On January 27th, the world remembers the Holocaust. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this date as the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day to remember the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. The date chosen, 27 January, marks the liberation of the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in 1945.

Over the past three years, OHPI has collected 17,392 items of antisemitic content from social media as part of our systematic monitoring project. During this period, 19.4% of this antisemitic data involved one or more of the categories of Holocaust related antisemitism. The categories and volume of data we have on each are: 

Category  1.1 Denying the Holocaust	No. of Items 899	% of antisemitic items using this narrative 5.17%
1.2 Accusing Jews or Israel of exaggerating the Holocaust	265	1.52%
1.3 Blaming Jews for the Holocaust	581	3.34%
1.4 Distort the facts of the Holocaust	477	2.74%
1.5 Glorifying the Holocaust or suggesting it did not go far enough	1032	5.93%
1.6 Inappropriate comparisons with Nazis	589	3.39%
1.7 Holocaust jokes	268	1.54%

Additionally, there are two forms of Israel-related antisemitism that are concerning the Holocaust: 

Category 4.1 Accusing Israel inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust	103	% of antisemitic items using this narrative 0.59%
4.5 Comparisons of Israeli policy to Nazism	1047	6.02%

This data comes from ten social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), YouTube, Telegram, LinkedIn, Gab, Reddit, and BitChute. 

Here, we explain each type of Holocaust-related antisemitism and share examples of Holocaust related social media posts captured during our monitoring. 

1.1: Denying the Holocaust

Holocaust denial is one of the most common forms of Holocaust-related antisemitic content in OHPI’s online data research and capture activity. IHRA explains Holocaust denial as: ‘discourse and propaganda that deny the historical reality and extent of the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices during World War II’.

The following example from Instagram depicts someone wearing a fake hook nose as a prop to caricaturize Jewish people. The caption reads: ‘Who am I? I’ll give you a hint. I’ve been kicked out of 109 countries and 6 million of me didn’t die in Germany’. The comment denying six million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime is clear case of Holocaust denial. 

1.2: Accusing Jews/Israel of exaggerating the Holocaust 

Accusing Jews or Israel of exaggerating the Holocaust is an attempt to negate or trivialise the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jews. It is also a mechanism to imply that Jews are dishonest, accusing them of exaggerating the numbers for ulterior motives.

In this example from Telegram, the user accuses Jews of lying about the Holocaust as a tactic to ‘pressure’ the British to ‘open the doors of Palestine’. It reinforces the antisemitic stereotype that Jewish people are manipulative and dishonest. They write: ‘The Jews have been using the “Holocaust” narrative as a weapon and a tool to advance their agendas including the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine’.

1.3: Blaming Jews for the Holocaust 

The following example comes from X (formerly known as Twitter). In the post, a user shares an image that claims nearly 30% of Gen Z don’t think that Hitler was ‘that bad’. The caption accompanying the image reads: ‘The world is starting to notice why approximately 80 years ago the Germans “went crazy for no reason at all”’. The implication is that jewish behaviour and character justified the Nazi’s persecution of the Jews, rather than being motivated by prejudice.

1.4: Distort the facts of the Holocaust 

Holocaust distortion distorts the facts and the magnitude of the Holocaust. 

The infamous Nazi era book burning events of May 10th, 1933, are referenced in the following X post. This was when German university students across the country burned books by Jewish authors including Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. The X user posts a screenshot of a news article with the title ‘Jews Still Angry About That Time When The “Nazis” Burned Their Gay Porn Stash in 1933’. The post distorts and downplays the actual events and reinforces a popular antisemitic narrative that characterises Jews as morally degenerate, which in turn attempts to justify Nazi’s measures against the Jews. 

1.5: Glorifying the Holocaust

The following comment on a YouTube video glorifies the Third Reich and legitimises its treatment of Jews, including the Holocaust. Commenting on a video about Israel, the user states that ’Germany was Erwacht 90 years ago’. The word ‘erwacht’ is German for ‘awake’. The statement suggests that the Nazi treatment of the Jews was the result of the Nazis’ foreshadowing the true nature of Jews through exceptional insight, wisdom and  awareness.

1.6: Inappropriate comparisons with Nazis 

The following comment was made on a Facebook news article about the US leaving the World Health Organisation. About Trump, the user writes ‘This thing is every bit as bad as Hitler’. Even if one views Trump as highly immoral, claiming that he is ‘every bit as bad as Hitler’ is inappropriate and far-fetched, effectively downplaying the seriousness of Hitler’s actions and minimising the impact of the Holocaust.

1.7: Holocaust jokes 

The following comment responded to a YouTube video about right-wing commentators Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro, the latter of whom is Jewish. This commenter writes ‘Candace 6,000,000 Ben 271,000’. On one level, the user is suggesting that Owens is ‘beating’ Shapiro in their argument. The use of these figures is an antisemitic joke in reference to a false statistic that serves to downplay the scale of the Nazi genocide by claiming that the number of Jews murdered is in fact 271,000 and not 6 million.

4.5: Comparisons of Israeli Policy To Nazism

Comparing Jews, Israel or Israelis to the Nazis is a type of Holocaust distortion known as Holocaust inversion. Holocaust inversion distorts the memory of the Holocaust by falsely equating Israel with the Nazis and uses ‘the Holocaust as a stick to beat “the Jews”’ with. 

In this example from Facebook, a user posts an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, superimposed with Hitler’s hair and moustache. The caption of the image reads ‘“We are the Chosen People!”’ The allegation here is that Jews think they are a ‘chosen people’ akin to the Nazi German ‘Aryan master race’. 

Conclusion

Despite overwhelming documented historical evidence and eyewitness testimony, Holocaust denial, distortion, and minimisation persist. These practices are dangerous because they fuel contemporary antisemitism, spread misinformation, erode historical truth and its lessons, and undermine democratic values. As documented by the Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), such narratives are not fringe opinions but are forms of hate speech that normalise extremist ideologies and violence.

A recent OHPI report examining the aftermath of the Bondi Beach Massacre found that modern hate speech mirrors Holocaust October 7 denial. The report identifies patterns including atrocity glorification, justification, minimisation, denial, and distortion—often framed through false-flag conspiracy theories that blame Israel, Mossad, or the Australian Jewish community—demonstrating how these narratives continue to evolve while perpetuating the same harmful ideologies.