Rowling made the false claim that German Nazi burning books on transgender health care “ might ’ve been a febricity dream . ”
Please note the following story contains discussion of the Holocaust and anti-trans bias.
J.K. Rowling has threatened legal action against an X user who accused her of being “a Holocaust denier.”
On March 13, Rowlingshareda screenshot of a post seemingly directed at her that read, “The Nazis burnt books on trans healthcare and research, why are you so desperate to uphold their ideology around gender?”
It’s likely that the initial post was referring to when the library from the Institute of Sexologywas burnedby the Nazis in May 1933 as part of one of themost famous bookburnings in history. The Institute, which wasforced to closeby the Nazis, was renowned for itsworkon transgender people and hasbeen thought ofas the first transgender clinic.
In response to the screenshot’s claim, Rowling herself then added, “I just… how? How did you type this out and press send without thinking ‘I should maybe check my source for this, because it might’ve been a fever dream’?”
I just … how ? How did you typecast this out and press send without think ‘ I should maybe discipline my source for this , because it might ’ve been a febricity dream’?pic.twitter.com / fl9QLuFytc
“ Neither of your articles support the contention that trans people were the first victim of the Nazis or that all research on trans healthcare was burned in thirties Germany . You are engage in lie , Alejandra , ” Rowling replied , even though the initial user did not make either of those claims .
Amid the controversy stemming from Rowling’s words, Jewish journalist Rivkah Brown tweeted saying that Rowling “is a Holocaust denier.” Rowlingthenquote-tweeted the now-deleted post, writing, “This, from @rivkahbrown, a journalist who wrote a tweet celebrating the Hamas attack of October 7th and was forced to apologise for it, is staggering. I’d be delighted to meet you in court, Rivkah, to discuss holocaust denial.”
On April 15, Brown thenpostedon X, “On 13 March I tweeted that JK Rowling ‘is a Holocaust denier.’ That allegation was false and offensive. I have deleted it and apologise to JK Rowling.”
On 13 March I tweeted that JK Rowling “ is a Holocaust denier ” . That allegement was false and offensive . I have deleted it and justify to JK Rowling .
A source familiar with the incident told BuzzFeed that Rowling’s lawyers contacted Brown after her post had been deleted and requested that she further publicly apologize. The source further alleged that the lawyers required Brown to change her initial phrasing of the apology to omit that Brown’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors. The source cited Rowling’s wealth as a reason why the matter was not further pursued from Brown’s side.
A representative for J.K. Rowling declined to comment for this story.
