VIDEO ESSAY: “The coronavirus is not the Holocaust”

[ Pour la version française, cliquez ici ]

6 May 2021 – During the past year, across social media, I have read pieces comparing coronavirus to the Holocaust. Holocaust survivors say “Stop. Please stop. There’s no way you can compare the Holocaust to this. Six million Jews were killed. We can not compare that to this”. Worldwide there are an estimated 400,000 Holocaust survivors left.

There are lessons that tragedy can teach us. As we cope with the coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath, there is a lot to learn from those who have already survived the unthinkable.

I began writing a post about this as a tie-in to my upcoming documentary about Jacques Sémelin, the Holocaust and genocide. But I thought a video essay was more appropriate. It’s only 4 minutes long and hopefully will be the first of several short video essays to come this year as various events compel me to film rather than write.