Flyers describing the Holocaust as the “Holohoax” have been found on various Australia campuses.
“Holohoax” is a term used by Holocaust deniers used to imply that the Holocaust never happened and instead was a massive hoax. The term is intimately linked with other antisemitic conspiracy theories, and is often used to allege that Jews fabricated the Holocaust in order to gain favour and special privileges.
Confirmed sightings of the leaflets have been found at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University and the University of NSW as well as an unconfirmed report at the University of Sydney.
The leaflets link to a conspiracy theory website and describe the Holocaust as a “Hollywood production”. They are titled “the Greatest Swindle of All Time”.
The universities are investigating, but are so far only discussing it in terms of the perpetrators being punished under anti-littering act, with ANU saying they could face fines under the legislation. Jewish students groups feel that the matter has not been taken sufficiently seriously, believing that the leaflets are part of coordinated neo-Nazi activity on campus.
AUJS commented with the following:
“Australian universities must vigorously tackle the surge in anti-Semitism, and identify and punish the groups which are disseminating this poison.”
“It is vital that student bodies and university authorities work with Jewish groups to educate the student population on anti-Semitism and the destructive effects of racist hate speech.”
It’s a contemptible attempt to abuse and isolate Jewish students and staff, many of whom lost family in the Holocaust and whose grandparents in Australia are survivors of the genocide.”
“Although the leaflets are closely similar to one another in content and appearance, they have appeared in three slightly different forms, suggesting that there have been three separate print runs”