Claims Conference: “It Started With Words”

A few days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024 and facing a dramatic rise of antisemitism around the world, this is a good time to revisit the Claims Conference campaign that launched in 2021:

Holocaust Survivors Give Stunning Testimonies to Mark Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021

Survivor-Led Digital Campaign Launched by the Claims Conference Shines a Light on Hatred Before the Holocaust

NEW YORK, N.Y.: April 8, 2021— Today, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) announces a new Holocaust survivor-led, digital campaign, #ItStartedWithWords.

Before local anti-Jewish laws were enacted, before neighborhood shops and synagogues were destroyed, and before Jews were forced into ghettos, cattle cars, and camps, words were used to stoke the fires of hate. #ItStartedWithWords is a digital, Holocaust education campaign posting weekly videos of survivors from around the world reflecting on those moments that led up to the Holocaust – a period of time when they could not have predicted the ease with which their long-time neighbors, teachers, classmates, and colleagues would turn on them, transitioning from words of hate to acts of violence.

“The Holocaust started with words,” said Gideon Taylor, President of the Claims Conference. “Hateful words that were yelled in the park, spat on the street, and roared in the classroom. These words alienated, belittled, and shocked; but worse, these words gave birth to the horrific massacre of six million Jews. The #ItStartedWithWords campaign will show through first-hand survivor testimony that the Holocaust didn’t come out of nowhere. It literally started with words.”

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And check out the award-winning short documentary TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST: BEYOND FACTS AND FIGURES that resulted from 2023 International Holocaust Remembrance Day events in Elgin, Illinois.