Earlier this morning, I was looking through the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website. On 27th January every year, we observe the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. We remember the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany, as well as those people who died in the genocides of Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur. In these dangerous times, where the political far right is in the ascendance in many parts of the world, it is important that we remember the horrors of genocide and learn vital lessons for the present and the future. Then, I read something so disgusting, so utterly repulsive, in this instance, perhaps unsurprisingly, tweeted by the far right ‘journalist’ Andrew Pierce that I wonder if some people have learned anything at all. Here, two days ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, is his tweet from this morning:
“Migrant children snatched from a hotel in Brighton. Proof positive nope (sic) of the migrants should be in hotels. They should be in secure camps.”
You might think that these were the ramblings of some BNP nutcase – and you’d probably be right – but the reality is that Pierce is a hack with the Daily Mail and a broadcaster with, among others, GB News and Good Morning Britain. But here he is, a columnist with the best selling newspaper in the land arguing that desperate refugees and asylum seekers – or migrants, as Pierce calls them – should be banged up in secure camps, like…well, have a little think about that one. Will there be armed guards on towers, shooting those who dare to escape?
Pierce is no fool. He knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote his tweet and, whether we like it or not, the Mail is regarded as part of the mainstream media. Yet here he is calling for people, including young children, to be banged up in camps. But does Pierce make any reference to the 200 plus children who have been abducted from hotels? Beyond the tweet, it appears not, yet he’s not the only one with zero sympathy. It appears vast swaths of the country, and certainly most of the media, don’t give a toss about child kidnapping. How can this be?
It will be down, in large part, to the narrative created by politicians and media outlets. These migrants, we are told, are all on the make. Coming over here, taking our jobs, getting free luxury housing and simultaneously claiming generous benefits denied to the rest of us. Oh and many of them have dark skin. That’s surely a coincidence, right? Some of our best friends have dark coloured skin. But wait – these are children being “snatched’, in the language used by Pierce. No matter how much ghastly hacks like Pierce hate foreigners, is he not even slightly concerned by their disappearances? Some of the most vulnerable children anywhere, yes, they need to be safe and secure but surely there’s a better and more humane way of keeping them safe and secure than forcing them into what would be little more than concentration camps?
Pierce isn’t, of course, alone. His employers routinely deal in hate speech. That’s why they exist to pander for those who love to hate. Why else would one watch a TV channel or read a newspaper which employed the likes of Pierce?
In 1930, the Mail described Adolf Hitler and his party as the “birth of Germany as a nation”. In 1934, the Mail actively supported Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists with its headline, “Hurrah for the Blackshirts”. And the Mail ran interviews with Hitler, while its owner Lord Rothermere enjoyed dinner with him. As we say at times like these, the Mail has moved to the right since those dark days.
You could excuse Pierce by saying that he is paid to say hateful things and that’s what he does. But why would he write such awful things if he didn’t believe them?
On 27th January, we take time to remember the holocaust. Let’s do so with our eyes open, too, and remember how hate can lead us to some very dark places.
