Fact check: Sculpture is evidence of antisemitic ‘blood libel,’ not false QAnon theory

February 3, 2022 george soros, marjorie taylor greene, qanon

The claim: Historical sculpture shows adrenochrome being harvested from a child

Some on social media claim a centuries-old sculpture is further evidence of a debunked modern-day conspiracy theory.

“Nothing has changed,” reads text on an Aug. 29, 2021, Facebook post, overlaid on the image of a sculpture depicting a child being stabbed by a group of men. “Adrenochrome: A habbit (sic) set in stone.”

Numerous duplicates of the claim exist online, one of which received more than 300 likes and almost 200 shares before being deleted after USA TODAY reached out for comment.

But the claim is based on false premises. The artwork shows Simon of Trent, whose death was falsely blamed on the town’s Jewish population. It’s an example of long-running “blood libel” against Jews. The QAnon claim that Hollywood and political elites harvest adrenochrome from children’s blood is baseless.

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USA TODAY reached out to Facebook pages that shared the claim for comment.

Made-up adrenochrome conspiracy theory and historical blood libel

Adrenochrome is a chemical produced by the oxidation of adrenaline, according to a description from PubChem, a database of chemical molecules maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Many adherents to the false QAnon conspiracy theory – that claims there is a satanic cabal of powerful people in government, media and Hollywood that participate in an international child sex trafficking ring — say the elite harvest adrenochrome from the blood of children to take as a psychedelic or life-extending drug.

The baseless claim has been debunked by USA TODAY and other outlets numerous times.

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While the sculpture shown in the post does have a similar background, its premises are equally false.

The sculpture is a plaque in Italy that depicts the alleged ritual murder of Simon of Trent, or Simonino di Trento, a 2-year-old Italian boy.

After disappearing in March 1475, Simon’s body was found drowned in a river, according to Harvard’s Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Library. The town laid blame on a group of Jewish residents, with no evidence except a prediction that a Christian child would be killed during Passover, made months prior during an inflammatory sermon decrying the town’s Jewish population.

Jewish residents in Trent were accused of a ritual killing, then jailed and tortured into giving false confessions before ultimately being executed, according to the British Museum.

A century later, Simon was canonized by the Catholic Church and deemed a martyr. But Pope Paul VI annulled Simon’s status as a saint in 1965, decreeing that the Jewish residents in the town had nothing to do with his death and the whole episode was a fraud, according to Harvard’s records and the British Museum.

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The story is an example of “blood libel,” false claims that Jews murder Christian children and use their blood to make matzah, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The claims date back to at least 1144, when the murder of an English boy named William of Norwich was blamed on Jews by a local monk.

Nazis used blood libel in their propaganda against Jewish people, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

While false QAnon claims that the elite harvest adrenochrome from children don’t singularly revolve around Jewish people, prominent Jewish figures like George Soros and the Rothschild family are often targets.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a historical sculpture shows adrenochrome being harvested from a child. The artwork shows a young Simon of Trent, whose death was falsely deemed a ritual killing at the hands of the town’s Jewish population. It’s an example of long-lasting “blood libel” against Jews. The QAnon claim that the elite harvest adrenochrome from children’s blood is baseless.