Francesca Albanese apologizes for incorrect claims on antisemitism and Nazi camps

United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has issued an apology after making incorrect claims regarding the term ‘antisemitism’ and the history of Nazi concentration camps.

Albanese stated on X that she had misread the term ‘Muselmann’ used in Nazi camps for prisoners at the brink of death, wrongly inferring that it meant Jewish prisoners were being called ‘Muslims.’ She also incorrectly claimed that the term ‘antisemitism’ originally referred to hatred of all Semitic peoples rather than being coined specifically to denote hatred of Jews.

According to Yad Vashem, the designation ‘Muselmann’ referred to prisoners who were so physically weakened or resigned to death that they were unable to stand. Albanese’s previous remarks suggested that the term ‘antisemitism’ was originally intended for anyone non-European from the Middle East, but she has since acknowledged that the term was coined specifically to target Jews.