AI Content Threatens Holocaust Remembrance, Experts Warn
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, experts voiced significant concern that AI-generated content is negatively impacting efforts to preserve the memory of Nazi crimes and the millions of Jewish people killed during World War II.
Rising Tide of Misinformation
This alarming trend includes images such as an emaciated man at the Flossenbuerg concentration camp and a child falsely identified as a victim of Auschwitz. Such content has proliferated over the past year, actively distorting historical facts related to the murder of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany.
Historian Iris Groschek noted a substantial rise in this "AI slop" by late 2025, with instances frequently appearing on various sites. Jens-Christian Wagner, director of memorials including Buchenwald, affirmed that this phenomenon is expanding in pace with advancements in AI technology.
Fabricated Narratives and Trivialization
Holocaust memorials and commemorative associations have issued an open letter, highlighting the increasing volume of "entirely fabricated" content. This material is sometimes produced by content farms seeking to generate reach, while other instances aim to dilute historical facts, alter victim and perpetrator roles, or disseminate revisionist narratives. Wagner cited images of seemingly "well-fed prisoners" as a clear example intended to suggest that camp conditions were not severe.
The Anne Frank Educational Center reported a "flood" of AI-generated content and propaganda that denies or trivializes the Holocaust and ridicules victims.
Distorting history through AI images has concrete consequences for public perception of the Nazi era.
Groschek emphasized that such historical distortion through AI images directly impacts public understanding of the Nazi era. Wagner also observed this trivialization manifesting in the attitudes of some younger visitors to camps, particularly those from regions with prevalent far-right ideologies.
Calls for Action and Platform Accountability
The open letter urged social media platforms to proactively combat AI content that distorts history. It also called for the exclusion of accounts disseminating such content from monetization programs. The memorials underscored society's need to develop ethical and historically responsible standards for AI technology, with a particular emphasis on the responsibility of platform operators.
German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer supported the demand for clear labeling of AI-generated images and their removal when necessary. He stressed the importance of preventing monetization from such imagery and reminded platforms of their obligations under the EU's Digital Services Act.
Groschek noted that American social media companies, including Meta, had not responded to the open letter. TikTok, however, responded by stating its intention to exclude relevant accounts from monetization and to implement automated verification processes.