Neo-Nazi protestors demonstrated outside Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. last weekend. The protestors, associated with a newly formed hate group called the “Order of the Black Sun,” held Nazi swastika flags and banners reading “DeSantis 2024,” yelled antisemitic and racial slurs at cars passing by, and repeatedly performed Nazi salutes. The same group later hung Nazi swastika flags and an antisemitic banner over a highway overpass. Disney was likely a target due to the ongoing tension between its leadership and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). 

 

Numerous local leaders have expressed concerns about the recent rise of antisemitism in Florida. In March, the Anti Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents last year was at the highest number since they began recording such data. 

 

Many on social media expressed disgust and outrage that a radicalized group demonstrated at a location intended for families, while also urging DeSantis to condemn the gathering.

 

A large number of internet users are referring to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and law enforcement as the “Gestapo” in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s indictment this week. This use of a Holocaust-era term trivializes the Holocaust and the atrocities committed by the Gestapo.

 

Such comparisons distort and deny the Holocaust by equating a lawful arrest made by the DOJ to the systematic genocide of 14 million people during World War II. Using the term “Gestapo” in this way dismisses the horrors associated with the group and misrepresents the phrase as an acceptable way to express opposition to law enforcement activity.

 

Mentions of the term “Gestapo” in discussions involving Presidents Biden and Trump increased by 233% over the past week.

Anne Frank was celebrated Monday for what would have been her 94th birthday. Frank received her famous diary on her 13th birthday and wrote about her time in hiding from the Nazis. She was killed three years later at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, just two weeks before the camp’s liberation by American forces. 

 

Conversations on social media honored Frank’s life and impact, and some shared resources about Frank and the Holocaust. Twitter users shared notable quotes from her diary that continue to inspire them. Many users also took the opportunity to celebrate Miep Gies, the woman who hid the Frank family from the Nazis, in light of a new television series on her life. 

 

Reports came out this week that a graphic adaptation of the Diary of Anne Frank is being banned in Florida and Texas schools. This phenomenon is not new. A small number of activists have been advocating for the removal of the book from school districts claiming it is inappropriate for children due to one illustration showing Frank wandering through a garden of female nude statues in the Greco-Roman tradition. 

For more information about Frank’s life and legacy, visit the Anne Frank House website and check out the Ken Burns series The U.S. and the Holocaust.

 

 

 

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