With antisemitism rising to global all-time highs– Israel’s role as the sacred keeper of Holocaust memories becomes prominent. While Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated by a literal media shut-down, all mainstream content focusing on survivor stories– Gen-Z teens are opting out.

With the last Holocaust survivors rapidly fading away- it was our responsibility to bridge this gap. How? We took over Gen-Zers gaming platforms, collaborating with the most famous gamers to create organic media buzz by mapping out stories on the worlds #1 WWII game. The result: A non financed project, organically promoted, reaching 7.2M$ in earned media.

Antisemitism is at an historic all-time high: US antisemitic incidents increased by 36% in 2022 (3,697) while the UK recorded 34% increase (2,255). Meanwhile in Israel, where Holocaust remembrance is a pivotal part of the narrative- it’s becoming less eminent.

If once survivor stories were common in homes, schools and media– times are changing: few survivors remain (over 10K passed this year), and those who are left have to bridge the gap of age, attention and platforms to reach the Israeli audience. Especially teens, who have many screens and worlds to hide in on the regular– most prominently on Holocaust Memorial Day. The result - the future generation of Holocaust remembrance is disconnecting.

“Zikaron Basalon”, a NGO focused on creating face-to-face connections with survivors, set out to change this trend. How? By embedding Holocaust remembrance into Gen-Z culture, translating and assimilating organically into gaming and popular social platforms.

The connection between Holocaust remembrance and the Israeli Gen-Z, the fourth-fifth generation of survivors, is thinning: the subject is taught late in high-school, it’s no longer an organic part of house-hold narratives and teens have long grown jaded.

What do they care about? gaming. Israeli teens lead global gaming- 65% play more than 5 times a day (50% global average). On an average day, they dedicate 2.6 hours - but on Memorial day shut-down, they spend much more online.

In order to get their attention we set out to disrupt their favorite WWII game- and for the first time, bring the real Holocaust stories into fantasy gaming. The big idea: taking over Call of Duty WWII, connecting famous gamers (who are Gen Z’ers themselves) to Holocaust survivors while live-streaming a walk-through the games arenas, mapping out the stories. Thus, bestowing upon Holocaust remembrance a whole new dimension and interest.

Our insight was simple: we have to tailor Holocaust remembrance as organically and interestingly as possible into young gaming culture. Our objective: disrupt Holocaust Memorial Day and for the first time ever bring into the 24\7 gaming arena real Holocaust survivor testimonials.

The big idea: working closely with the biggest gamers in Israel to take over the one last place Holocaust remembrance has yet to touch. This is a big deal- most Holocaust content is made for adults on “traditional” media platforms (TV, podcasts, radio, newspapers). We decided to use the gamers popular platforms in order to reach Israeli teens in the most organic and authentic way - while creating a ripple effect in mainstream media. Thus, we conducted the biggest disruption Holocaust memorial day has seen in 75 years of Israeli independence, making a splash in the gaming world, the Gen-Z world and the traditional world all at once.

In order to fully assimilate into Gen-Z culture- we took over 5 of the biggest Israeli gaming influencers platforms, connecting them to 6 survivors. Leading to the launch, the influencers invited fans to join them on their popular channels (TIKTOK & YouTube) for the special walk-through testimonials. This was backed up with a social takeover of teaser trailers which glimpsed the survivor stories taking over the game.

On the day itself, each influencer live-streamed their emotional meeting- completely taking over the youtube’s gaming category (reaching 1#). Thus, we launched six 10-min videos that established a huge buzz- more than 40 influencers reposted the project, prime Israeli news outlets picked up the story and more than 150 items were featured in US media news. We also took over more than 1,000 classrooms- reaching 2 million students. Lastly, we are cementing the project in culture: uploading 5 episodes to Amazon Prime Video.

This Memorial Day, we successfully took over Gen-Z culture - turning a non funded NGO project into the most organically-promoted, talked about Holocaust campaign for all.

With over 1.5 million organic views on Memorial Day, we were able to reach 67% of Israeli Gen-Zers in a day. That’s 1.5 million teens organically watching at least one 8-10-min film fully!

The project achieved 8.5M impressions (53% organic), 82M prime global impressions - bringing in a total of 7.2M$ in earned media. On the day, it conquered the #1 spot on youtube’s gaming category (#8 overall).

Furthermore, the power of the project translated into the physical classrooms: 1,500 schools added the project to their curriculum, reaching over 2 million students in one day.

Moreover, “Zikaron Basalon”, increased website entries by 168% YOY, +183% in brand searches YOY, doubling the number of participants in Zikaron Basalon events on Memorial Day!

A big part of Israeli culture is to keep Holocaust remembrance alive– bequeathing stories down through the generations. While antisemitism spikes to an all-time high - 55% increase in antisemitic activity in Europe in 10 years and 150% increase in antisemitic social media activity– Holocaust remembrance is put at stake. With only 150,600 survivors remaining in Israel, decreasing further each month– its crucial for the future generation to keep it going.

The problem: most teens have never met a survivor, schools reduced the subject’s volume and delayed its entry into the curriculum– making the Holocaust narrative distant, foreign and uninteresting. Since teens have many worlds (especially gaming) to hide in, most prominently during the Memorial Day media shutdown– connecting them to the Holocaust is a tall order. The only way forward is to assimilate the historic stories through disruption of their organic online world, integrating into their language and culture.