In their zeal to speak out against COVID-19 vaccinations, some Orange County residents are publicly equating the vaccines and the push for their widespread use to the atrocities of the Holocaust.

On Tuesday, at an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting, two speakers wore Star of David symbols on their shirts as they joined others in referencing the Holocaust while denouncing vaccines and vaccination requirements. Last week, at an Orange County Board of Education meeting, some residents referred to the use of COVID-19 vaccinations as being not unlike the deadly experiments performed by German physician Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Some experts who track hate speech say the rhetoric is inaccurate, hyperbolic, and crosses a line into anti-Semitism.

“The idea that one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs in saving lives is being compared to genocide is abhorrent and cruelly ignorant,” said Prof. Brian Levin, who heads the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

Noting that his father was in a Nazi POW camp, and his mother had COVID-19, Levin added that the comparisons suggest people are unaware of what actually happened during the Holocaust, when six million Jews were killed, many of them gassed in concentration camps.

Peter Levi, of the Anti-Defamation League, also criticized the comparisons.

“When we allow our anger at current events to justify weaponizing the Holocaust, it’s just plain wrong and it does little to further their cause,” said Levi, regional director of the ADL’s Orange County/Long Beach chapter.

“At the same time, it’s diminishing and trivializing Holocaust remembrance.”

Levi added that the Holocaust has been used as a symbol by those who are against vaccinations in general, not just against COVID-19 shot.

The Nazi comparisons, however, have escalated during the pandemic.

Last year, Orange County’s then chief health officer, Dr. Nichole Quick, saw her photo defaced on a banner, depicted with a Hitler mustache and swastikas, Levi noted. (Quick resigned in June 2020 after facing threats following a countywide face mask order.) 

During Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting in Santa Ana, more than 200 people signed up to speak during public comments, most decrying the idea of mandated “vaccination passports” and the vaccines themselves. Many chose to make comparisons to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

OC supervisors meeting today is definitely in the running for most times I’ve heard Nazi Germany invoked in public comments

— Alicia Robinson (@ARobWriter) April 13, 2021

One woman, who identified herself as Libby, tugged at a yellow Star of David on her shirt – a symbol of what Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust and other times in history. She yelled at the supervisors, saying the vaccines are experimental and arguing that they cause more harm than good.

“This yellow star is the only thing you will ever see me put on my body. None of you have the right to tell me, and especially my children, what goes into their bodies.”

Dr. Clayton Chau, who heads the Orange County Health Care Agency, said the county will not require residents to hold a digital vaccine record or proof of vaccination to enter county facilities or receive county services. But private businesses may require such proof, and county officials will offer a digital vaccine record for those who want it.

Last week, there were similar emotional pleas during a meeting of the Orange County Board of Education, where more than 80 people addressed trustees after a larger crowd rallied outside the agency’s Costa Mesa office.

Speakers at that April 7 meeting were under the impression that vaccines would be mandatory for students older than 16, and that shots would be administered on school campuses without parental consent. None of that was true, according to Superintendent Al Mijares and others.

The following morning, Chau called a press conference to clear the record, saying COVID-19 vaccinations cannot be mandated because they have yet to receive final approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Chau also noted that minors must have parental consent.

At neither meeting did elected officials address the Holocaust references, something both Levin and Levi criticized.

“This is a form of Holocaust distortion, which is the foundation for Holocaust denial, which is an expression of anti-Semitism,” Levi said.

“All of those leaders ought to express their disapproval of this type of rhetoric that diminishes Holocaust remembrance and trivializes the murder of six million Jews.”

Levi added that if elected leaders don’t push back, then the language, and ideas, will become normalized.

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