"Never Again" applies to all
A number of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, such as Hedy Epstein, [1] Hajo Meyer, [2] Elliot Kukla, [3] Aaron Regunberg, [4] and members of Jewish Voice for Peace, [5] have argued that the Holocaust's central lesson is a universal imperative to prevent genocide and mass suffering, emphasizing that "Never Again" should not be exclusive to Jews. [6]
In 2010, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) organized "Never Again for Anyone Tour" covering 14 cities across Europe, [27] and a similar tour in 2011, covering several U.S. cities, featuring dozens of Jewish activists, including two Holocaust survivors. [28] [29] [30] [31] One of the 2011 panels, held at Rutgers University and organised by several pro-Palestinian groups, was protested by hundreds of pro-Israel activists and an organiser said that “$6 million was given by the Jewish federations to disrupt these events.” The panelists drew analogies between Nazi policies and Israeli actions and accused Israeli authorities of instrumentalizing Holocaust memory to justify military violence. [11]
In 2024, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, American anti-Zionist advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace issued a statement expressing, "as descendants, we recognize that genocide makes no one safer. We are not alone in our trauma, and we have a collective duty to prevent others from experiencing similar harm," and choose to invest in Jewish values of justice (known as tzedek). [5]
Holocaust memory and historical parallels
Some individuals draw explicit comparisons and parallels between their experiences under Nazism and the current conditions of Palestinians. In a 2025 opinion piece, Stephen Kapos, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, described the devastation of postwar Budapest as looking "just like tragically destroyed Gaza is looking today". [32] He argued that while not identical, Israel's plan to "destroy Palestinian society in Gaza" as part of the "Gaza genocide", mirrors historical persecution, explaining "that is why, as a Holocaust survivor, I’ve felt compelled to join various pro-Palestine protests in London". [32]
Sara Roy has written about how her experiences as a daughter of Holocaust survivors shaped her perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She lost over 100 family members in the Nazi ghettos and death camps in Poland, and this early awareness of atrocity informed her understanding of oppression and dehumanization. Drawing on this perspective and her fieldwork in Gaza, she highlights the impact of occupation on Palestinians, witnessing Israeli soldiers subject civilians, including children, to humiliation and coercive control. She frames these experiences as reflecting the denial of humanity she encountered in Holocaust narratives, while stressing that the occupation is distinct in scale and intent from the Holocaust. [33] In January 2026 Roy stated that Holocaust memory has been misused to silence criticism of what she called the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people, and to justify the suppression of dissent, particularly within academic institutions. [34]
Norman Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors and has frequently cited his parents' experiences as framing his critique of Israeli policies. In his 2000 book, The Holocaust Industry, he reflects on his family's influence on his scholarship and activism, and says that the memory of the Holocaust has been politically exploited, particularly in support of Israeli state policies. At a 2003 lecture at the University of Waterloo, he said: "My late father was in Auschwitz. My late mother was in Majdanek concentration camp ... and it is precisely and exactly because of the lessons my parents taught me and my two siblings that I will not be silent when Israel commits its crimes against the Palestinians." [35] [36]
Hedy Epstein, a German-born Jewish-American Holocaust survivor, linked her activism for Palestinian rights to her experiences as a Holocaust survivor. She became involved in the Free Gaza Movement and International Solidarity Movement, co-founding the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and the St. Louis chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. Epstein first visited Israel in 1981 and was disturbed by racism against Palestinians. Her activism intensified after the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre. [1] In 2009 she participated in the Gaza Freedom March to challenge the Israel's blockade of Gaza. Explaining her decision, Epstein said that she was motivated by her experiences as a Holocaust survivor and a sense of moral responsibility:
I am going to Gaza because I know what it is like to be awakened at night by a knock on the door; to have your home ransacked; not to be able to attend school; to have your parents arrested; not to know if, or when they will return; to hear planes overhead, waiting for them to unload their deadly cargo; to be orphaned at a young age. Yet, I am one of the lucky ones who survived; leading a privileged life, free to travel. Because I know all this, "I cannot stand idly by" (Leviticus 19:3). It is incumbent on me to reach out to my Palestinian brothers and sisters in their time of need, to stand in solidarity with them, to let them know that they are not alone, that I am bringing them a message from people back home, that they are in their thoughts. I am going because I am inspired by the resilience, strength, and yes, even hope, of the Palestinians, despite all odds. [37]
Hajo Meyer, a Holocaust survivor and political activist affiliated with the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), drew on his experiences in Nazi Germany to critique Israeli policies toward Palestinians. Speaking on the “Never Again for Anyone Tour” in 2011, Meyer compared aspects of Israeli treatment of Palestinians, such as deportations, restrictive laws, and denial of education, to the dehumanization and legal discrimination Jews faced in Germany before the Holocaust, while emphasizing that the scale and intent of the two situations are not equivalent. He argued that systemic dehumanization, regardless of context, is a moral crime and likened Israeli measures to "slow motion genocide" in Gaza. Meyer also controversially defended the legitimacy of Hamas, equating resistance in occupied Palestinian territories to Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto. [31]
Vitold Yadlitzky, a Polish Jew and former Nazi prisoner, explained that his experience of persecution led him to oppose Israeli policies, observing parallels between historical anti-Semitism in Europe and the treatment of Palestinians in Israel. He argued that the Six-Day War of 1967, rather than being defensive, was conducted to acquire territory, and criticized the broader societal acceptance of Zionism among survivors as motivated by fear of new persecution. [38]
Israel Shahak, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen and professor at Hebrew University, described his evolution into anti-Zionism as shaped by events including the Suez War, the Kafr Qassem massacr e, and the Six-Day War. He argued that the Holocaust's lessons demand opposition to racial oppression, and warned that Israeli society, by distinguishing Jews from non-Jews, risked reproducing patterns of discrimination reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Both Shahak and Yadlitzky emphasized that their critique of Zionism was rooted in humanist ethics, asserting that the proper response to persecution is not to oppress others, regardless of the victims’ identity. [38]
Critiques of Zionism and perceived instrumentalization of the Holocaust and antisemitism
A number of Holocaust survivors have articulated support for Palestinian rights by explicitly distinguishing between Judaism and political Zionism. Sara Roy argues that Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish ethno-state are neither a necessary response to the Holocaust nor a guarantor of Jewish safety, and instead views Israel’s political structure as a source of oppression for Palestinians. [33] She also said that as the child of Holocaust survivors, she found what she described as the use of antisemitism to target scholars and activists who criticize "the genocide of the Palestinian people" particularly painful. [34] Hayo Meyer stated that "The Zionists have created a Holocaust religion", and that "Zionism is contrary to Judaism, which must now be supplanted by a new religion or [the Israelis] couldn't do what they do…. The ethics of Judaism have been supplanted by this religion." [11] Haim Bresheeth, an Israeli academic and filmmaker and the son of Holocaust survivors, argued that Holocaust memory has been incorporated into Israeli Zionist ideology and used to justify policies toward Palestinians that he characterizes as apartheid and ethnic cleansing. In an interview, he described what he called the "calculated abuse of the Holocaust by Zionism" as “a stain on the history of the Holocaust." [6]
Many of these individuals distinguish between Judaism and political Zionism, framing their support for Palestine as an anti-Zionist position. They reject the idea that a Jewish ethno-state is a necessary response to the Holocaust or that it guarantees safety, instead viewing it as a source of oppression for Palestinians. [38] [6] Organizations they associate with, such as Jewish Voice for Peace and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, argue that the foundational ideology of Israel leads to the oppression of the people of Palestine. [5] [21] Signatories to the 2014 letter expressed alarm at "the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society". [21] They also object to the characterization of pro-Palestine activism as inherently antisemitic, pointing to their own Jewish identity and the presence of thousands of Jewish protesters at demonstrations as counter-evidence. [39] [31] [6] Aryeh Neier, the co-founder of Human Rights Watch and a child Holocaust survivor, expressed that using antisemitism to attack Israel’s critics "debases the whole concept of antisemitism". [40] In June 2024, Neier and nine other Holocaust survivors wrote an open letter in Mondoweiss argue that invoking the Holocaust to justify the "genocide in Gaza" or to suppress student protests on college campuses misrepresents and insults the memory of Holocaust victims. [41]
Holocaust survivor Agnes Kory stated that she was "outraged and deeply insulted by the Holocaust being used as an excuse for Israel's relentless war against the Palestinian people," while Haim Bresheeth described what he called "the calculated abuse of the Holocaust by Zionism" as "one of the great crimes against humanity" and "a stain on the history of the Holocaust." [6]
Sara Roy also critiqued the use of Holocaust memory in Israeli political discourse, arguing that presenting it primarily as justification for state violence risks erasing Palestinian victimhood and ethical accountability. [33]
