2 days ago
The fake AI-generated Holocaust 'victims' duping thousands on Facebook - as Auschwitz museum slams 'dangerous distortions'
At first glance, it is a heartwarming photo: a little girl feeding the ducks on the canal in pre-war Amsterdam.
A lengthy description explains that the girl, 'Hannelore Cohen', would 'skip along the cobblestone paths' each morning' - until 'the ducks never saw her again'.
What follows is the claim that she was murdered at Sobibor death camp by the Nazis in the Holocaust - but it is not true.
The photo has been generated by artificial intelligence, and the story that accompanies it is equally fictitious.
The fake post is among dozens of similar ones featuring AI images of supposed Holocaust victims and details of what allegedly happened to them that are being shared to thousands of people on Facebook.
Now, the Auschwitz Memorial museum has hit out at the growing phenomenon.
A spokesman said: 'While these posts may seem well-intentioned to the audience, they are in fact dangerous distortions.
'They invent stories of people who never existed and present them as real victims.
The lengthy post about alleged Holocaust victim Hannelore Cohen
'They exploit Holocaust memory for clicks, shares, and reach. They contribute to confusion and the erosion of historical accuracy.'
'The photos are AI-generated — eerily perfect, stylized, and not drawn from any historical archive.
'Some of the names do not appear in credible Holocaust victim databases and the entire biographies are fabricated.'
The post featuring 'Hannelore Cohen' has been shared in a group called Historical Figures, which has more than 110,000 members.
It was written by a page named 'Epic Movies'. The page is followed by more than 5,000 people.
The post has used the name of a real Holocaust survivor who is listed on the website Refugee Voices as having come to England as part of the Kindertransport scheme for children in 1939.
But the invented girl's life story bears no relation to the real Ms Cohen.
The post says: 'On 10 September 1931, in the graceful, water-laced city of Amsterdam, a little girl named Hannelore Cohen was born.
The accompanying life story says that she was born in the French city of Marseille, that every day she would 'skip to school, her pigtails swaying behind her like banners' and that she loved to read
'Her eyes sparkled with curiosity, and her soul seemed to be stitched from kindness.
'She loved simple pleasures, and few things brought her more joy than walking to the canal near her home, a paper bag of breadcrumbs in hand, ready to feed the ducks.
'Each morning, Hannelore would skip along cobblestone paths, the scent of tulips and fresh bread in the air. She'd stop at the edge of the canal and crumble the bread gently, tossing pieces into the still water.
'Ducks gathered near her like she was their friend. She giggled as they quacked and jostled, and sometimes she named them—"Willem," "Rosa," "Pieter."
'She spoke softly to them as if they understood.'
It then adds: 'In 1943, when she was just 12 years old, Hannelore was taken from her home and sent to Sobibor, one of the cruelest death camps. There, her life was stolen.
'Her laughter, her crumbs, her gentle kindness—gone in a moment of merciless inhumanity.
'The ducks never saw her again. The water rippled, but no bread fell.
'And Amsterdam wept in silence. But we do not forget.'
Another fake post - this time on a page with more than 14,000 followers called Days Gone By Memories - shows a young, bright-eyed girl named as Nadine Levy.
The accompanying life story says that she was born in the French city of Marseille, that every day she would 'skip to school, her pigtails swaying behind her like banners' and that she loved to read.
After being rounded up and sent to the notorious Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, the biography says she read stories to lift the spirits of other inmates, and kept a secret diary.
On the morning of her death, she is said to have 'whispered a goodbye to the rising sun,' and that after the war her diary was found 'pages worn but full of hope.'
In another fake Holocaust post on the Epic Movies page, a girl named as Anja Bakker is seen standing in a field of daisies.
According to her biography, before the war she 'ran barefoot in the grass, her laughter mingling with birdsong,' and she loved making daisy chains.
The fake post then claims that after being murdered in Sobibor, 'the daisy chains she made' and 'the stories she told, lived on in the memory of survivors.'
Established in May 1942, by the time it was closed 17 months later between 170,000 and 250,000 Jews had been murdered in Sobibor.
Less than 60 inmates are known to have survived.
The Auschwitz Museum spokesman also claimed that Meta, the owner of Facebook, has refused to act to remove the fake posts.
They said: 'While some pages simply copy our posts, we can see more and more posts that either add AI-generated photo (sic) or are entirely fabricated.
'Even more troubling, Meta (Facebook) has so far refused to act on this.
'They claim that posts with AI-fabricated images or AI-fabricated information on Holocaust victims do not violate their platform's rules.
'This failure to act sets a dangerous precedent.
'Memory must be protected — not invented.'
The accounts featuring the fake images and stories have been approached for comment.
