Now that all of us anime only watchers of Attack on Titan are up to the relevant parts I feel there is a need to discuss the anti-Semitism present in the show. I did not write this essay to say that Isayama or the show are actively anti-Semitic but rather by clearly making a parallel between the Eldians and Jews the show inadvertently affirms many anti-Semitic stereotypes. This accidental anti-Semitism is, however, still inexcusable considering that avoiding such offensive parallels is easily done with some basic research. So, let’s just start with the base facts:
Eldians are clearly positioned as a parallel for the Jews, with there being really obvious comparisons to the Holocaust.
These Jewish stand-ins are a separate species from the rest of humanity.
These Jewish stand-ins can turn into literally man-eating monsters, many of whom have exaggerated facial features.
We’re just going to stick to these three general points in this thread so as to keep things clear. Let’s start with the positioning of Eldians as Jews. We see two main elements to this in the show: the use of Holocaust/Ghetto imagery and references to the Madagascar Plan. With the former we see Grisha Jaeger and his sister sporting armbands with yellow stars, that look incredibly similar to those worn by Jews in some parts of Nazi occupied Europe, and living in a Ghetto. This is a fairly obvious reference to the ones that Jews had to wear in Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, the map of the world we have been shown shows that our lead characters live on an island that looks suspiciously like Madagascar. For those of you who do not know, there was at one point a plan to exile all Jews to Madagascar, that was at one point heavily by British & Polish anti-Semites as well as the Nazis, and I believe this is the allusion that is trying to be made here. Both of these are quite specific references that squarely equates the Eldians to the Jews, more specifically the Jews under the Nazi regime.
