By: Fern Sidman

In a sobering new report, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) has documented a staggering 250% increase in incidents of Holocaust inversion and antisemitic violence worldwide, highlighting what the organization calls a “dangerous normalization” of Holocaust distortion and hostility toward Jews and Israelis. The data, compiled through CAM’s Antisemitism Research Center (ARC), underscores an alarming pattern of Holocaust abuse — including denial, trivialization, and weaponized historical comparisons — in parallel with a growing wave of attacks on young Jews and Israeli tourists across Europe.

According to the CAM report, incidents of Holocaust inversion — a phenomenon in which perpetrators attempt to equate Israel or Zionism with Nazi Germany — have spiked to unprecedented levels. This deliberate distortion of historical truth not only insults the memory of Holocaust victims but also feeds contemporary antisemitic narratives under the guise of political criticism, CAM asserts.

Among the most disturbing episodes cited by CAM was a protest in Umeå, Sweden, where anti-Israel demonstrators staged a graphic public display involving mannequins dressed in striped concentration camp uniforms, hanged from a wooden gallows. The scene was accompanied by Palestinian flags and a banner declaring, “Genocide is genocide.” The Combat Antisemitism Movement condemned the installation as a grotesque instance of Holocaust inversion, warning that such displays dangerously conflate Nazi extermination policies with modern political conflicts, thereby minimizing the unprecedented horror of the Shoah.

“This is not free speech; it’s historical vandalism,” a CAM representative stated. “Equating the systematic extermination of six million Jews with a sovereign democracy defending itself erases history and incites hatred.”

In the United Kingdom, the report flagged comments made by the rector of the University of Glasgow, who accused Israel of enacting a “final solution” in Gaza — a direct reference to the Nazi regime’s genocidal campaign against the Jews during World War II. The Combat Antisemitism Movement sharply criticized the invocation of this term, calling it a flagrant abuse of Holocaust terminology and a form of rhetorical violence against Jewish communities.

“Such language not only spreads misinformation but fosters an environment in which antisemitism is cloaked in pseudo-intellectual credibility,” CAM warned in its analysis.

In addition to the spike in Holocaust inversion, the Combat Antisemitism Movement documented a cascade of antisemitic incidents targeting Israeli tourists and young Jews across multiple European countries in just the past week. These attacks, ranging from verbal harassment to physical violence, have intensified in both frequency and brazenness.

One of the most widely reported cases involved a group of French Jewish teenagers, aged 13 to 15, who were removed from a Vueling Airlines flight at Valencia Airport. According to CAM, the students were subjected to verbal abuse by staff and allegedly punished after one of them sang a song in Hebrew. Describing the incident as “a shocking act of antisemitic discrimination,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman stated that the event represented “not only a violation of civil rights but an act of targeted hate that cannot be tolerated.”

“These young people were treated as suspects simply for being Jewish and speaking their native language,” Roytman said in a formal complaint filed by CAM with Spanish authorities.

In Greece, two separate incidents further intensified concern within the Jewish community. In the port of Syros, passengers from an Israeli cruise ship were blocked by pro-Palestinian demonstrators from disembarking. According to CAM, the passengers were peacefully traveling but were nonetheless denied access to the island amid escalating local hostility.

Even more violently, a group of Israeli teenagers was physically assaulted outside a nightclub on the island of Rhodes. The attackers reportedly shouted anti-Israel slogans while beating several members of the group. CAM stated that the youths were targeted solely on the basis of their nationality and ethnic background.

“These are not isolated incidents — they form part of a broader pattern of targeted intimidation,” a spokesperson for CAM noted.

In Lucerne, Switzerland, Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students were accosted by a man wielding a knife and shouting “Death to Jews” and “Free Palestine.” The attacker reportedly pursued the group before being subdued. The Combat Antisemitism Movement praised local authorities for their quick response but called for heightened protective measures around Jewish institutions and visible Jewish groups in Europe.

“This could have ended in tragedy,” CAM emphasized. “We are witnessing a resurgence of antisemitic violence under the false pretense of political protest.”

The Combat Antisemitism Movement has characterized Holocaust inversion as a gateway form of antisemitism, one that opens the door to more explicit forms of hate. According to CAM, the growing trend of equating Jewish or Israeli behavior with Nazi atrocities is not merely an academic or rhetorical issue — it is a dangerous ideological framework that legitimizes violence, erodes empathy for Holocaust victims, and radicalizes political discourse.

CAM’s Antisemitism Research Center links the rise in inversion-related rhetoric to online campaigns, university activism, and public demonstrations that blur the line between legitimate criticism of policy and incendiary historical falsehoods. In many cases, Holocaust imagery is intentionally invoked not to educate, but to provoke and dehumanize.

“We are in the midst of a crisis of memory and morality,” the organization warned.

In light of the findings, CAM is calling on European governments, educational institutions, airlines, and law enforcement agencies to take urgent steps to address the rising tide of antisemitic incidents. Recommendations include enforcing stronger hate speech laws and prosecuting Holocaust denial and distortion as criminal offenses; mandating Holocaust education programs in public schools to combat ignorance and ideological manipulation and ensuring visible protection of Jewish communities, especially during periods of geopolitical tension.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement is also working with international partners to submit formal complaints to aviation and tourism regulators in response to discriminatory treatment of Jewish and Israeli travelers.

The data collected this week by the Combat Antisemitism Movement paints a grim portrait of the current climate in Europe, where Holocaust history is being cynically weaponized and Jewish lives are being placed at risk. With both rhetorical inversion and physical assaults on the rise, CAM warns that society stands at a crossroads — one where the lessons of the past must be urgently reaffirmed to prevent history from repeating itself.

As CAM CEO Sacha Roytman concluded in the organization’s weekly bulletin, “What we are witnessing is not protest, but persecution. We owe it to the memory of the Holocaust — and to the future of Jewish life — to confront it with resolve and unity.”