Comparing Coronavirus to the Holocaust is Dangerous and Wrong

By Adina Bernstein

It has been said that if we ignore the lessons of history, we are doomed to repeat it. In an article in the Washington Post published on June 30, Washington state Rep. Jim Walsh compared the Holocaust to vaccine measures taken by local and state governments. Comparing coronavirus to the holocaust is not just wrong; it is vile — and dangerous.

I am an American Jew. One of the reasons I am here today is that my forebears made the decision to leave Eastern Europe and make a new life in America in the early part of the 20th century. No one could foretell the fate of those they left behind. Forty years ago, my mother’s maternal grandfather, Saul Miller, published his memoir. Entitled Dobromil: life in a Galician shtetl, 1890–1907, it was the story of his youth and the Polish (now Ukrainian) shtetl (town) he grew up in. The memorial at the beginning of the book names his father, his siblings, and their families, who did not survive. It is dedicated to my late grandmother and her siblings, who lived simply because they were born in the US and not Europe.

Antisemitism is on the rise in numbers that have not been seen for generations. In spite of the vast amount of information about the Holocaust, it is not given the respect and perspective that other historical tragedies have received. Several weeks ago, JewBelong, a Jewish website, and social organization put up a billboard in Times Square. It reminded viewers that the murder of six million Jews is not ancient history. Similar billboards will soon be put up in other major cities in the US.

In choosing to compare the Shoah to Covid-19, Representative Walsh is both minimizing the experiences of those who lived and died during those years and twisting it to meet his political beliefs. While he is entitled to his opinions, he does not have the right to spit on the memory of my murdered co-religionists and the 600,000 Americans who have died from the disease.

What should be a matter of science and saving lives has become politicized. Based on one’s political and social perspective, the spectrum starts at one end in which you either believe that the virus exists, have followed the recommended protocols, and are or plan on becoming vaccinated, or on the other end, you believe it is a difficult flu that is being made into something more than it actually is. Watching the news and reading the headlines, I have to shake my head and wonder what some people are thinking.

Prejudice has unfortunately been part of humanity since the beginning of time. It has become a tool for those who have manipulated the facts to match their lopsided view of the world. This is nothing new, but when the emotional/mental virus that is hate meets a virus with the physical magnitude of Covid-19, it becomes a tinderbox waiting to explode.

If history tells us anything, we have choices. We can either re-enact the Black Plague, in which Jews were blamed, attacked, and murdered. Or, we can follow the example set in New York City in 1947. An unexpected smallpox outbreak threatened the lives of millions of New Yorkers and had the potential to spread across the country. Instead of panicking and scapegoating a specific minority, city officials put their heads together. Millions were vaccinated in a short amount of time, resulting in twelve confirmed cases and only two deaths.

The fact is, is that we can work together to overcome this virus. It is just a matter of having the want and the will. The problem is that some people, for any number of reasons, sadly refuse to do so.

This originally appeared in the COVID-19 Observer.