Jason Hall
Politics of Memory: Holocaust Distortion in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States and Britain, 2020-2022
2023 | Full access
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how politicians and different types of traditional media used Holocaust analogies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this thesis will examine the countries of the United States and Britain during the years 2020-2022. I argue the use of Holocaust analogies that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic is the result of how collective memory was processed by American and British societies after World War II. I also show how the Holocaust has become a symbol for Nazi evil and Jewish suffering, which certain collectives applied to their situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the decades after WWII have passed, the memory of the Holocaust has been used by political actors to accomplish political objectives. The recent events of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a high usage of Holocaust terminology by political actors that compared COVID-19 restrictions with Jews that were persecuted during the Holocaust. The end result of politicians and politically motivated groups making these analogies was an increase in antisemitism and trivialization of the actual events that took place during the Holocaust. One of the most common places where Holocaust analogies occurred was on social media. Several politicians used social media platforms to voice their displeasure with COVID-19 restrictions and then compared these restrictions with those implemented by the Nazis during World War II. I will analyze how and when politicians and traditional media used Holocaust analogies throughout the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. I will also analyze how analogies contributed to Holocaust distortion during the COVID-19 pandemic. By looking at this information significant light will be shed on how collective memory played a role in the use of analogies by political actors and traditional media in America and Britain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and what types of Holocaust distortion took place.
Supervisor:
Prof. Eliyana Adler