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.
Tag Archives: Europe
Can it happen 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.



