A Safer Web for Holocaust Memory
Today marks the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a moment set aside to honor the six million Jews and countless other victims of persecution who were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. In the years before and during the Second World War, antisemitism became state policy, culminating in the Nuremberg Laws, violent pogroms, and the Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"). These actions escalated into the ghettoization of Jews, Roma, and other so-called "enemies of the Reich," and eventually led to the Final Solution—a deliberate plan for the industrial-scale extermination of an entire people.
The Nazis' killing operations began with mobile killing units, which massacred Jews in mass shootings near their own villages. Seeking greater "efficiency," the regime engineered death through gas vans and, later, permanent gas chambers in six extermination camps. In Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, more than one million Jews were murdered, with hundreds of thousands gassed and cremated upon arrival. The systematic nature of this horror underscores how racist ideology, left unchecked, can corrupt institutions and technology alike.
Education as a Defense
Despite the passage of nearly eight decades, antisemitism is surging again, with recent reports of physical attacks, vandalized synagogues, and hostage-taking at a Texas congregation. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently warned that this "oldest form of hate" is resurfacing, calling for vigilance against bigotry. The strongest countermeasure remains education—teaching younger generations about the consequences of hatred and preserving the testimonies of those who survived. As Guterres put it, "Our response to ignorance must be education."
This effort relies heavily on the work of museums, memorials, and research organizations that maintain a digital presence. These sites bear witness and provide resources for scholars, students, and the public. However, they are increasingly targets of cyberattacks aimed at silencing their voices or eroding their credibility. Such attacks represent a modern attempt to distort the historical record.
Cloudflare supports these at-risk organizations through Project Galileo, which supplies free security and performance tools to over 1,500 civil society groups in 111 countries. Among them are institutions dedicated to Holocaust remembrance and survivor storytelling. In the past year alone, the project has mitigated over a quarter of a million threats aimed at Holocaust-related websites. The bulk of these attacks are application-layer assaults, automatically thwarted by Cloudflare's Web Application Firewall and DDoS Protection systems.
Unprecedented Attack Peaks
Attack traffic against memorial and education sites was not uniform throughout the year. Analysts recorded a steady upward trend, punctuated by a dramatic spike in May 2021, when threat activity against these properties jumped by 263% compared to their average monthly baseline. Such peaks often coincide with commemorative dates, reflecting the twin aims of attackers: to disrupt digital remembrance and to intimidate the institutions that steward it.
Guarding Public Interest Online
Project Galileo operates on the principle that the Internet only fulfills its promise when the most vulnerable voices are able to speak freely. Yet, those groups often confront well-resourced opponents while working with limited budgets and minimal technical security staffing. If these sites are forced offline or overwhelmed with malicious traffic, the historical documentation they host risks disappearing.
Cloudflare’s broader mission to "help build a better Internet" includes protecting free expression for vulnerable populations, which is why access to protection extends to any member of a public-interest website. Organizations can request support through Cloudflare’s partner network or apply directly to the program. There is no distinction made for the size of the institution; eligibility rests on the criticality of the work.
Our response to ignorance must be education.
— United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
For many at Cloudflare, this mission is deeply personal. Members of the company’s Judeoflare Employee Resource Group include descendants of survivors. They carry an acute responsibility to ensure the world never forgets where unchecked racism can lead. By securing the digital archives of the Holocaust, the engineering community can play a meaningful role in blocking the erasure of history.
