Holocaust survivors and descendants in pro-Palestinian activism

Holocaust memory in pro-Palestinian activism refers to the invocation and critical analysis of Holocaust memory by activists and scholars, including Holocaust survivors and their descendants, to advocate for Palestinian rights and criticize Israeli policies. Prominent figures include Holocaust survivors Hedy Epstein,^[1] Hajo Meyer,^[2] and Israel Shahak,^[3] and descendants of survivors including Sara Roy and Norman Finkelstein.

Scholars have analyzed how these activists understand their position within broader debates about Holocaust memory, Jewish political identity, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.^[4][5] According to political scientist Zahi Zalloua, survivors and descendants who invoke "Never again" as a universal principle argue that Holocaust memory obligates opposition to all forms of genocide, and they frame their activism as refusing the use of Holocaust memory to justify violence carried out in their name.^[6] Historian Maud Mandel has examined how Jewish radical leftists in postwar France, many of them descendants of Holocaust survivors, interpreted Holocaust lessons in universal rather than nationalist terms, leading many to reject Zionism and embrace anti-colonial and pro-Palestinian politics, particularly after 1967.^[4]

Scholars have documented significant divisions within Jewish communities, including among Holocaust survivors and their descendants, over the interpretation of the phrase "Never again." According to Sim Kern, while Zionist narratives often frame the slogan as referring exclusively to Jewish security, anti-Zionist Jews (including Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors) invoke Holocaust history as a universal moral principle opposing all forms of genocide.^[7] Political scientist Zahi Zalloua highlights how survivors and descendants have used "Never again" as a universal moral claim rather than an exclusive principle tied to Jewish security, including in public protests and open letters condemning Israeli military actions.^[6]

Historian Raz Segal, in a 2024 Dvar Torah (Biblical reflection) for the Kol Tzedek Reconstructionist synagogue, framed the Holocaust as a manifestation of a world dominated by nationalism and colonialism, which continue to generate mass violence. Drawing on survivor testimony and family history, he insisted that the ethical lesson of the Holocaust must be universal rather than particularistic, extending to all victims of state violence and exclusion, including non-Jews. His reading of survivor Miriam Shavit's description of the massacre of Greek civilians as "our black Yom Kippur" underscored a moral framework in which violence against others is understood as an assault on shared, multiethnic societies, challenging any interpretation of "Never Again" that applies only to Jews while tolerating the suffering of others.^[8]

Hedy Epstein,^[1] Hajo Meyer,^[2] Elliot Kukla,^[9] Aaron Regunberg,^[10], all Holocaust survivors or descendents of Holocaust survivors, and members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP),^[11] 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.^[12]

In 2010, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) organized "Never Again for Anyone Tour" covering 14 cities across Europe,^[13] and a similar tour in 2011, covering several U.S. cities, featuring dozens of Jewish activists, including two Holocaust survivors.^{[14][15][16][17]} 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.^[16]

In 2024, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, American anti-Zionist advocacy group JVP 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).^[11]

American politician Aaron Regunberg, whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors, published an open letter in The New Republic invoking the moral lessons of "Never Again" to criticize what he called the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Drawing on his family's Holocaust history, Regunberg argued that Jews with Holocaust survivor backgrounds have a moral responsibility to speak out against mass violence and dehumanization of Palestinians.^[10]

Holocaust survivor Rene Lichtman was removed from the speaker lineup at The Zekelman Holocaust Center after joining a December 2023 protest. At the protest, along with JVP actitivists, Lichtman lay in the street outside the museum holding a sign that read "Jews and allies say never again for anyone." The museum later ended his decade-long role in its "Survivor Talk Sundays" series, where he shared his experiences growing up in Nazi-occupied France. Lichtman said his removal was due to his views on the Gaza war, calling the response "Jewish McCarthyism," and argued that Holocaust survivors have a duty to speak out against what he sees as Israel's genocidal actions.^[18]

Scholars have analyzed how Holocaust memory has been mobilized in relation to Israeli policies toward Palestinians. Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argued in an essay published in 2000 that Holocaust memory can be transformed into inherited moral capital and warns that this framework can shift Holocaust lessons away from universal ethics toward a politics of permanent self-defense, potentially justifying domination over others.^[19] Raz Segal explicitly critiques how Holocaust memory, when nationalized, can become what he terms "settler memory," enabling what he describes as the suppression of Palestinian voices while framing criticism of Israeli state violence as antisemitic.^[8]

Political analyst and journalist Hasan Afif El-Hasan argued in 2010 that sympathy generated by Holocaust atrocities reinforced Western political and media support for Israel, and contends that connections drawn between Holocaust memory and the legitimacy of the Israeli state have contributed to reluctance in Western discourse to criticize Israeli policies regarding military occupation and settlement expansion.^[20] El-Hasan also documented opposition from within Israeli society itself, citing historian and Holocaust survivor Zeev Sternhell, who publicly condemned Israeli settlements and opposed the occupation, presenting Sternhell's activism as an example of survivors invoking their historical experience to oppose policies they viewed as unjust.^[20]

Rabbi and historian Seth Farber has documented how some critics argue that Holocaust memory has been used to construct a narrative that discourages acknowledgment of Palestinian suffering within mainstream Jewish discourse.^[21] Revolutionary socialist John Rose in a 2004 book argued that Holocaust suffering was mobilized to morally legitimize the creation of Israel, and that this has risked insulating what he describes as colonial dispossession from critique.^[22]

Stephen Kapos, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, compared his experiences under Nazism and the current conditions of Palestinians in a 2025 opinion piece. He described the devastation of postwar Budapest as looking "just like tragically destroyed Gaza is looking today".^[23] 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".^[23]

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.^[24] 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.^[25]

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."^[26][27]

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.^[28]

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.^[17]

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.^[29]

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 massacre, 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.^[29]

Rabbi and descendant of a Holocaust survivor Elliot Kukla has written that Holocaust memory and Jewish ethical teachings create a moral obligation to oppose Israeli violence in Gaza. Kukla stated that his father's survival of Nazi-occupied Belgium shaped his ethical perspective and compels him to speak out against what he describes as atrocities against Palestinians. He participated in civil disobedience actions with Rabbis for Ceasefire, calling for a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo.^[9][30][31]

In reaction to a 2014 New York Times advertisement written by Elie Wiesel, where he accused Hamas of "child sacrifice" and compared them to Nazis,^[32] more than 300 Holocaust survivors and their descendants condemned the advertisement in their own public letter in the New York Times, stating "we are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel's abuse of our history in these pages to justify the unjustifiable ... Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water."^[33][34][35] Sara Roy strongly condemned Wiesel, arguing that his statements dehumanize Palestinians and justify their suffering. Drawing on her personal and familial Holocaust experience, she called it ethically outrageous to excuse the killing of Palestinian children and said his rhetoric erases Palestinian victimhood while reflecting the moral indifference she witnessed in oppression.^[36]

Some activists in this tradition distinguish between Judaism and political Zionism, arguing that Jewish ethical values derived from Holocaust memory lead them to oppose rather than support Israeli policies.^[29][12] 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.^[24] 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.^[25] 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."^[16] 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."^[12]

Israel Shahak characterized the Israeli educational focus on the Holocaust as part of a systematic "brainwashing" effort in Israeli schools designed to convince Israeli Jews that "all non-Jews hate Jews", and that this hatred is a force transcending ordinary intergroup conflicts. He contended that this instrumentalization of Holocaust memory distorted its proper lesson, stating: "I would say the only human response to Holocaust is to try not to be like Nazis, in word or in deed. What brought the Holocaust was the racist attitude toward Jews, the division of German society into Jews and non-Jews on grounds of race. This is exactly the same thing that is happening in Israel."^[29]

Jewish Voice for Peace and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network frame their invocation of Holocaust memory as rejecting the use of the Holocaust to justify what they describe as oppression of Palestinians.^[11][35] Signatories to the 2014 open letter expressed alarm at what they called "the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society," drawing parallels to the dehumanization that preceded the Holocaust. 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.^{[35][37][17][12]} 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".^[38] In June 2024, Neier and nine other Holocaust survivors wrote an open letter in Mondoweiss to 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.^[39]

Oren Kroll-Zeldin has examined how young Jewish activists engaged in Palestine solidarity understand Jewish ethical traditions as requiring opposition to occupation and inequality, and documents how this activism has influenced older family members, including Holocaust survivors and descendants.^[5] He argues that the activism of younger American Jews has helped create space to express dissenting views that had previously been constrained by communal expectations of loyalty to Israel, and presents survivor-descendant voices that criticize Israeli policies not as departures from Jewish identity, but as challenges to a Zionist narrative that equates Jewish continuity and moral authority with unconditional support for the Israeli state.^[5]

Historian Maud Mandel has written about how Jewish radical left activists in postwar France, many of them descendants of Holocaust survivors or families that escaped Nazi persecution, interpreted the lessons of the Holocaust in universal rather than nationalist terms. Mandel notes that for these figures, opposing fascism and racism meant embracing internationalist and anti-colonial politics, leading many to reject Zionism and nationalism more broadly, particularly after 1967, when images of Israeli occupation conflicted with enduring memories of Jewish victimhood and resistance. She highlights figures such as Maxime Rodinson, a prominent critic of Zionism; Rabbi Emmanuel Lévyne, whose father was murdered in Auschwitz and who denounced what he termed the "Israelization" of French Jewish life; journalist Ania Francos, whose family was killed in the Holocaust and who supported Palestinian movements; and activists such as Patrick Rabiaz, who explicitly compared Zionist oppression of Palestinians to his family's suffering in Nazi concentration camps. Mandel situates these positions within a broader current on the Jewish left that viewed solidarity with Palestinians as a continuation of the moral and political commitments forged in the aftermath of the Holocaust.^[4]

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."^[12]

• Haim Bresheeth: A filmmaker and scholar, and the son of two Auschwitz survivors. He co-founded the Jewish Network for Palestine (JNP) in Britain advocating for a state where Palestinians (Muslims and Christians) and Jews can live together in peace.^[40]
• Marek Edelman (1919 or 1922–2009): a Polish political, social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He was a lifelong anti-Zionist,^[41] and a critic of the state of Israel,^[42] to which he refused to emigrate.^[43] He opposed Israeli occupation of Palestine and spoke in defence of the Palestinian people.^[44]
• Hedy Epstein (1924–2016): A German-born Jewish-American political activist and Holocaust survivor active in the Gaza Freedom Movement and International Solidarity Movement in support of the Palestinian cause.^[45][1]
• Norman Finkelstein: A political scientist and activist, and the son of Holocaust survivors. He is a prominent critic of Israel and has authored The Holocaust Industry, which argues that the memory of the Holocaust is exploited to enable Israel, "one of the world's most formidable military powers, with a horrendous human rights record, [to] cast itself as a victim state."^[27][26]
• Marione Ingram: a German-born civil rights activist, Holocaust survivor, and author. Starting in 2023, Ingram has been a vocal critic of Israel's action in Gaza, and protesting in front of the White House and calling for a ceasefire.^[46] She also called for US president to stop supporting the genocide in Gaza, stating "it is time we stop killing children."^[47]
• Stephen Kapos: A survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary who was seven years old during the German occupation. He has been an active participant in pro-Palestine protests in London and has spoken publicly about his experiences. In 2025, he wrote about being interviewed by UK police for his protest activities, which he undertakes to oppose what he calls Israel's "genocide in Gaza".^[23][48][49]
• Gerald Kaufman: A Labour Party member of the House of Commons, who said in a 2009 speech in Parliament "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza."^[50]
• Gabor Maté: A Canadian physician and an infant survivor of the Nazi genocide in Budapest. He has compared the Palestinian use of tunnels to the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto and highlighted the extreme imbalance of military power in the conflict.^[51][52]
• Hajo Meyer (1924-2014): a German-born Dutch physicist. Meyer was a survivor of Auschwitz, and a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.^[16] In 2014, he was one of 300 Holocaust survivors and descendants of Holocaust survivors to sign an open letter condemning Israel's war against Gaza.^[53] According to Promised Land Museum, he believes Israel has "re-traumatized Jews to indoctrinate them and foster loyalty to the state against its enemies."^[54]
• Sara Roy: A political economist and scholar, has written that the Holocaust was the defining force of her identity, shaping a conception of Judaism grounded in universal ethics, justice, and opposition to oppression rather than ethnic nationalism. Drawing on her parents' experiences in ghettos and concentration camps, she argues that Jewish memory of the Holocaust obliges Jews to recognize and oppose the dehumanization of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.^[24][36]
• Israel Shahak (1933-2001): a Polish-born civil rights activist and professor of organic chemistry in Israel. He was a survivor of both the Warsaw Ghetto and of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and from 19870 to 1990 head of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights.^[3]

• Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP): A U.S.-based organization with thousands of members that advocates for an end to U.S. support for Israel and for Palestinian rights.^[55] Some of its members are Holocaust survivor descendants.^[11][56][57]
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN): A left-wing network that organized the 2014 New York Times advertisement.^[35] It is highly critical of Israel and Zionism^[58] and supports the BDS campaign.^[59] Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer has been associated with it.^[17]
• Jewish Network for Palestine (JNP): A British network founded by Haim Bresheeth (son of Holocaust survivors),^[60][61] bringing together Jews who oppose Israeli policies and support Palestinian rights, and "to counter the lies of the Israeli lobby".^[62]
• Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Against the Gaza Genocide: Co-organized by Mark Etkind, the son of a Lodz Ghetto and Buchenwald survivor,^[63] is a group of Holocaust survivors and descendants, wounded by their own historical trauma, actively protests Israel's military action in the Gaza stripe, calling it a genocide.^[12][64] Their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel come in several forms, including joining (and sometimes speaking at) protests,^[65][23][66] issuing open letters,^[63][34] and participating in international congresses.^[67] Gaza, It Rhymes with Me is a 2025 documentary film directed by Helena Aksentijević that profiles the activist group "Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Against the Genocide." The film focuses on members who, drawing from their personal and familial trauma during the Holocaust, participate in marches and other events supporting Palestine in London. It features Mark Etkind, Stephen Kapos, Haim Bresheeth, and Agnes Kory.^[68][69]

Numerous Jewish individuals and organizations have condemned the misuse of the Holocaust as a rhetorical device by anti-Zionists.^[70][71][72]

• List of Jewish anti-Zionist organizations