“The Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus by orchestrating his death behind the scenes.”
“The Jews were responsible for the Black Plague by poisoning the wells.”
For far-right extremists, the Jews were in league with communists. For the far left, the Jews were in league with capitalists. The aim? To further their march towards world domination. No matter how ludicrous the lie, it always found willing proponents.
This lie was famously codified in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which emerged in the early 20th Century, purporting to document a Jewish plot to control world events.
Indeed, it was The Times which first revealed how this vicious forgery had plagiarised a piece of French political satire that had nothing to do with Jews.
The damage was done. The Protocols had a major influence on Nazi ideology. In Adolf Hitler’s first recorded speech, he described a conspiracy of Jews to undermine the Aryan race.
Some 20 years later, in an infamous speech to the Reichstag he pledged: “If international Jewish financiers… should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will not be the victory of Jewry but the annihilation of the Jewish Race.”
Within a few years, “The Final Solution”, the organised mass extermination of the Jews, had been launched.
Contemplating the events in Texas, my thoughts, of course, are with the hostages and their families. However, on this Holocaust Memorial Day, I also think of the survivors to whom the world made a solemn vow that we would learn from their torment.
How must they feel to see the ideology that precipitated the Holocaust rearing its ugly head once again?
Malik Akram was no aberration. The myth of Jewish power has been popularised on social media, where conspiracy theorists incite one another to ever more dramatic falsehoods about Jews.
We have repeatedly seen what happens when those falsehoods are not challenged. I appeal to every person who comes across them, whether online or at dinner. Speak out. Challenge this poisonous rhetoric. Uproot it.
For the sake of our precious survivors. For the sake of us all.
This article is published jointly with The Times
