AIDS–Holocaust metaphor

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The AIDS–Holocaust metaphor is used by

ACT-UP, especially the organization's French chapter, as a way to garner sympathy for AIDS sufferers and spur research into the disease. Although the comparison is now "commonly heard" with regard to AIDS, critics maintain that it is a form of Holocaust trivialization
.

Background

Further information:
AIDS epidemic

Between 1941 and 1945, about six million European Jews were systematically murdered by

Holocaust.[1] Gay men were also persecuted under Nazi rule, with between 5,000 and 15,000 sent to the concentration camps and forced to wear pink triangle badges.[2]

The

HIV virus.[3] More than 35 million people worldwide have died as a result of HIV infection.[4]

Usage

ACT-UP

In 1985, a group of gay men in New York (including Avram Finkelstein) founded the Silence=Death Project to raise awareness about AIDS. According to Finkelstein, the group was about half Jewish. Finkelstein and others designed the well known poster at right after being horrified by William F. Buckley Jr.'s call for HIV positive individuals to be tattooed.[5] (Following criticism, Buckley admitted that his proposal "reminded everyone of Auschwitz".)[6]

ACT-UP, to agitate for AIDS sufferers. ACT-UP was known for its combative rhetoric and use of the slogan "Silence=Death" and the pink triangle.[11]

The AIDS-as-Holocaust metaphor was especially common in French AIDS activist groups. ACT UP-Paris was active in drawing parallels between a well known example of official indifference to mass death in a specific community (the Holocaust) and applied that to the perceived indifference of the government to the AIDS crisis, which affected marginalized groups. French photographer Hervé Guibert, who died of AIDS, was known for having compared his body to that of prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp. Alain Emmanuel Dreuilhe [fr] proposed that AIDS was a turning point in LGBT history, similar to what the Holocaust had been for the Jews.[12] In 1997, Steven Epstein argued that the comparison of AIDS and genocide was growing less commonplace as activist groups accommodated themselves with the medical establishment.[13]

Reception

According to David Caron, the comparison of AIDS and the Holocaust has inspired more anger than other comparisons relating to genocides.[14] Arlene Stein writes that the AIDS–Holocaust metaphor is part of a discourse in which the "Holocaust has become a universal symbol of injustice".[15] Susan Sontag was critical of the metaphor, telling a reporter that "The Holocaust was inflicted by human beings on human beings. It's wrong to compare a situation in which there was real culpability to one in which there is none... The word [Holocaust] should not be used metaphorically".[16]

According to

sexual minorities.[17] Caron maintains that the AIDS–Holocaust metaphor is a form of Holocaust trivialization.[18]

See also

  • Reports from the Holocaust: The Making of an AIDS Activist

References

Citations

  1. ^ "Introduction to the Holocaust". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  2. ^ "Persecution of Homosexuals in the Third Reich". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  3. ^ "History of HIV and AIDS overview". AVERT. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  4. ^ "HIV/AIDS". World Health Organization. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  5. ^ Finkelstein, Avram (27 November 2019). "A History of Silence". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  6. ^ Buckley, Jr, William F. (23 April 1987). "What Can We Do About AIDS?". Washington Post. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  7. ^ Goshert 2005, pp. 52–53.
  8. ^ Parussa 2001, pp. 240–241.
  9. ^ Epstein 1997, p. 421.
  10. ^ Leland, John (19 May 2017). "Twilight of a Difficult Man: Larry Kramer and the Birth of AIDS Activism". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  11. ^ Goshert 2005, p. 49.
  12. ^ Caron 2010, pp. 255–256.
  13. ^ Epstein 1997, pp. 428–429.
  14. ^ Caron 2010, p. 255.
  15. ^ Stein 2016, p. 522.
  16. ^ a b Shnayerson, Michael (21 August 2013). "The Silent Devastation of AIDS on New York's Art and Fashion Worlds". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  17. ^ Kalmin & Bischoping 1999, p. 493.
  18. ^ Caron 2010, p. 157.

Sources

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