” says Yad Vashem of the World Center for Holocaust Remembrance.

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He said that Yad Vashem “strongly encourages individuals and public organizations to refrain from using the Holocaust and the images associated with it to further their agendas and causes that have nothing to do with the Holocaust. Manipulating the Holocaust in this way trivializes the horrible atrocities that were perpetrated and denigrates the memory of victims and survivors. “

Jews in Europe were forced by the Nazis to wear the insignia, marked in the center with the German word for Jew, to identify them and to be singled out for persecution, humiliation, arrest, deportation, and murder.

Around 15,000 Quebec healthcare workers face suspension on October 15 if they are not vaccinated against the coronavirus by then. Saturday afternoon’s protest, which crossed the city center and ended at Dorchester Square, drew about 600 people.

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Yad Vashem isn’t the only one calling out the anti-vaccine community for using Holocaust images. The use of such “images of the Holocaust erroneously compares the anti-Semitic, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and homophobic Nazi regime and its genocidal acts with the current government’s measures to contain the pandemic.” the Anti-Defamation League said in June.

And in the wake of a protest in August against COVID-19 health guidelines featuring people with yellow Stars of David, the Montreal Holocaust Museum called the yellow star “a painful symbol of Jewish discrimination and the Holocaust” and condemned the protesters.

“Comparisons between vaccine passports and the yellow Stars of David are offensive, inaccurate and attempt to trivialize the painful history of the Holocaust,” he said on Twitter.