Jewish leaders are calling on the US tech company to apologise
Ike Alterman(Image: ABNM Photography)
The Google description of Holocaust survivor Ike Alterman as a ‘fictional character’ has now been changed after being reported by the Manchester Evening News.
Jewish leaders in Greater Manchester reacted with anger at the ‘absolutely disgraceful’ online mischaracterisation of Itzik Alterman. They called on the US tech company to change it immediately – and apologise to his family and friends.
Known as Ike, Mr Alterman, a much-loved father and grandfather, passed away at the age of 97 in December last year – leaving behind an unparalleled legacy of education and admiration.
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He survived four Nazi concentration and death camps and was awarded a British Empire Medal in 2023 for his services to Holocaust education and remembrance.
Born in southern Poland, Mr Alterman lost most of his family during the Holocaust.
He was spared as a teenager, but suffered unimaginable cruelty after being sent to the Blyzin concentration camp, where he worked in the kitchen. In 1944, he was transported to Auschwitz and went on to be marched, in the dead of night, to Birkenau – around 3km away.
Mr Alterman, with others, was liberated from a Nazi camp in the Czech Republic by the Russian Army and eventually flown to the UK, settling in the Lake District with dozens of other young children as a ‘Windermere Boy’. He went on to move to Bury and became a successful businessman.
Mr Alterman bore a death camp tattoo on his arm. He long campaigned to educate the young about Nazi atrocities.
Previously, if you searched his name on Google, he was described on the search engine as a ‘fictional character’, below images of him and news stories about his life by the Manchester Evening News and other news outlets.
However, in an update on Saturday evening, Raphi Bloom, who was a close friend of Mr Alterman, confirmed that after sharing the MEN’s previous article on the story on LinkedIn, the description has been removed.
He added that the family of Mr Alterman were ‘really appreciative’. The Manchester Evening News has reached out to Google for comment.
Mr Bloom previously described the misrepresentation as ‘absolutely disgraceful’ – and said tech giants were not doing enough to combat ‘anti-Jewish racism’.
Mr Bloom said: “I knew Ike Alterman in two capacities. First, he was someone like a second father to me, with whom I travelled widely to share his story with thousands of people of all ages across the north west.
“Second, I knew him as the director of The Fed’s My Voice Project, through which we published his whole life storybook, with a foreword written by Andy Burnham. It is deposited in many prestigious libraries across the world.
“The fact that Google can misrepresent Ike Alterman as a fictional person is absolutely disgraceful. Ike survived four Nazi concentration and death camps, as well as a death march. He bore a death camp number tattooed on his arm, and there is extensive Nazi documentation that proves unequivocally he was a Holocaust survivor.
“In an era where Holocaust inversion and distortion are increasingly used to deny Jewish suffering, this kind of mischaracterisation only reinforces what many Jewish people already feel – that tech giants are failing to do enough to combat anti-Jewish racism.”
