Opinion | The most important thing to remember this Holocaust Remembrance Day

Imagine that your daughter or sister has vanished. The last words you heard from her, more than one hundred days ago early in the morning of Oct. 7, were in a voice message, saying captors had caught her. Or imagine that you are on the phone with her for hours while she tries to evade armed terrorists, learn that she is shot and hear her captors through the phone say, “I will take her.” These are just snippets of the incredibly painful testimonies we heard from Simona Steinbrecher and Yarden Gonen, two Israeli women who addressed a crowded Brooklyn living room last week as part of a series of gatherings around the country arranged through the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, about the last moments in which they had contact with their daughter and sister.

Hamas terrorists kidnapped Doron Steinbrecher from under her bed in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Romi Gonen was taken from the Tribe of Nova music festival, after her best friend was killed before her eyes. Accompanied by Amanda Damari, whose daughter Emily is also still held by Hamas, and Adi Marciano, whose daughter Noa, an IDF soldier, was captured by Hamas, which then showed her dead body in a video, these women are on a grim global tour, pleading with journalists, policymakers and everyday citizens to bear witness to these shocking abductions by terrorists. It is part of their ongoing effort to help bring them home.

The families of hostages taken by Hamas are on this desperate tour to instill a sense of urgency among policymakers, influencers and everyday people to bring their loved ones home in part because, in spite of supportive protests, many have faced a disturbing public response in the U.S.: minimization, justification and even outright distortion and denialism. Given the extensive, violent footage, some shared by Hamas itself,  these reactions defy belief: a conspiracy theory circulated by online extremists and protesters that Oct. 7 was a “false flag” event staged by Israel; prominent feminists downplaying the centrality of sexual assault to the attacks; posters of the hostages defaced with cruel graffiti such as “Sure, Jan,” or on the face of 1-year-old hostage Kfir Bibas, “head still on.”

This kind of distortion and denial of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust is especially poignant as we honor Holocaust Remembrance Day this week. Denial of the mass extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of other members of marginalized groups, including disabled people, gay people, Romani people and more by the Nazis is the paradigmatic example of how such a massacre can not only transpire, but be ignored despite mountains of historical evidence — and thus enabled to occur again. Holocaust denialism originated while the death camps were still operating, as Nazis deliberately downplayed their murderous policies inside and outside of Germany. These mistruths gained traction in coming years as conspiracy theories about scheming Jews perpetuating this “hoax” fueled its spread among hate groups on the political right and left. The denialism — or more subtly and pervasively, distortionism — of the ongoing atrocities of Oct. 7 clearly evokes this specifically antisemitic past.

It is not only antisemitism that enables this distortionism, nor is it only Jews who should be alarmed by it. The demand for the most graphic evidence of documented atrocities when so much already abounds is what led to hatemongering right-wing radio host Alex Jones denying that first graders were slaughtered by a mass shooter in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and then defaming their traumatized parents as “crisis actors” deployed by the anti-gun lobby. Conspiracy theories like those have migrated beyond the political fringes: 9/11 was an inside job, the Clintons run a child trafficking ring, Covid vaccines contain aborted fetuses, those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were “tourists,” and climate change isn’t real. Whether willfully or unwittingly shared, allowing this false information to circulate unchecked jeopardizes actual lives — and not only those of the hostages in this crisis.

These appeals to safely bring home hostages taken from Israel are not in opposition to or a denial of the many innocent Palestinians who have lost their lives or are currently suffering. It must be possible to be horrified that sisters, daughters, sons and fathers were ripped from their homes and festivals and are still held hostage and to feel outrage and grief for the many innocent Palestinians killed, as we do. Indeed, many of the hostage families are themselves peace activists. Denying and distorting the truth about the suffering of the hostages echoes the Holocaust denialism and antisemitism that endangers all of us.

Denialism and distortionism are the most extreme results of the combination of historical hatreds and a newly disorienting media universe. The passive silence of otherwise well-meaning and caring people, however, allows these noxious tendencies to take root and disperse through mainstream media and culture. This is why the words of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who spoke at the gathering with families of hostages in Brooklyn last week, resonate so powerfully: “If you are good and silent, how good are you really? Not good at all.”

We must all use our voices to resist this dehumanization of the hostages and distortionism and denialism in general. This Holocaust Remembrance Day, we invite you to wear a yellow ribbon to show your support for the hostages’ safe return home or a piece of masking tape with the number of days of captivity written on it, or simply to tell your friends that you hope the innocent hostages will be reunited with their surviving families. 

It has been said many times, in different ways, that it is not the evil of a few but the silence of many that allowed the Holocaust to take place. We must not look away from this historic tragedy or the one that unfolded on Oct. 7, must amplify the stories of survivors, and must resist speculation and theory over material evidence, as difficult as it is to confront such ugliness. Only in this way might the promise of “never again” become reality.