The Anne Frank Trust, named after the Jewish-Dutch teenage diarist who was transported to Auschwitz before being sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she and her sister died just two months before British troops liberated the camp, has condemned out-of-work actor Laurence Fox for sharing an image of four LGBTQ+ Pride flags rearranged to represent a swastika.
Calling the image “extremely offensive”, the Trust said: “LGBTQ+ people were one of the groups targeted by the Nazis…We mustn’t forget this recent chapter in history and that the LGBTQ+ community continue to face regular discrimination today.”
The Anne Frank Trust’s sentiments were echoed by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, who said “We are appalled to see Laurence Fox’s vile tweet this morning with abhorrent use of the swastika. Gay men experienced untold suffering under the Nazis, including murder, castration and medical experimentation.
“Ignorance of this history can only exacerbate present-day discrimination faced by #LGBTQ+ people.”
The UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism commented: “Displaying pride flags in the shape of a swastika is not the edgy statement that you think it is.
“It is possible to express a view without the hate, and without insulting those murdered by the Nazis, which included Jews and LGBT people.”
Fox was banned by Twitter for sharing the image, but has since returned to the social media platform, saying, “You can openly call the [British flag] a symbol of fascism and totalitarianism on Twatter [sic]. You cannot criticise the holy flags.”
