UN official retracts claim that Jews in Nazi camps were called ‘Muslims’

Francesca Albanese walks back claims that Nazi concentration camps targeted Muslims, and that “antisemitism: is not specific to Jews.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese apologized on X after acknowledging that she falsely claimed Jewish concentration camp prisoners were called “the Muslims” and incorrectly described the origins of the term “antisemitism.”

“I sincerely apologize,” Albanese wrote on X. “I misread the term ‘Muselmann’ (Muslim) used in Nazi camps for prisoners at the brink of death, wrongly inferring that the term antisemitism originally meant hatred of all Semitic peoples. In fact it was coined specifically to denote hatred of Jews.”

Her apology followed remarks in an interview in which she said: “In fact, when they were being taken to the gas chambers, there are some accounts of life in the concentration camps saying that Jews were called ‘the Muslims.’”

The term “Muselmann” was applied to certain concentration camp prisoners who were near death or had become resigned to dying. According to Yad Vashem, the designation referred to the prisoners’ inability to stand at the end.

Albanese connected her interpretation of the term to a broader argument that antisemitism historically referred to hostility toward all “Semitic” peoples rather than Jews specifically.

“When the word ‘antisemitism’ was coined, it referred to anyone who was not European and who came from the Middle East,” Albanese said. She further claimed that the term became associated specifically with Jews because they constituted Europe’s largest non-Christian minority at the time.

The term “antisemitism” was coined by Wilhelm Marr in 1879 and referred specifically to hatred of Jews.

Albanese, one of the most outspoken international critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, has previously faced accusations of antisemitic rhetoric. She has criticized countries maintaining diplomatic and defense relations with Israel and argued that Western media coverage contributed to a “genocidal narrative.”

At an Al Jazeera conference, Albanese declared, “Humanity now has a common enemy,” implying Israel.

The US sanctioned Albanese in July 2025, accusing her of attempting to spur International Criminal Court action against US and Israeli officials, companies and executives.