Auschwitz survivors are welcoming the ground-breaking court judgement handed down yesterday in Amsterdam against the MP Thierry Baudet. Baudet had made repeated references in his statements comparing the coronavirus measures taken by the Dutch authorities with the persecution of Jewish families during the Holocaust.

In order to back up his primitive theories Baudet had used video extracts from a speech which the Auschwitz survivor and president of the International Auschwitz Committee Marian Turski had delivered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial on 27 January 2020. In a statement that was passed on to the court, Marian Turski stressed:

"I am outraged and categorically oppose the blatant misuse of the quote from my speech dedicated to the remembrance of Auschwitz. The exclusion and humiliation of Jewish families in the years that led us to Auschwitz had nothing, absolutely nothing at all to do with the current situation surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic.

In my speech in Auschwitz I tried to explain how discrimination against the Jews led step-by-step to their annihilation. The violation of human rights led step-by-step to their annihilation. I am aware that vaccination opponents are motivated by a great variety of different reasons and ways of thinking (and sometimes, I’m afraid, by a lack of thought). But what really shocks me is that fact that the majority of their speakers are well-known for their far-right standpoints, their use of conspiracy theories and their anti-Semitic clichés. This is another reason why I am defending myself against the misuse of my words. When I have myself vaccinated, I am protecting myself and my fellow human beings!"

In yesterday’s court hearing Baudet was ordered to pay a fine of 25,000 euros should he repeat his unfounded and insulting comparisons. Furthermore, the Dutch judge admonished him for ‘implicitly trivializing’ the sufferings of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

After the trial Christoph Heubner, the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee said in Berlin: "In numerous European countries vaccination opponents are attracting attention with their absurd Holocaust comparisons and are using their arguments to stoke up aggression and radicalize people. In this respect, the judgement in Amsterdam is of great significance and reaches far beyond the borders of the Netherlands."