Compare COVID-19 Vaccine Passport With Jewish Star During World War II, Danish Lecturer Strikes Teaching

European Union digital COVID-19 vaccine certificate illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/European Union)

JAKARTA - Two lecturers refuse to teach as long as there is a requirement to show so-called COVID-19 passports at universities, making a startling comparison of how the Nazis treated Jews, during and before World War II.

Rasmus Hougaard Nielsen and Ole Bjerg, two lecturers at Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark told their 120 macroeconomics students that they would not attend school as long as the requirement existed.

"Under current conditions, there will be no teaching of macroeconomics with us as educators. We are not interested in compromise," they wrote, as quoted by Radio Denmark's Sputnik News January 26.

The two academics are also very critical of the general handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the authorities.

"To us, there is no significant difference between the corona passport and the Jewish passports introduced during World War II," they wrote, referring to a special document that Jews had to produce, apart from wearing the yellow star of David when the Nazis came to power in Germany.

In addition, the two lecturers also wrote that they hoped for "Nuremberg 2.0", which is a legal consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, as happened after World War II, when Nazi leaders were punished for their involvement in the Holocaust.

Not only that, they also refused to wear masks, which they called a "symbol of inhuman surrender", and refused to undergo tests as an "attack on the sovereignty of the body". Neither Rasmus Hougaard Nielsen nor Ole Bjerg are suspected of having been vaccinated against COVID-19.

"Nor have we ever administered gene therapy injections, as we believe it is an unnecessary best course of action against a relatively harmless disease, and at worst an experimental treatment with a risk of serious side effects," they wrote.

Rasmus Hougaard Nielsen ventures that anti-COVID measures are 'on the verge of a criminal act', equating it to coercion in public office.

"Students are forced to be tested or vaccinated, and there may be students who suffer mental injuries or physical side effects, and I will not be criminally responsible for that," Rasmus Hougaard Nielsen told Radio Denmark.

As of now, the two are still employed by CBS, but the internal case is pending now. CBS declined to comment, but said that labor law consequences may occur if the guidelines or contractual obligations are not adhered to.

However, World War II comparisons sparked criticism from, among others, Marek Azoulay the leader of Mino Ung København, a community for Danish minorities and a CBS student himself.

By his own admission, he saw no problem with lecturers questioning passports, masks or COVID restrictions, but said there was no need to mention the difficulties experienced by Jews in the debate.

"The case has to be strong enough. One can easily criticize those in power without involving Jews in it," Azoulay told TV2.

To note, Denmark is now being swept by the Omicron wave, after breaking several consecutive daily infection records and now reporting over 46,000 infections per day.

This figure is several orders of magnitude larger than the 200s that occurred in September, when restrictions were last removed. However, despite the massive spread, the Danish Epidemic Commission recommended a wide reopening, urging to stop treating COVID-19 as a socially critical illness, something Denmark was already doing before recovering amid the recent peak in infections.