Simon Sebag Montefiore warns of ‘devalued’ anti-racist language and threats to Holocaust memory

The celebrated historian Simon Sebag Montefiore has issued a striking warning about the devaluation of anti-racist language in contemporary discourse, arguing that terms such as “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” are now frequently manipulated to serve agendas running counter to their original intent.

Delivering the keynote speech at the Holocaust Education Trust’s  event in Parliament, Montefiore observed:“Words are important—as we learned last week, the people behind the banning of a Jewish MP from his school because of his Jewishness were a cabal of teaching unions and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) coordinators who constantly repeat the language of anti-racism.

“We exist in a struggle where words have often come to mean their very opposite. In that case, and others, diversity came to mean discrimination, equity, injustice, inclusive, exclusion.

“And as it turns out, every bigot is a proud anti-racist to their bones. Every antisemite is against antisemitism, and naturally, everybody is against the Holocaust and genocide.”

At Monday evening’s event—held to mark this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations—the author warned that Holocaust memory is “in peril” and under attack from new forms of antisemitic distortion and ideological abuse.

Also among the speakers were Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Holocaust survivor Annick Lever, and several of the charity’s young ambassadors. HET’s chief executive, Karen Pollock, pointedly addressed recent concerns about the state of Holocaust education, stating: “Despite challenges, our experience at the Holocaust Educational Trust is that we’re working with hundreds more schools since October 7th,” following earlier newspaper reports suggesting Shoah education was being snubbed by many schools since the Hamas attacks.

In his main address, Montefiore recounted witnessing repeat protests outside the part Israeli-owned Miznon restaurant in Notting Hill, near his home.

“I hate to say it reminded me of Kristallnacht in Notting Hill Gate,” he said. “I came across a restaurant almost besieged by about 60 screaming activists who were referring specifically to the Holocaust, to the genocide, and applying this to an innocent restaurant, British owned, though with an Israeli connection, that they were specifically trying to drive out of Britain and trying to drive out of the neighborhood, trying to destroy a small business by terrorizing passers by, people going to the restaurant, and the owners of the restaurant.”

Montefiore argued that repeated protest had crossed into harassment, saying, “Two or three times would be an exercise of the right to protest, but every week is harassment. This sums up the challenge that we all have.”

He acknowledged the nods of agreement from the Home Secretary at the event, which was attended by numerous MPs—including Conservative Bob Blackman and Labour’s Paul Waugh and Damian Egan, the parliamentarian prevented from visiting his local school in Bristol—along with survivors and other communal figures.

Montefiore warned that Holocaust denial, distortion, and “inversion” have made a “spectacular comeback.”

He cautioned: “Keeping alive the awareness of the Holocaust, the mission of HET, this brilliant organization, is more vital a task than ever, because the last witnesses are passing from the scene, and also because Holocaust denial, distortion, inversion, and I would say perversion twinned with eliminationist rhetoric have made a spectacular comeback.”

Pointing to the ideological roots of current trends, Montefiore linked the inversion of Holocaust history to Soviet-era propaganda, where “Soviet theorists had invented a new version: Zionism is Nazism.”

He explained, “The start of a weird, dark symmetry [was] implying the guilt institutionally imposed on the West for its behavior against its Jews was no longer necessary.

“In fact, it was a travesty, because the Holocaust itself was exaggerated. The Jews deserve what happened in World War Two because of what they were now doing in Palestine—a sort of pre-absolution for Europe and the West.”

He argued that the universalization and institutionalization of Holocaust commemoration, while a “moral triumph” for decades, had also made it vulnerable: “As the morality of the Holocaust narrative was universalized, it was in some ways neutralized, its teaching became too much of a procedure… its calendar became a ritual. Its shock was diffused.”

Montefiore did not spare Western institutions from criticism, warning that “parts of our universities, our media, our NGOs, our charities in this country have abetted this distortion and erasure by commandeering the Holocaust for their own purposes.”

He noted with concern that “the largest murder of Jewish civilians since 1945 on October 7 has prompted some teachers and some education unions to apply a dubious moral selectivity in favor of a bigoted and ahistorical ideology because of events far away in the Middle East.”

Montefiore concluded with a call for clarity and courage: “The necessity for politicians to speak more clearly is especially important.

“The key is not to let that language work against its underlying values, to rebut the arguments that are more damaging than merely stating that anti-racism and antisemitism exist, and not to allow the use of these jargons to mask and malign agendas and to be braver in promoting what the words really mean.”

He urged that Holocaust education “should be… celebrating Jewish history, celebrating Jewish life. So the Jews are not just seen as the victims of massacre throughout history, but also to celebrate Jewish life, Jewish achievement, Jewish culture, Jewish art, Jewish humor and so much else.

“The Holocaust started with words that made it possible to dehumanize people thanks to their religion, race and identity. Then it moved to witch hunts, to laws, to boycotts, and finally, to kill. The words, the history, the education, are more than ever the mark of a civilized society.”

In her speech, the Home Secretary said:“This year, it feels more important than ever that we remember the words of Elie Wiesel, who survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald before writing some of the most powerful testimony of the horrors of the Holocaust, and who committed his life to campaigning tirelessly against further genocide across the world.

“As we reflect upon the past, he said, we must address ourselves to the present and the future.”

She added: “I know we meet today at a time of profound concern within our Jewish community, when it feels like the lessons of the Holocaust are being forgotten.

“For centuries, Jewish life has been an indivisible part of our national life, and yet today, shamefully, British Jews are being forced to live a smaller life in this country.

“People are hiding the signs of their faith, parents are worried about sending their children to school, and synagogues require round-the-clock security. The incident reports provided by the Community Security Trust, whose extraordinary work protecting the community can hardly be overstated, are sobering.

“They lay out the prevalence and the viciousness of the abuse directed at British Jews every day.”

Mahmood said she recognised words were not enough, as she pledged the government would act to counter the rise of Jew-hate.