A Holocaust survivor has slammed a woman who appeared to compare the experience of being unvaccinated to being in a concentration camp.
Posting on TikTok, Gidon Lev reacted angrily to a video in which a woman unveiled a shaved head before explaining that she was “excited” by a “new trend” which she called “first day at an unvaccinated camp”.
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He said: “Shame on you. Are you trying to look like a Holocaust survivor because you don’t want to be vaccinated?”
He explained that he spent four years in a concentration camp and also showed the camera the yellow star - used at the time to identify and humiliate Jewish people - he was forced to wear.
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Since the video was posted, the woman’s original video and account have been deleted and it is not entirely clear without full context what the woman’s intentions were, though Nazis did shave the heads of those in concentration camps.
Reacting to Lev’s video, people praised him for his intervention.
“I am so sorry people are so ignorant,” one person commented. “So grateful that you are on this app.”
Another said: “Thank you for speaking out.”
And a third wrote: “I’m so sorry you had to see this- I’m so happy you’re here today.”
Meanwhile, the lazy use of the Holocaust has become widespread in anti-vaxx circles.
At protests which took place in London in April 2021, demonstrators at a ‘Unite for Freedom’ march wore yellow stars to make the false claim that government measures to control the spread of coronavirus are comparable to Jews being forced to wear the symbols during the Holocaust as a means of identification.
And some anti-vaxxers have falsely claimed that Covid-19 vaccines violate the Nuremberg Code a - set of ethical research principles developed in the wake of Nazi atrocities – because they are “experimental”.
Time for people to learn a bit of history.