Never Again Means Never Again For Anyone

[May 2026]

“Never again” has become one of the most sacred phrases in modern Jewish consciousness. It is spoken at Holocaust memorials, written in museums, taught in Hebrew school classrooms, invoked in political speeches, printed on posters, and carried in the hearts of people who grew up with the shadow of Auschwitz hanging over our collective memory. For many Jews, including me, the Holocaust is trauma woven into the fabric of Jewish identity itself. Even converts are taught that our souls stood with the Jewish people through our suffering and survival. We inherit the grief too. During my geirus in 2024, I had regular recurring nightmares of the Holocaust, and still occasionally do.

Which is exactly why I am horrified by the way some Zionists weaponize the Holocaust against Palestinians and against Jews like me who object to what the Israeli government is doing.

One of the most common tactics now is to accuse post-Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews of “universalizing the Holocaust.” Apparently, if we say genocide is wrong no matter who commits it, we are somehow diluting Jewish suffering. One prominent Zionist influencer, who I will not name here because I refuse to give her more attention, has outright declared that “Never again” only applies to Jews. This same woman denies the Nakba and sneers at Diasporist Jews while wrapping herself in the language of Jewish safety and memory.

I need people to understand how spiritually rotten this idea is.

It is not merely wrong. It is a chillul Hashem.

For Gentiles reading this, a chillul Hashem means a desecration of the Name. It means behavior so morally disgraceful that it dishonors G-d and disgraces the Jewish people in the eyes of others. Declaring that the moral lesson of the Holocaust only belongs to Jews is exactly that. It turns one of history’s greatest human tragedies into tribal property. It transforms “Never again” from a warning to humanity into a nationalist slogan. It takes the ashes of millions and uses them as political insulation for a state.

And the thing that enrages me most is that this directly contradicts the words of Holocaust survivors themselves.

Not politicians. Not influencers. Not people using the Holocaust as a rhetorical bludgeon on Instagram.

The survivors.

If you actually listen to Holocaust survivors, over and over and over again, you see a recurring theme. Human solidarity. Peace. Opposition to hatred. Opposition to nationalism. Opposition to dehumanization. Concern for all humanity.

Here's an entire page of testimonies from survivors of Dachau.

And some select quotes:

We must negotiate, not fight! No people needs war, it is necessary to negotiate!

Life in the concentration camp was scary and deadly! It should not be like that! People must stay people.

-Lidiia Chirkina, survivor of Dachau

May the world embrace peace.

-Jerry Convoy, survivor of Dachau

No hate, no wars! Yes to peace and creation!

It is very important that the current and future generations draw proper lessons from the Second World War.

-Wladimir Dschelali, survivor of Dachau

Do not forget the slavery and martyrdom inflicted on humans by nationalism.

The worst madness cost the lives of 80 million human beings.

We want peace, freedom, health, happy families for all nations of the world.

-Erich Richard Finsches, survivor of Dachau

We must stand up against hatred, bullying, bigotry, antisemitism and stop prejudice, racism, discrimination of any sort. We are all G-d’s creation, so why can’t we live side by side and appreciate our differences rather than hate them. We must teach tolerance and be an example to our future generations. Remember that Love and Hate are both contagious so choose love.

-Ben Lesser, survivor of Dachau

Read those words carefully.

“All nations of the world.”

“People must stay people.”

“Discrimination of any sort.”

Not one of these survivors says compassion is only for Jews. Not one says “never again” should stop at the tribal border. Not one says the suffering of the Holocaust should teach us indifference toward the suffering of others.

In fact, many Holocaust survivors spent the rest of their lives warning humanity about racism, ultranationalism, dehumanization, militarism, and collective punishment precisely because they understood where those things can lead.

And frankly, saying “never again” only applies to Jews spits in the face of the other victims of the Holocaust too.

The Nazis did not only murder Jews.

They murdered disabled people. They murdered mentally ill people. They murdered autistic people. They murdered Roma and Sinti people. They murdered Black people. They murdered homosexuals. They murdered transgender people. They murdered political dissidents. They murdered anyone they deemed undesirable, impure, degenerate, weak, or outside the boundaries of the fascist ethnostate they wanted to build.

As a gay trans autistic disabled Jew, how exactly am I supposed to hear “never again only applies to Jews” and not feel disgusted by it?

Am I supposed to compartmentalize my own existence?

Do my disabled brothers and sisters not matter?

Did queer victims of the Holocaust somehow die in a less meaningful way?

Were Roma victims merely collateral damage in someone else’s tragedy?

No. Fuck that.

The lesson of the Holocaust belongs to humanity because fascism threatens humanity. The machinery of dehumanization does not stay politely confined to one target group forever. Once a society normalizes mass suffering, normalized cruelty spreads like rot through everything.

And yes, I believe what is happening to Palestinians is genocide.

No, I am not saying Israelis are “just like Nazis.” But I am sick to death of people pretending that genocide only counts if every single historical detail perfectly matches Auschwitz. History does not repeat itself in exact costume. Human evil adapts to circumstances, technologies, governments, and political narratives.

You do not have to build extermination camps identical to Dachau or Treblinka for mass atrocity to exist.

You do not have to carbon-copy Hitler for ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, mass civilian death, forced displacement, starvation, dehumanizing rhetoric, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure to become morally monstrous.

And honestly, some Zionists seem incapable of understanding this because they have transformed the Holocaust into a kind of theological uniqueness doctrine where Jewish suffering is treated as so singular that no comparison, warning sign, or universal moral principle may ever emerge from it. The Holocaust becomes not a warning to humanity but a permanent exemption from criticism.

That is spiritually poisonous.

As Jews, we are supposed to know what it means to be strangers. We are supposed to remember oppression because memory is meant to cultivate compassion. The Torah repeatedly commands us to care for the stranger because we were strangers in Egypt. Jewish ethics are filled with obligations toward human dignity.

Every single time I hear someone say Palestinian children matter less because of October 7th, or because Hamas exists, or because “they would kill you anyway,” I hear the language of collective dehumanization. I hear the moral corrosion that always accompanies endless war.

And before someone inevitably twists my words, no, Hamas are not freedom fighters. Hamas are terrorists. The October 7th attacks horrified me and still horrify me. Murdering civilians is evil. Taking hostages is evil. Deliberately targeting innocent people is evil.

But mass death in Gaza is also evil.

Starving civilians is evil.

Destroying hospitals is evil.

Treating an entire population as disposable is evil.

Children burned alive do not become less dead because the government dropping the bombs calls itself Jewish.

That sentence hurts me to write as a Jew. But it hurts far less than surrendering my conscience.

I converted to Judaism because I saw beauty in Jewish ethics, Jewish argumentation, Jewish humanity, Jewish survival, Jewish spiritual depth. I did not convert in order to worship a government. I did not convert so I could learn to excuse mass suffering when the people inflicting it speak Hebrew. I didn't convert to ride Benjamin Netanyahu's dick and lick Itamar Ben-Gvir's ass.

“Never again” means never again.

For anyone.

For everyone.

Or it means absolutely fucking nothing at all.