LONDON — A founder of the climate activism group Extinction Rebellion has drawn widespread condemnation after he played down the Holocaust as “an almost normal event” and described it as just another ugly episode in human history, using vulgar slang.

The founder, Roger Hallam, said in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit that among various genocides that had occurred in previous centuries, the Holocaust was not that unusual.

“The fact is that in our history, millions of people have been regularly killed under dire circumstances,” Mr. Hallam, who is British, said in excerpts published online on Wednesday. “To be honest, you could say: This is an almost normal event.”

Mr. Hallam’s remarks were made ahead of the German publication of his book, “Common Sense for the 21st Century.” In the book, which was published in Britain in September, he draws parallels between the Holocaust and the threats posed by the climate crisis.

He warns against the potential “slow and agonizing suffering and death of billions of people” from global warming, and argued that with current estimates, the number of victims would be “12 times worse than the horror of Nazism and Fascism in the 20th century.”

After Mr. Hallam’s comments, his German publisher announced that it had immediately halted the book’s delivery in Germany.

As the backlash grew against Mr. Hallam on Thursday, ahead of the publication of the full interview, politicians, Holocaust memorial groups and other environmental activists unequivocally denounced his statements.

Luisa Neubauer, a German climate activist with the group Fridays for Future, told the German newspaper Bild that such words were “insane.” She said in a phone interview on Thursday that, “No matter who says those words, it is doing harm to our democracy, to our understanding of the past and the incredible crimes that have been committed.”

Heiko Maas, the German foreign minister, wrote on Twitter using the hashtag #ExtinctionRebellion that, “The Holocaust is more than millions of dead and horrific torture methods.” He added, “We must always be aware of that so we can be certain: never again!”

Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told Bild it was not enough that Extinction Rebellion had distanced itself from Mr. Hallam. The movement must make it clear “whether it wants to tolerate such views in its ranks,” he said.

“As keen as they criticize climate change deniers,” he said, “they should also do it with Holocaust relativizers.”

The remarks come at a time when some in the climate change movement have turned to disruption to drive home their message. Extinction Rebellion protesters, in particular, have employed tactics such as delaying commuter trains on the London Underground, blocking roads and bridges around the British Parliament, staging a “funeral march” during London Fashion Week and lying in pools of fake blood outside the New York Stock Exchange. The group, which was founded in 2018, has also staged demonstrations in Australia, France and Germany.

Affiliates have sought to distance themselves from Mr. Hallam’s comments, with a spokesman for Extinction Rebellion Germany saying he was in favor of excluding Mr. Hallam from the movement. The German branch wrote on Twitter that Mr. Hallam was “no longer welcome in XR Germany.”

Extinction Rebellion UK “unreservedly” denounced Mr. Hallam’s remarks, saying in a statement that although it favored “restorative measures,” in some cases, “exclusion is necessary.”

Mr. Hallam, a former organic farmer in Wales who has paused his Ph.D. studies in civil disobedience at King’s College London, is recognized as a driving force behind Extinction Rebellion’s attention-grabbing tactics. But he is also seen by some in the group as a liability who might say something extreme when talking to the news media, activists have told journalists.

XR Jews, an arm of Extinction Rebellion, said in a statement: “No one should talk about a people’s traumatic history in a throwaway manner, even if the point is to raise awareness about a deadly serious issue. In doing so, they may embolden those who already threaten that community.”

Extinction Rebellion’s actions have provoked debate about the most effective way of bolstering support for protecting the environment. Mr. Hallam has pushed Extinction Rebellion to replicate the disruption methods used by groups like the civil rights movement in the United States, and the “Yellow Vest” activists in France.

Other climate activists, like Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who galvanized a global youth movement to call for urgent action on the crisis, have employed different methods. In September, she scolded American lawmakers in Congress, demanding that they read the latest science on the threats posed by climate change. She also told officials at the United Nations, her voice brimming with rage, “The eyes of all future generations are upon you.”

After excerpts from the interview were published, Mr. Hallam said in a statement that his comments had been taken out of context. “I want to fully acknowledge the unimaginable suffering caused by the Nazi holocaust, that led to all of Europe saying, ‘Never again,’” he said.

“The real outrage is not to speak about the Holocaust; the real outrage is the complicity in the global holocaust that is already underway,” he added about the climate crisis.

Nevertheless, some Extinction Rebellion activists feared that the group’s message could be drowned out by Mr. Hallam’s initial comments.

But Ms. Neubauer said: “The climate justice movement is so much stronger than the words of a single person. Yet the incident must make us more aware and sensible of our language and the visibility of key figures.”

Alex Marshall contributed reported from London, and Christopher Schuetze from Berlin.

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