Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Holocaust Denial Leaflets Distributed on 3 Australian Campuses

SYDNEY — Leaflets distributed at Australian universities claiming that the Holocaust never happened have been referred to university authorities for investigation and led to calls for tougher action against racism on university campuses.

Since February hundreds of the leaflets have been left on campuses in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.

The leaflets assert that the Nazi genocide against Jewish and other communities during World War II never occurred, and that existing historical evidence of the Holocaust is “the greatest swindle of all time.”

Michael Fisher, national chairman of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, called the distribution of the leaflets “part of a coordinated campaign aimed at intimidating Jewish students and academics.”

“Although the leaflets are closely similar to one another in content and appearance, they have appeared in three slightly different forms, suggesting that there have been three separate print runs,” he said.

Fisher described the leaflets as “toxic propaganda” and “a contemptible attempt to abuse and isolate Jewish students and staff, many of whom lost family in the Holocaust and whose grandparents in Australia are survivors of the genocide.”

Fisher identified “neo-Nazi groups” as the most likely authors and distributors of the leaflets.

The University of Western Australia Crawley campus has seen a spate of anti-Semitic graffiti featuring Nazi swastikas. At the University of Sydney, graffiti reading “Kill Jews,” has been painted on campus.

“Everyone has the right to feel safe and welcome on campus. Australian universities must vigorously tackle the surge in anti-Semitism, and identify and punish the groups which are disseminating this poison,” Fisher said.

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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.