As the world watched the vandalism at the Capitol on Jan. 6, one recurring image was of a participant wearing a sweatshirt that read, “Camp Auschwitz.” That individual was not alone, according to a report released by Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and the Network Contagion Research Institute, which identified at least half a dozen neo-Nazi or white supremacist groups involved in the events of the day.
Scholars of extremism, anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust were dismayed, but not surprised, by what they saw that Wednesday. For years, they have sounded alarm bells as incidents of anti-Semitism ticked upwards and virulent conspiracy theories, redolent of those that fueled Nazi Germany, spread online unchecked. With International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, many of them spoke with the Courier about their thoughts on the failed insurrection, the intersection of extremism and anti-Semitism, and the importance of Holocaust education.
