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