While we must always be mindful of that fact that the most difficult and dangerous war is being waged on the ground by our heroes of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the Public Relations war is more critical today than ever before. We are not in a position to take this lightly, and statements such as, you are preaching to the choir or, they won’t listen anyway, are defeatist and prevent some from contributing in a crucially beneficial manner.
On some levels we must fight fire with fire. The reason why so many misinformed lost souls out there believe Israel to be an Apartheid state and colonizer, is because those who hate us ram the lies down their throats. We must not only tell the truth, we must do it often and relentlessly. If you tell someone a lie 3 times they often start to see it as the truth. The truth can be our ally, but not if we keep it to ourselves.
On November 15th I spoke to a group of teens at a High School near Albany, NY. The student organizer asked me the most important question I heard all day. What do we do to make sure the Holocaust is never forgotten. My answer not only applies to the events in Europe during Nazi-occupation, they apply to today as well. Constantly tell people the truth. Don’t be afraid to be redundant or annoying. You can never say it too often or too loudly. The goal should be to drown out the voices of those who wish to kill us, and unless we are relentless, that will not happen. Tell your friends, to tell their friends. Don’t assume people know, be they allies or foes. Flood your world and beyond with the truth, for the truth is indeed our ally.
I had the displeasure of seeing parts of your interview on CNN during which you focused on the events that have taken place since October 7th, while downplaying the atrocities of October 7th. This interview, conducted by Christiane Amanpour, who is clearly and consistently biased against Israel, felt more like a propaganda video than it did an interview of a woman of royalty.
In the interview you said the following:
“When October 7th happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened … but what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world.”
First of all, the whole world did not stand by Israel. Those with a modicum of moral clarity did, as did some of its closest allies, however before Israel even had a chance to respond to the barbarism committed against their citizens there were protests in the streets against Israel. As expected, there was no strong condemnation by the United Nations. And as soon as Israel started it’s bombing of Hamas targets there was an uprising in universities, many of them feasting off of funding from the Arab world. There were “Days of Rage”, called on by Hamas which conveniently led to protests in the streets. But your words are telling, because you say “what we’re seeing” as opposed to what is actually happening, because you see what best suits your prejudices and interests.
You then said:
“This is the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire. So the silence is deafening – and to many in our region, it makes the Western world complicit.”
Really? First time in human history? Not one country joined in fighting against the Nazis before being attacked themselves. 6 million Jews were killed in what was truly a genocide and you have the audacity to speak of deafening silence? And complicit in what? Self defense? The government of a sovereign nation giving its people the right to live in peace?
You then went on to say:
“Are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s OK to shell them to death? I mean, there is a glaring double standard here. “It is just shocking to the Arab world.”
I can see how it would be shocking to the Arab world. At least the element within the Arab world that does not value human life. The 1400 people murdered on October 7th were not warned to get out of the way and were not human shields for terrorists. They were innocent men, women and children, many of whom were helping Gazan residents on a regular basis. And to say “kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint”, should already be seen as wrong by you under the circumstances under which it took place, but since it is not, allow me to make things a little more clear for you. Babies were beheaded. Living and dead women were raped. A pregnant woman had her stomach cut open and her baby shot next to her. People were burned alive. And all of these atrocities done on purpose by a gleeful bunch of terrorists. So to even attempt to draw a moral equivalency between that and the attacks on Gaza is rather disgraceful on your part.
What has to be remembered in light of your comments, is Black September, 1970, when an estimated 25,000 Palestinians were killed by your country, Jordan, after the PLO tried to overthrow the ruling monarchy. Let me repeat that, so that people reading this know the real double standard here. Jordan killed 25,000 Palestinians. Not because 1400 Jordanians were brutally murdered. Not because Jordanian women were raped. Not because Jordanians were under constant attack from missiles. And not because more that 200 Jordanians were kidnapped. Your country killed 25,000 people because the PLO tried to overthrow your monarchy. The only reason the number wasn’t more was because at that point you had successfully removed the PLO from your country and your leadership, which was the main concern of your ruling government, not your people. Israel’s war is being waged to protect the safety of its people.
You concluded by saying the following:
“I just want to remind the world that Palestinian mothers love their children just as much as any other mother in the world.”
If this is true, and I hope that it is, they will ultimately thank Israel for giving their children a future. With Hamas in charge, the future for Palestinian children is a future where at best they are pawns in a mission to destroy Israel, and at worst they are terrorists carrying out that mission. If you truly cared you would admit that to the world, but then again, if one really looks at the history we learn that Jordan never had any use for the Palestinians. That is the truth, but unfortunately, you and so many like you do not care about the truth, you care about what best suits your interests, and it is clear that Palestinians living in the freedom Israel would gladly help them achieve, is not one of your interests.
For those mindless, cowardly hypocrites protesting in favor of sadistic terrorists, it is time you learned what it means to be Jewish. Despite the propaganda you so willingly accept, it is not about making money or controlling the media, and certainly not about occupation or genocide. It is about something far more basic than that. It is all about survival, stupid.
For Jews it goes way back to the time when we were slaves in Egypt. We learn about it and remember it every year on Passover. In fact, we are taught to approach it as though it happened directly to us in every generation. Seems the Rabbis somehow knew it would be a good idea to teach the Jewish people from the start how to suffer. We were oppressed and enslaved in Egypt, and as a result of our resistance we fled to the desert, and somehow managed to resist without raping any little girls or chopping of babies heads.
Then there were the 2 temples in Jerusalem, part of the land believed to be given to the Children of Israel by God as opposed to taken by an occupying force. The temples were both destroyed by the Romans, and in a way that targeted innocent civilians, as opposed to avoiding them as much as possible. Too bad the BBC wasn’t around back then to report on the mistreatment of the Romans.
Let’s not forget the blood libels, when the claim was made that Jews killed Christian children in order to use their blood for Jewish rituals, including the making of Matzah for the Passover feast. These blood libels led to pogroms and yes, you guessed it, a lot more dead Jews. For those of you who might not understand the concept, it’s a lot like bombing a parking lot of a hospital in your territory, killing a few dozen, and then telling everyone that the Jews killed hundreds in indiscriminate bombing. Like that would ever happen, right?
Then, at the end of what was seen as a Golden Age for Jews in Spain, there was the Inquisition, in which Jews were tortured, killed and ultimately completely expelled for that heinous recurring crime of, you guessed it once again, being Jewish.
I’ll just kind of skip over the pogroms in Russia in which it was considered righteous and necessary to brutalize and murder Jews en masse, (boy does that sound familiar), and jump to that really big thing called the Holocaust. You know, the thing many out there say never happened and it was just made up by the Jews to garnish sympathy? Kind of like claiming that more than 1400 people were murdered in a half a day, and realizing less than a week later that it must have been made up. After all, look around. Everyone clearly loves the Jews. There’s no way that could have happened. That thing called the Holocaust, that did actually happen, just as the killing of the 1400 plus, led to the decimation of European Jewry and the murder of 6 millions Jews. A genocide perpetrated by a government that came to power in the wake of a failed state and a society in decay, which of course had to be the Jews fault. After all, if a murderous dictator tells you that the Jews control the banks and the media it must be true.
Out of the ashes of the Holocaust the modern State of Israel declared its independence in 1948. But the Jews had the gall to think they had the right to live in peace. Even worse, they felt they could do so in the land given to them by God. But what the Jewish people did that was most appalling was that they had the audacity to fight back and win against the countries attacking them on every border. After all, they had committed the greatest crime of all. They had survived.
Left with no alternative, since we just wouldn’t go away, our Arab neighbors tried again in 1956, but rather than being killed, the Jewish nation once again fought back and won. When another attempt failed in 1967, Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, the Sinai from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. A move which of course would ultimately make us the oppressors and occupiers, since we started the war after all. Oh wait! No we didn’t. We once again showed how evil we were by not letting every Jew in Israel get thrown into the Mediterranean Sea. In 1973 they tried once again, but this time they decided to fight fair and attack us on the holiest day in our calendar, Yom Kippur. This finally took away the Jewish nations unfair advantage of being prepared to defend itself. But guess what? That didn’t work either. Starting to see a trend here?
When Yasser Arafat founded his multi billion dollar enterprise known as terrorism, the groundwork was laid for a steady diet of attacks against innocent men, women and children. Lucky for him he had the United Nations in his corner from the get go, so that not only could he begin to once again normalize the killing of Jewish women and children, he had a worldwide organization telling everyone that he was doing it in the name of justice and peace, and that the Jewish people were the violators of human rights.
Despite every effort to make peace with the unwanted Jordanians in the West Bank, and the Arab gypsies in Gaza, the 2 groups the world now refers to as Palestinians, every effort at peace has had one unforgiveable obstacle put in the way by us Jews. We refuse to die. But I get it, if we don’t make peace with people that don’t believe we have a right to exist, obviously it is our fault.
So to all those those mindless, cowardly hypocrites protesting in favor of sadistic terrorists who believe they are on the right side of history because of what was done to us in the past, know this. There has never been a more powerful Jewish army than there is today, militarily, intellectually, and spiritually, and now we have a battle cry that encompasses centuries of persecution and murder, most notably and most recently, the Holocaust and the mass murder of 6 million Jews. That battle cry is Never Again, and believe me when I tell you, we mean it. Because, after all, it’s all about survival, stupid.
We are at war. And whether or not the misguided cowards in the Jewish community who marched on the US Capitol calling for a cease fire while elderly people, young women and babies are amongst the hostages being held in Gaza want to believe it or not, this is a war whose goal is to eradicate every Jew from the face of the earth. Not having learned the lessons of the Holocaust, it is clear that there are too many Jews among us who feel they are safe by kowtowing to the enemy or by hiding their identity. They are dreadfully wrong, and as much as I despise their lack of character or ethical standards, I also hope they never find out to what extent. These people have already capitulated on one front, and that is in the war being waged on our hearts and minds. It is a war we can not afford to lose, and I will tell you why, and how to make sure that we don’t.
While the death of every member of Hamas is what we all want, the Israeli Defense Forces are going to win by administering justice, and fighting for the safety and security of the people of Israel. Wanting vengeance for what was done is understandable, but to fight the battle with a singular focus on ridding the planet of this evil and providing for the safety of future generations, is how the fight is one on all fronts. To allow those who are evil to control how you feel, even if it leads to their destruction, is giving them a victory they do not deserve and will not help us as individuals or as a people. This is the fight within our minds. However, we might say that the more challenging fight we are facing, is the war in our hearts.
I have friends, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, that are struggling with the pain and anguish they are feeling from the events of October 7th. These are strong-willed, determined people I speak of, leaders in their communities, leaders in their families, leaders in their groups of friends. These are people I am proud to call friends. I see horror and suffering in their words, and even despair. And their feeling are as justified, moral, and even righteous as any feelings a human being could experience. But I had the benefit of being raised by 2 amazing people, my parents, Holocaust survivors from Holland, who while the horrors of what they went through never left their hearts and minds, they instinctively knew the one way to win the fight daily on a more personal level. By living life and striving for happiness. By feeling joy and love, and not being overrun by anguish and despair. When my mother of Blessed Memory laughed, it was pure joy. I will share with you a story that illustrates just a small part of the woman that was my mother. Someone once had this mechanical parrot that repeated every word said to it, and what I once witnessed take place between my mother and this toy is one of the most memorable and purely fun things I have ever seen in my life. My mother said something and the parrot repeated it. My mother thought this was funny and started to laugh. The parrot mimicked the sound of my mother laughing, which caused my mother to laugh even harder. And on this went for what I would guess was a solid 2 minutes. This was a woman who, when she closed her eyes and went to sleep, suffered through nightmares. But when she woke up and was conscious of her life and the world around her, instinctively spit in the face of the Nazis by enjoying her life through love and laughter.
I know that the wounds are still fresh, and that it is very likely going to get worse before it gets better. I also know that the friends I have who are feeling these difficult emotions are strong and can be fine even without words of support from me or anyone else. But I wish to offer these words to all of you struggling with how to cope today and moving forwards. You can not change what happened, and you may very well not be able to impact what does happen, but you do have control over the war this evil is waging on your heart, mind and soul. Find those things that make your life have meaning, try to do any of the things that make you happy, or engage with those that you love. Force the pain and sadness out as often as you can, and in doing so you win one very important battle in this very important war.
My name is David Groen. Please allow me to tell you a little bit about myself. I am the son of Holocaust survivors from Holland. As I am sure you know, Canada and Holland were strong allies in World War II. In fact, my father, who was an active member of the Dutch resistance, rode into the town where my mother was hiding when the Canadian military liberated it from Nazi occupation. The most important thing I want you to know about me is that I never knew my grandparents, one uncle, one aunt, and countless cousins, since the Nazis decimated the Dutch Jewish community, murdering 75% of the Jews living in Holland between 1940 and 1945.
So yes, I take what recently happened in your country’s parliament very personally. As an author and public speaker passionate about making the world aware of the atrocities that took place and keeping alive the memory of what happened under Hitler’s barbaric reign, my reasons for reaching out to you, as important as they may be, are not politically motivated. In fact, I am reaching out to you specifically to avoid being political, as the more political move would be to reach out to the leader of the opposition. However, my motivation is not to impact Canadian politics, it is to address and help fight a growing global crisis. I do not know you, so I am unable to comment on whether you are a good man or a bad man. I do know that certain Canadian officials, up to the very top, have pleaded ignorance regarding the history of Yaroslav Hunka, the Nazi living in your midst. I choose to believe that plea as being an honest one. Nevertheless, that does not make it an acceptable one. The only thing that will truly make it acceptable is a response in your parliament, preferably from someone who will tell a story of exactly why it is so important that this high level of ignorance be combatted. The speaker should not be a mere talking head, but someone whose family was impacted by the evils committed by the Nazis.
My public speaking revolves around the story of my uncle, Bram Rodrigues-Lopes. The younger and only sibling of my late mother, Bram was a violin player and band member when the Nazis invaded Holland. Through my book and website, Bram’s violin made it back to me and my family a little over 4 years ago. What makes Bram’s story so powerful and so relevant is the fact that he was murdered by the Nazis just 3 weeks shy of his 19th birthday. He never had a chance to build a life and leave behind a legacy. His story speaks to the reality and to the heart of what the Nazis did to those they wanted to exterminate, the Jewish people being priority number one. The story also speaks of the decency and bravery of the friend that safeguarded his violin, as well as his son who made the effort to find me.
Should you choose to bring me to Canada to address your parliament I will provide a powerful message emphasizing the dangers of forgetting the atrocities of the past together with the hope provided by the decency of others. What took place in your parliament this past week only magnifies the importance of keeping the story alive. My presentation will not be political as not only have I made a conscious decision to leave politics to those more qualified, but I also feel I have a different mission on this earth besides moving any country’s political needle. Since I see this as being an apolitical topic, and one of critical importance, I will leave everyone in the room with a message they will carry in their hearts and minds for years to come.
Many of us in the Jewish community use the line, “Never Again”. To work towards that, it is critical for it never to be forgotten. I believe certain people in Canada need a reminder, and I offer myself as the person to provide that reminder to your parliament.
While I knew I had to write something about 9/11 in honor of what took place 22 years ago, it wasn’t until I saw 60 minutes that I had a more clear idea of the message I wished to convey. I urge you all to watch the 60 minutes episode dedicated to the heroics of the firemen on that day. It made me realize that on that day New York consisted of 3 categories of individuals. Witnesses, heroes, and victims. It also made me realize that the most important message coming from the memory of that day comes down to one word. Responsibility.
There are different levels of suffering or sadness caused by devastation and tragedy. When we look at the Holocaust, those who had to hide in fear and run for their lives suffered differently than those that went to the camps. Those who survived the camps suffered differently than those who were murdered in the gas chambers. And while human nature causes us to judge things on levels, since the impact each incident has is also determined by the mental and physical makeup of whomever is experiencing these events, to compare them is not only impossible, it is unfair. These are all victims on some level. As someone who was in NY on September 11, 2001, I see this in a similar light, but with one important difference. I realize today how 9/11 helped me form my own personal sense of responsibility and understanding of what I am. I am not a victim. I am a witness. As a witness it will forever be my responsibility to share what I witnessed and how I felt on that day.
There are moments in our lives that are forever embedded in our memory. Then there are days when those moments are magnified on a level unlike all other days. Here are the moments I will never forget from that fateful day.
On September 11th I was living in Forest Hills, a beautiful and active neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. My apt, 10L had a view, albeit distant, of Manhattan. Of course the taller the building, the easier it was to see, making the Twin Towers visible on most days. Visibility however was not an issue on this day, because one of the common memories shared by most people in NY on that day was that the weather could not have been more perfect. It was a comfortable temperature and not a cloud in the sky, and I can tell you with complete honesty and sincerity that there is no other day I have been alive that I remember the weather more clearly. For on this day the contrast between beauty and horror is one of my most indelible memories.
On September 11th I was in a long distance relationship with a woman in St. Louis. We had become very close, so when there was any type of major event we wished to share it with each other. So when I saw Dick Oliver of the local Fox station report on a plane hitting one of the towers, I called her to tell her something big had happened. https://youtu.be/0_CrzPvcY3o?si=omNQimalUIfmuJm5 We both turned on Good Morning America and soon after there was a report of the incident in the first tower. I managed to take a picture of the first tower burning, not knowing that I was memorializing history in the process.
Many still believed this was an awful accident, as nothing specific had yet indicated that this was an act of terror. Being one of those people I felt it was safe to make my way to work.
On September 11th the location of my job was in Brooklyn. To get to Brooklyn I had to take the F train into Manhattan where I would switch to the D train at the 34th street station. On my ride on the F train I began to hear that there was a second plane that had hit the other tower and that now it was apparent that this was a terrorist attack. I remember seeing women crying on the train in a way that people cry when they fear the loss of a loved one. I remember the train stopping with only the front car in the station and all of us being evacuated to that front car and told to leave the station. As I walked out of the station what I saw became one of those indelible memories. Standing on the corner of 36th Street and 7th Avenue, just steps away from Macys, I saw throngs of people, all walking one direction, uptown, away from the towers. And then I walked to a store front where I saw another image embedded in my brain. It was a TV that was on ABC, where the caption read, “World Trade Center, Attacked and Destroyed”. All trains in Manhattan were suspended, so I decided to begin a walk back towards home. On my way uptown I saw the image that represented the tragedy and horror of the day over every other image I would see that day. I will share that with you shortly, but first I will share 2 more images that are forever imbedded in my memory. The two things I remember when crossing what was then known as the 59th street bridge, a bridge connecting Manhattan to Queens. One of those images was in front of me, the other to my right. The first image was that of a woman walking before me, covered in the grey soot seen on so many people on that day. The soot seen on people so close to the catastrophe, that they were physically impacted by what had happened. The second image was to my right. This image was of a trail of smoke coming from downtown, from what would be a gaping hole not only in downtown Manhattan, but in the hearts of all New Yorkers.
On September 11th I was closer to devastation and tragedy on a mass scale than I had ever been in my life. Part of what made it so awful was that in being able to see the horrific images of the 2 planes hitting the buildings and the building collapsing, those closest to the nearly 3,000 souls murdered, the boyfriends and girlfriend, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, friends, and fathers and mothers, would forever see them die before their very eyes. Which brings me to the moment I will have etched in my brain for all my days, the one that most represents the day for me. As I was walking uptown towards 59th street, to my right off of one of the corners a car was parked with its doors open. The radio was loud, and as was the case with any station broadcasting that morning, it was reporting on the attack. Standing near the car was an Asian couple probably in their 50s, the woman sobbing uncontrollably and the man walking back in forth in a panic, tears flowing down his cheeks. While I will likely never have the opportunity to confirm what I thought, I was sure as I walked past this couple, that I was looking at parents that had a child working in one of those towers. It was at this moment, with that image that will be in my head till the day I die, that the harshest reality of that day sunk in.
On September 11th normal every day working people were killed just for being at work or having the misfortune of being on one of the planes used to attack the Towers, the Pentagon, or whatever destination the plane in Pennsylvania was headed for. Firemen risked or lost their lives attempting, and in miraculous fashion saving thousands of people from the burning towers. People were physically or emotionally scarred forever by being in or near the towers on that day, many dying in the years that followed as a result. People lost loved ones and subsequently had their lives changed forever.
On September 11th I was merely a witness. I can not begin to imagine or understand the pain of those closest to the tragedy, for even as someone far removed from what they went through, I am left with a feeling of sadness and pain that will be with me forever. And yet, I am very cognizant of the fact that it is incumbent on me to make sure people do not forget the horrors people endure from the hands of others if I bear witness or hear testimony. It is something I carry with me daily as I tell the story of my ancestors and others killed in the Holocaust. It is the responsibility that is on someone far enough removed to not be incapacitated or weakened by these events, but close enough to them to feel true pain. It is the responsibility to let everyone know their one responsibility above all other responsibilities. That is to never forget, so that those who perished are never forgotten and so that even in their death, their lives always have great meaning.
Let me begin by saying that when high profile people make statements that belittle Jewish people in traditional ways, they show at the very least an incredible lack of sensitivity to the persecution we have suffered through as a people.
My name is David Groen. I was born on January 2, 1962 in the Jewish Hospital in Hamilton County Cincinnati. By that time, my parents, Holocaust survivors from Holland, had lived in Cincinnati since 1955 and had become avid Reds fans. So although we would move to a different city when I was just a year and a half, it was not surprising that growing up I would become a Reds fan myself. And while years later my devotion to the team would wane, I was incredibly fortunate that the first team I would love in sports, was one of the best baseball teams to ever play the game. The Big Red Machine.
What a team it was. I could name most players on the team, including the relief pitchers, but when it came down to it the team centered primarily around the exceptional play of Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, in later years George Foster, and my personal favorite, you, Johnny Bench. I have always argued, often without pushback that you are the greatest catcher to ever play the game. Your defensive abilities were unmatched, and your accomplishments as a hitter, centered around clutch power, gave you a special flare for the heroic. I am 61 years old, and there are 3 things that anyone who knows me well can tell you. My favorite movie of all time is the Wizard of Oz. I think that when it comes to modern music there’s the Beatles and then everyone else. And my favorite baseball player of all time, certainly for as long as I can remember has been you, Johnny Bench.
But here is the problem I have today. Far more important to me than baseball is the importance I put on my Jewish faith. As the son of Holocaust survivors and someone who continues to fight in defense against hatred towards my religion and culture, I am very passionate when it comes to speaking out against those who belittle, mock, or hate the Jewish people. So when I found out about your recent “joke”, if I am to be very honest, tears started coming to my eyes. At a news conference honoring former Reds general manager Gabe Paul, who was Jewish, Pete Rose recalled, “When I got out of high school in 1960, Gabe Paul signed me to a contract for 400 bucks a month.” At which point Jennie Paul, Gabe Paul’s daughter joked, “that cheap, never mind”. That is when you chimed in, “He was Jewish”.
I know that many will say that there are far worse things said about Jews by far more relevant people, but for me this is personal. You were my childhood hero. When I was 24 and living in New York, I interviewed for a job to run a distribution center for a Proxy Solicitation firm. During the interview I was asked, if the world were made of candy and I could get anything I wanted, what job would I choose? Since I was focused more on getting the job, which I did, than I was on being 100% honest, I answered with my second choice, a broadcast journalist. If I would have been completely honest I would have answered, catcher for the Cincinnati Reds, because that was the job of my childhood hero, Johnny Bench. So when I say this is personal, it is because it transcends 50 decades of knowing that my first sports hero instinctively felt it was funny to belittle and make fun of who and what I am, and since it is next to impossible to go straight from having been my favorite baseball player for over 50 year to becoming the enemy, it ends up being heartbreaking for me and very personal instead.
So now, like so many others, you apologize to make it all go away. Well for me personally, since that is not enough, I have a suggestion. My mother’s younger brother and uncle I would never know, Bram Rodrigues, was murdered by the Nazis 3 weeks shy of his 19th birthday. You were called up to the Majors to play for the Reds at the age of 19. As a true sign of remorse for your lack of sensitivity, you, a man whose life became blessed when you got a dream job at the age of 19, should help me honor the memory of a young man who never made it to 19 because he was murdered just for being a Jew. Help me tell the story of how his violin made it back to the children of Bram’s sister, my mother, more than 70 years after his life was ripped away from him before he ever had a chance at achieving any of his dreams. http://bramsviolin.com/ . Do that Johnny, and I will not only accept your apology, but I might even go back to revering you as a baseball legend and a childhood hero.
In February 1941, between 300-500 Jewish men of sound mind and body were rounded up in Amsterdam by the Nazi occupying forces. Every single one of them was deported out of the city, most of them to the Mauthausen concentration camp. The majority of those were either shot, pushed of a rock quarry at the top of the “stairs of death”, or literally worked to death. This event symbolized the beginning of the Holocaust in the Netherlands. While one of these men was my mother’s favorite cousin, David van Hasselt, even if there wasn’t this personal element attached to the story, I would still be enormously offended by your comments.
If there was any accuracy to your comments, which there is not, finding it necessary to insist that the Holocaust wasn’t motivated by race is like saying that slavery was really only about getting cheap help. It whitewashes the murder of 6 million Jews, diminishes the pain and suffering of those that experienced it and the burden of responsibility and vicarious anguish felt by future generations.
In September of 1919, 14 years before Adolf Hitler came into power, he categorized the Jews as a race, not as a religious community. He described the Jewish presence as a “race-tuberculosis of the peoples “, and said that “the ultimate goal must be the removal of the Jews altogether “.
In 1923, 10 years before seizing power, Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord”.
While Hitler did have a disdain for the mentally and physically deficient, he also hated Homosexuals, Gypsies, Poles, and any race not seen as Aryan. This is why Jesse Owens’ victories in the 1933 Munich Olympics made him such a hero, something I would have commended you for taking time to recognize, as he showed his superiority in his athletic prowess right in front of Hitler’s face.
What this all comes back to is that your comments are not only incredibly and continuously insensitive, their inaccuracies are dangerous. The reason why myself and so many others find the need to make telling this story our life’s work, is because as soon as it’s forgotten, or distorted as you are doing, the danger of history repeating or even somewhat duplicating itself becomes significantly greater.
And finally Whoopi, despite the fact that your comments put your mental stability in question, because of the last name you go by, Goldberg, the Nazis would have come for you before seeing the color of your skin. A fact you would be wise to acknowledge.
While the comments you made yesterday addressing the controversy regarding your promotion of the movie “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America”,were certainly an improvement from comments previously made or conspicuously not made, “accepting responsibility” as you cleverly stated, is not enough. As a proud Jew and son of Holocaust survivors, I demand to hear the following words out of your mouth. “I apologize”, or “I am sorry for the words that I said and the pain that I caused.”
You see, anyone who has followed you over the years knows that you think you are smarter than everyone else. As it happens though Kyrie, the world is not flat, and Jews are not the devil. So, you are clearly not as smart as you think you are. I would guess that no one is as smart as you think that you are. That being said, because of your arrogance, it is striking to me that in your statement, you never mention anti-Semitism, and you never apologize to the Jewish people. Saying you take responsibility, in Kyrie speak, is a clever way of addressing it, without saying you did anything wrong.
Just in case you do believe you did nothing wrong, let me make it clear to you. As Rich Eisen beautifully stated after you accused Nick Friedell of dehumanizing you for of all things holding you accountable for your actions, your behavior dehumanizes us as Jews. And frankly I can’t help but think that somewhere in your thought process you felt that not apologizing to Jewish people and not mentioning anti-Semitism specifically, kept you in good stead with the likes of Kanye West and Louis Farrakhan.
Tell me I am wrong Kyrie. Let me hear you say you are sorry. Then, and only then will your words mean anything to me. In the meantime, if you don’t care for Jews, you might consider getting the hell out of Brooklyn.
Although I have not directly heard your feelings on the subject that I am about to address, seeing as you hold the ultimate responsibility for what takes place on Facebook, it is of critical importance that I reach out to you. I am referring to the sitewide banning of the movie “Beautiful Blue Eyes” from every aspect of Facebook. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/facebook-holocaust-film-race-policy-1234592908/
I could start by saying that I have no personal stake in the success of this movie, but that would not be entirely true. You see Mr. Zuckerberg, not only do I have a stake in it, you do as well. I do not know you, so I do not claim to know how you feel about your connection to the past, but I do know you are a Jewish man who has never hidden from that fact. It must be understood that the survival of the Jewish people will always be connected to acknowledging and remembering our persecution. So I ask you, does the future of the Jewish people mean anything to you? Or are the policies of Facebook so out of touch with reality and are you so detached from the operations of this giant you created that we are subjected to this ignorant and highly detrimental stance?
My personal issues towards this matter can be best explained by telling you a little bit about my background. I am the son of Holocaust survivors, and the importance of this and how it relates to me personally is not by any means exaggerated. When I see Facebook banishing a movie with the title “Beautiful Blue Eyes” because as the ruling states, it violates the policy against content that “includes direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person’s race,” knowing a little what the movie is about, I am in utter shock and disbelief. The title of the story is based on someone who is part of the story, someone with blue eyes, who was murdered by the Nazis. As someone whose father had eyes the color of a blue ocean, knowing that both his parents and younger sister were also murdered by the Nazis, it’s hard to imagine one of the 3, if not all of them, not having blue eyes. And had my father not been blessed to survive, his blue eyes would not have stopped the Nazis from murdering him as well.
But the stronger message here may come from relating to the story of my mother and her side of the family. Whether Facebook chooses to acknowledge this or not, the Nazis often identified their victims, particularly their Jewish victims, from their physical appearance. This was as evident in the Netherlands as anywhere else. My mother, born in Amsterdam and of Sephardic Jewish descent, looked different than most Dutch people at that time. My father, who had red hair and blue eyes, could, for all intents and purposes, hide in plain sight. My mother, with dark hair, brown eyes, and a darker complexion, immediately was recognized as being Jewish. It was only through the help of my father who worked with the resistance, and the hand of God, that my mother survived. But sadly, her father and brother, with similar physical attributes were taken to Auschwitz and murdered. The importance of my mother’s appearance was so significant and so important in understanding what took place that I even named the book in which I chronicle their 5 years in Holland during the Nazi Occupation, as “Jew Face”. https://hollandsheroes.com/general-book-information/ And just like “Beautiful Blue Eyes”, the title was based partly on a character in the book, my mother, and partly on an incident that took place.
As someone who is proud to be Jewish and forever cognizant of the past, present, and likely future threats we will always face, my reasoning for calling the book “Jew Face” was clearly not a racist or bigoted attack on, of all people, my fellow Jews. Maybe the point can best be made clear to you and anyone who may choose to bury their head in the sands of Woke Beach, by sharing the following anecdote.
After the publishing of my book, close to 5 years after my father’s passing, my mother would occasionally speak to various institutions about her experiences during those horrific times. She would often use the book as a guide in telling the story, and when on one occasion she informed the audience of its title, “Jew Face”, a woman commented to her that, “this is an ugly title for a book”. My mother’s immediate and instinctive response was, “it was an ugly time”. Maybe this is what you and the people who work for you are not comprehending. Sometimes to make a point, a point that can ultimately promote love and understanding and even save lives, you need to say and do harsh things. To avoid this in the name of equality or standards is at best shortsighted and divisive, at worst it is out and out dangerous. In fact, this application that states it violates the policy against content that “includes direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person’s race,” is so out of touch with the reality, it is closer to Holocaust denial than it is to enforcement of a ruling in the name of the common good.
I urge you to look at this situation with a broader and more educated perspective and realize that decisions such as these are counterproductive to what you claim to be important.
Holland's Heroes 