Holocaust Museum LA deletes post saying 'never again' applies to all people

The Holocaust Museum LA on Saturday deleted a social media post stating in block letters that "'Never again' can't only mean never again for Jews," on an illustrated image of interlocking human arms of different shades. 

"Standing with humanity does not betray our people," the following slide said. "It honours them."

Within a day, the post was gone, and they promised to "do better".

“We recently posted an item on social media that was part of a pre-planned campaign intended to promote inclusivity and community that was easily open to misinterpretation by some to be a political statement reflecting the ongoing situation in the Middle East. That was not our intent,” a later post said.

"It has been removed to avoid any further confusion," the museum added. "We promise to do better". 

A screenshot of the original image released by the California museum was captured by Ryan Grim, co-founder of Dropsite News. 

"Speechless. No words for this," he captioned in a post on X.

"Think about how many people must have complained about this first message to get them to delete it and even issue an apology," he wrote. "If you denounce genocide, some might think you’re being critical of Israel and we can’t have that". 

The Forward news outlet, which targets a Jewish American audience, noted that Jews who have rallied against gun violence in the US and against China's crackdown on the Uyghur minority have used the phrase "never again" for their causes, but others oppose it for anything but the Holocaust of World War II. 

Israel's nearly two-year-long genocide in Gaza has resulted in images of crowded, unsanitary camps, starvation, and mass graves that mirror the photographs displayed in museums around the world erected to remember the Holocaust. Israeli historians, scholars, and human rights organisations have called the war in Gaza a genocide, with over 64,000 killed, 160,000 injured and starvation looming over the enclave. 

In the West, it is a crime to deny one Holocaust and dangerous to name another

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The former United Nations aid chief, Martin Griffiths, has said he is convinced that Israel's assault on Gaza is the "worst crime of the 21st century". 

But pro-Israel voices, including hardline American Evangelical Christians, have been adamant that Palestinians not be included in mentions of genocide.

"In many of the same states that have criminalised Holocaust denial, it is opposition to, rather than open denial of, the Gaza Genocide that is criminalised and punished," political analyst Mouin Rabbani wrote in an opinion for Middle East Eye.

"People have been fired from jobs, lost business, forfeited careers and educational opportunities, and literally been imprisoned for speaking out against it". 

Historian and media critic Assal Rad said Palestinians are "so dehumanised" to the point that they cannot be included in universal anti-genocide messaging. 

"All this killing over the past 700 days - the photos of starving children, civilians torn to pieces, and the world’s first live-streamed genocide - yet the LA Holocaust Museum described it as an 'ongoing situation in the Middle East,'" writer Reem al-Harmi said. "This is next-level gaslighting". 

The Holocaust Museum LA is currently closed until June 2026 for renovations.