Memory under the pressure of algorithms: Germany demands to stop the distortion of the Holocaust on social networks

The German government, together with leading memorial institutions dedicated to the memory of Holocaust victims, has publicly appealed to social platforms demanding to strengthen the fight against fake images created using artificial intelligence. This concerns visual content that substitutes or distorts World War II events and undermines historical accuracy.

The problem is no longer marginal. According to the memorial centers themselves, such images are being spread massively, often under the guise of “reconstructions” or “illustrations,” and are increasingly used for commercial and political purposes.

A wave of AI content distorting history

Memorial complexes at the sites of former Nazi camps report an increase in so-called AI Slop — low-quality visual content that exploits the tragedy of the extermination of more than six million Jews. These images are often created for clicks and advertising revenue, but simultaneously work to blur facts and fuel revisionist narratives.

The appeal was signed by memorial centers Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and several other institutions. Their position is unequivocal: fake images related to the Holocaust should either be clearly marked as AI-generated or removed, and their monetization blocked.

State support for memorials’ demands

The initiative of the memorial institutions was publicly supported by Germany’s Minister of Culture and Media Wolfram Weimer. He stated that the issue of labeling and removing AI content that distorts the Holocaust goes beyond a technical discussion.

According to him, it is a matter of respect for the memory of millions of victims of the Nazi regime and the responsibility of digital platforms for the consequences of spreading such content. In some cases, the minister emphasized, removal should be without alternative.

Context: auction scandal

Amid the discussion on responsibility for historical memory, another painful episode resurfaced. In the fall, it became known about the plans of the German auction house Felzmann to auction a private collection of items related to the victims of Nazi crimes.

The situation reached an interstate level. The Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski discussed the issue with his German counterpart Johann Wadephul, insisting on transferring the artifacts to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Wadephul harshly condemned the very idea of such an auction, emphasizing the inadmissibility of commercializing tragedy and turning the memory of Nazi crimes into an object of trade.

Together, these events show that the fight for historical truth today is conducted not only in museums and archives but also in the digital space, where algorithms can amplify distortions faster than ever before. This is why the issue of platform responsibility becomes crucial — for Europe and for all who consider the memory of the Holocaust not a subject of interpretations but a fact of history.
About this and other topics important for Israel, Europe, and Jewish memory, continues to report NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency.