Misuse of the yellow star should have us up in arms

We live in an age of such hyperbole and drama that words like “trauma” and “survivor” are sprinkled liberally, while rooms that contain people making arguments you don’t like are deemed “unsafe” - as are the people making them. Everyone is on the lookout for maximum levels of offence.

But the irony of this is that when something gravely offensive is actually happening, it’s not always even noticed. Nowhere is this clearer than in things that are offensive to Jews. Indeed it is actually in service of the hyperbolic imperative – taking something relatively harmless and turning it into a drama – that Jews are openly insulted on a regular basis.

For instance, since the widespread rollout of vaccines, it has become commonplace in anti-lockdown protests in Europe, and even the UK, for protesters to wear the yellow star. As in the one that Jews were made to wear by the Nazis to maximise their humiliation before their mass extermination. It began as early as April, and duly made its way to Germany, where protesters replaced the word ‘Jude’ (Jew) with ‘ungeimpft’ (unvaccinated). In Germany, there are laws against open mockery of the Holocaust; the wearing of the yellow star was then banned in Munich.

There has been some response to this demented deployment of the yellow star, including from Holocaust survivors. But really not very much. While institutions bend over backwards not to offend most minorities, there is a blind spot – as usual – where Jews are concerned. How else to explain last week’s news that schools are asking children who aren’t able to wear masks to wear a yellow badge showing they are exempt?

This may be a mistake rather than malicious. But the lack of sensitivity should be a source of concern for any civilised society.