Protesters were pictured wearing yellow stars and carrying posters with slogans such as ‘Covid 19 vaccine holocaust’ at an anti-lockdown protest on Sunday.
 
Pictures shared on social media sparked outrage, with officials at the Auschwitz Memorial museum lamenting the “sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline”.
 
“Instrumentalisation of the tragedy of Jews who suffered, were humiliated, marked with a yellow star, and finally isolated in ghettos and murdered during the Holocaust, in order to argue against vaccination that saves human lives is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline,” the museum said on Twitter.
 
Karen Pollock , chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, called for an end to the "use and abuse of Holocaust language and imagery."

She added: "At the very least, the ignorance of the history these people are invoking is deeply painful, at worst it is provocatively and purposefully antisemitic. This wilful abuse of this episode of history is crass and beyond insulting to Holocaust survivors and their families.”
 
Comedian David Baddiel tweeted a photograph of a protester with a yellow Star of David pinned to her chest. "Take. That. Off,” he wrote.
 
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said eight officers were injured as police dispersed crowds in Hyde Park.
 
“Missiles including bottles were thrown in small pockets of disorder. Two officers were taken to hospital. Thankfully, they are not believed to be seriously injured,” the spokesperson said. 
 
Five arrests were made for offences including assault on police, the force added.