Tag Archives: Europe

Can it happen again?

As Iran threatens Israel’s existence, and Arab nations continue their anti-Israel, aka anti-Semitic rhetoric, the question we all need to address is whether or not the Jewish people are at risk as they were when Hitler rose to power in 1933.  As a Jew I have not seen a world more prone to protecting the Jewish people, and with the increasing unrest in Europe and the Middle East there are reasons for serious concern.  Please share your feelings on this post.  I will be writing a piece discussing my thoughts at a later date, but for now I want to know the feelings of as many people as possible.


The Holocaust made simple

Recently I’ve engaged in conversation with numerous people regarding the book Jew Face and in doing so something struck me as somewhat concerning.  I have found that there are many intelligent, moderately educated people who do not have a basic knowledge of what took place in Europe between 1933-1945 and the subsequent Holocaust that resulted in the death of 6 million Jews.  As a result I decided to put together this post as a quick guide for those I come across who wish to know more and for anyone else who wishes to use this as a reference for anyone they encounter with a similar need for basic information.

It starts with World War I.  The first Great War took place between 1914-1918.  Germany was one of the major aggressors in Europe, and by the time they were defeated by the Allied forces that consisted of Britain, France, and the United States, among others, the German army was brought to its knees and the country’s economy was left in shambles.  Recovery was slow and with the great worldwide depression of the 1930s, poverty and discontent was on the rise all over Europe.  Conditions were ideal for revolutions.  Spain and Italy both went the direction of fascist dictatorships, and in Germany, an Austrian born ex-Corporal in the German Army by the name of Adolph Hitler would seize the opportunity and rise to leadership.  He would rise to power as leader of the Nationalist Socialist party, better known as the Nazi party, which would become the ruling party of Germany in 1933.

Hitler would rule his nation as an absolute dictator and would be known as and referred to as “the Fuhrer”.  The German masses would follow him with a degree of commitment and hysteria unlike any seen in history.  Hitler felt that the Germans were a master race, and that any nation or people not of pure German blood would be an obstacle to his goal.  Germany’s Nazi party would invade and occupy much of Europe and would continue fighting on numerous fronts as it attempted to achieve worldwide domination and the formation of this master race.

http://youtu.be/2o4DXUxO_J8

At the time this was happening, the majority of the worldwide Jewish population was in Europe, primarily Poland, Russia, and Hungary.  Hitler would use the Jews as a rallying point around which he would motivate his people through hate, blaming them for the misfortunes of the German people and accusing International Jewry of being the force behind an imminent World War.  When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, for all intents and purposes, not only did World War II begin, but what was to be known as The Holocaust would begin as well.  By 1941, with the implementation of what was to be known as the “Final Solution”, no Jew in Europe was safe.  Although anti-Semitism had been in full force for some time in Germany, once the Nazis invaded and occupied countries all over Europe, they would set out to capture, deport, and murder as many Jews as possible.  Death camps and Concentration camps were set up in various countries where Jewish people would be killed in Gas Chambers or shot en masse by firing squads.  The most infamous of all these camps was Auschwitz which was located in Poland.  The Nazis would not only kill these people, they would strip them of all their possessions, starve them, torture them, conduct medical experiments on them, rape them, and force them to do hard labor sometimes until they died in the process.  Hitler’s Nazi Germany was responsible for the death of millions of Russians, Poles, gypsies, and anyone else not considered by their standards to be a viable part of the future master race.  Nothing however represented the horrors and evil committed by Nazi Germany more than the fate of the Jewish people.  By the time it would be over in 1945, the Holocaust would result in the death of 6 million Jews.

There are a lot more details to the history, but for those who do not know what happened, it is my hope that this will provide you with a foundation on which to not only learn more but to identify the signs of evil rising up again.


What is Iran up to?

When Nazi Germany rose to power in 1933 very few, if any, knew what type of horrors they would be capable of inflicting on Europe.  Even with the strong anti-Semitic rhetoric no one predicted they would put their “Final Solution” which would lead to the murder of 6 million Jews.  Even with Kristallnacht, “Night of Broken Glass”, German Jews knew living in Germany would no longer be comfortable, but most did not predict the gas chambers and death camps.  The Nazi strategy was one of gradual progression.  They did not hide their disdain for the Jewish people, but what they did was start by taking away their rights, turning public sentiment against them, removing their basic dignity, and finally taking away their life.  Their strategy was so successful in Holland that many did not realize how bad it was going to be until it was too late.

Any Jew who believes that anti-Israel sentiment is not the same as anti-Semitism has chosen to turn a blind eye very similar to the blind eyes turned by so many during the reign of Nazi Germany.  Israel, the Jewish state, has been a willing partner in peace and a nation that has given up land in the name of peace.  We have the nation of Iran committed to its destruction.  Its leadership has consistently denied the Holocaust ever happened, as I discuss in my article, “Holocaust Denial: Deceptive hatred”, and it continues a campaign of political manipulation designed to lull the world to sleep while it gains enough strength to attempt its ultimate goal, the destruction of the Jewish state.  At this point in time close to 6 million Jewish people now live in Israel.  Iran recently instructed Hezbollah not to attack Israel or to fire its missiles into it cities.  Their reasoning is that they do not want to make Israel seem like the victim and create more worldwide support.

Their strategy is to progressively build their army, manipulate public opinion, and when they think the time is right attack in devastating fashion.  The major difference between now and the 1930s is that today there is a strong and organized Jewish Army known as the IDF, Israel Defense Forces, and the response and or preemptive strike will be with the might of a nation committed to survival.  Hopefully it never comes to that, but if the world and a comfortable Jewish populous turns a blind eye similar to that of the 1930s, the conflict and loss of life will be inevitable.


A sacrifice that continues

Born from the ashes of the Holocaust in Europe, the Jewish nation of Israel declared its independence in 1948.  Those who have died defending it or whose lives have been taken in acts of terror need to be remembered and honored by Jewish people all over the world, not just those living in Israel.  Being that this blog revolves around a book that chronicles the lost souls at a time when there was no organized Jewish army, I feel nothing could be more appropriate than showing respect to those who lost their lives in the name of never allowing it to happen again.  Although this is a video taken a few years back, the air raid siren is what happens all over Israel in honor of those who were lost.

 


The Importance of Freedom

As Jews all over the world celebrate Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath), I think back once again to what we commemorated and remembered this week.  It strikes me how the Holocaust reached even further than the 6 million killed.  The basic freedom to practice the religion in any way was stripped from mostly every Jew in Europe.  The lesson to  us all, regardless of what we believe in or practice, is to never take for granted our freedom and to stand up and fight those who would oppress others merely for being what they are and for what they believe in.  We must recognize it happened before in order to prevent it from happening ever again.


Fighting A Cancer

As a son of Holocaust survivors it would be obvious why remembering what happened to the Jewish people during the reign of the Nazis would be of importance and significance to me.  What I am going to attempt to do in this post is briefly show why it should be important to everyone.

There is a cancer in the world today.  This cancer is the movement known as Holocaust denial.  I am Jewish, and on this site and the book I have written there is a focus on the horrors that befell the Jewish people.  I make no apologies for where I focus my efforts.  However, I also recognize that although 6 million is a staggering number, the Jewish people are not alone in their suffering.  Whether it was African slave trading, the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodian genocide,  the policy of “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia, the genocides in Cyprus, Rwanda, and Darfur,  our world has been tarnished by numerous examples of mass persecution and genocide.  I am making no attempt to compare suffering, and I am not missing out on mentioning any group intentionally.  All I have done is take some notable examples of mass persecution and genocide in history to make an important point.

Cancer usually begins in one part of the body.  The cancer of Holocaust denial, a cause that is meant to belittle the suffering of the Jewish people during Nazi occupation in Europe and challenge its severity and magnitude, does not only threaten the Jewish people, one part of the world’s body, it threatens all decent people, and all healthy parts of the world body.

How can we say “NEVER AGAIN”, if we have to fight those who want to challenge that it happened in the first place.  Ignore a cancer and it spreads.  And when it spreads it poisons the entire body.


A message of freedom and remembrance

Passover begins tonight at sundown, and as Jewish people all over the world prepare to celebrate being freed from slavery and oppression, I can’t help but feel an added responsibility to use this forum to draw a connection to what took place in Europe between 1933-1945.

It is difficult to get a clear understanding of what took place in Egypt since it happened so long ago, but what is clear was that the goal was to deprive all Jews of their freedom and ultimately destroy the very existence of the Jewish people.

Passover is a time of celebration.  As a people we sit around the Seder and celebrate our freedom and our liberation from the oppressor whose sole purpose was to wipe us off the face of the earth.  The similarity between the purpose of the Pharaoh and that of Hitler is almost eerily similar.  Yet when we discuss the story of Passover we do so with a levity and comfort we do not have when discussing the Holocaust.  The reasons are fairly obvious.  The magnitude of the destruction done by Nazi Germany is clearly greater.  Six million is a staggering, incomprehensible number.  And the visual evidence and personal testimonials make it so real to all of us that it becomes more abhorrent and more painful to acknowledge.  Even with this being so, the suffering of one person being forced to do slave labor, or the significance of the murder of one individual is just as important and meaningful when they are one of tens or hundreds of thousands as when they are one of six million.  The value of their life is the same.  Subsequently the value of a people being freed from either oppressor is just as significant and liberating.

It has always been my personal feeling that regardless of what part of history inspires us on a day we celebrate freedom, we must use this day to not only celebrate it, but appreciate it as well.  For if there is one thing we must learn from the more recent suffering, is that we should never take our freedom and even survival for granted.  And the lesson we learn from sitting down and having a Seder where we tell the story of Passover is that we must never forget what happened, and that the best way to accomplish this is to tell the story.

I wish all of my fellow Jews a Happy Passover, and a Happy Easter to all of you who will be celebrating  this Sunday.