The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s leading civil and human rights organisation fighting hatred in all its forms, has called on Sydney University to examine claims of bias and Holocaust trivialization. According to news reports, Australian politicians have been equated to Nazis, the government’s treatment of refugees has been compared to the Third Reich’s murderous policy towards mentally ill people and gays. There are also allegations that a Jewish student enrolled in a Holocaust history course was barred from submitting an essay on contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism.
Dr. Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“It would be profoundly disappointing if lecturers are indeed cynically using the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust to criticise the government’s detention and refugees’ policy. Yes, universities should encourage debate about government policy in the appropriate context, but to suggest to students that the government’s actions toward refuges in any way equate to the circumstances of the Nazi concentration camps where millions were exterminated is odious and shows a gross lack of historical understanding about the crimes that the Third Reich committed. It would be equally disconcerting if lecturers were arguing that those opposed to marriage equality or to the safe schools program can be likened to Hitler’s murderous persecution of homosexuals. If proven as accurate, The University of Sydney must make it clear that the invoking of such hurtful Holocaust analogies is misguided and totally unacceptable, and insults the memory of the victims, which included gay people, as well as survivors and all those who fought valiantly against the Nazis. We also urge the university to investigate whether a student was prevented from submitting an assignment on anti-Semitism within a Holocaust course. Though the full facts are yet to be known, on the face of it, this decision strikes us as odd and puzzling since the Holocaust was the most extreme manifestation and example of anti-Semitism in history.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677