Holocaust survivor slams TikTok anti-vaxxer who made Shoah comparison
A Holocaust survivor is using TikTok to push back against anti-vaxxers who compare vaccine mandates to the genocide.
86-year-old Gidon Lev made waves with a post in response to a user who posted a video of herself with a buzz cut, saying it was her “first day at an unvaccinated camp.”
“Shame on you,” Lev said, using TikTok’s duet function. “Are you trying to look like a Holocaust survivor because you don’t want to be vaccinated?”
“I was four years in a concentration camp,” Lev said, holding up a six-pointed yellow felt star blazoned with the word “Jude.”
“Have the day you deserve,” the Israeli octogenarian concluded.
@thetrueadventures ##duet with @Carollynn Xavier ##holocaustsurvivor ##stopantisemitism ##foryoupage ##fypシ ##fyp ##shoah ##antivaxxer ##comeon ##notfunny
Lev’s retort to the anti-vaxxer, Carollynn Xavier, had been viewed more than four million times as of press time. Xavier, who posted the video to which Lev responded under the username @carollynnthechristian, has since made her TikTok account private.
Born in the former Czech Republic, Lev was imprisoned in the Theresienstadt concentration camp between 1941 and 1945, when he was between 6 and 10 years old, according to his website. He lost 26 family members in the Holocaust, including his father and grandparents.
On TikTok, Lev posts videos aiming to combat antisemitism and misinformation about the Holocaust. He shares the account with his partner, Julie Gray, who helped write his memoir, “The True Adventures of Gidon Lev.”
And although his subject matter can be serious, he takes it on with a smile. His TikTok bio? “Holocaust Survivor & Rascal.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
