Open AccessTraumatic past in the present: COVID-19 and Holocaust memory in Israeli media, digital media, and social media
Author(s) -
Liat Steir-Livny
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
media, culture and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.673
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1460-3675
pISSN - 0163-4437
DOI - 10.1177/01634437211036997
Subject(s) - the holocaust , media studies , social media , holocaust survivors , sociology , political science , law
The COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, spread to the rest of the world in 2020 and still holds nations in its grip in 2021. There is scant research on the way it has affected Holocaust awareness. Based on scholarly work on Holocaust awareness in Israel, the top-down memory of the Holocaust in the media and the vernacular Holocaust memory on social media, this article analyzes the ways the Holocaust became a frame of reference in Israel for the interpretation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the newest link in a long chain of using the Holocaust as a prism for other topics in Israeli society. The article centers on the evolution of the COVID-19 – Holocaust references and the role of media and social media in it. It shows that the initial panic created a wave of comparisons between the Holocaust and the pandemic in the media and social media. In the second half of the year, as the restrictions and two more lockdowns became part of life, references to the Holocaust changed – negative reactions to COVID-19 government regulations and law enforcement were compared on social media to Nazi acts. The Israeli media did not create these comparisons but reported them widely and contributed to their circulation.