Today, April 27, 1940, Heinrich Himmler ordered the creation of a concentration camp which would be situated near the Polish village of Oswiecim. Eventually, the world would tremble at the sound of the name of that concentration camp: Auschwitz. Auschwitz: one word, an overarching name that stood as the name for an evil that spanned over 3 large camps including the dreaded Birkenau and the lesser known Buna-Monowitz, and 45 sub-camps. 1 million Jews were murdered within Auschwitzs confines, by a brutal German extermination machine that instead of ignoring it, chose to heed the ancient call of anti-Semitism, embracing it and taking it to an extreme that could only be reached thanks to the help of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and willing volunteers from a myriad of countries across Europe. Three years later, on April 27, 1943, Polish Home Army Captain Witold Pilecki successfully escaped Auschwitz, after having volunteered to infiltrate it and spending nearly 3 years inside the camp. Captain Pilecki personally reported on the extermination in the camps, which by then was advancing at a terrifying rate, but his reports were seen as exaggerations. The indifference of the world towards the plight of the Jews, as certainly as the German hatred of the Jews, contributed to their deaths. Tonight, at 8:00 PM on April 27th, 74 years after Himmler gave that order which would burn the word Auschwitz into the worlds collective consciousness, Israel will open the ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Speakers at the official ceremony at Yad Vashem will repeat the promise made by every Israeli since before 1948, and shared by the leaders of the world: Never Again. Unfortunately, words and actions are miles apart. It is easy to speak and say that we will never forget the anti-Semitism which brought about the Holocaust and the deaths of 6 million Jews. Around the world, steps are being taken to educate the younger generations, so the memory of the German hatred and its infamous outcome will never be forgotten. But that is not enough. Anti-Semitism is rearing its ugly head once again, all the more horrifyingly because it is not being disowned and disenfranchised at every turn. Instead of physically attacking Jews (which is still, unfortunately, happening much too frequently, even in enlightened countries such as France, Belgium and Sweden), these new anti-Semites are focused on a new target: attacking the memory of the Holocaust. This past February In Hungary, a member of the Jobbik party, Hungarys third-largest party, referred to the Holocaust as the Holoscam. Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated recently that Its not clear what the reality is about it [the Holocaust], whether it even has a reality, or how it happened. Even Irans supposedly moderate president, Hasan Rouhani, stated that When it comes to speaking of the dimensions of the Holocaust as such, it is the historians that should reflect on it. In other words, despite the fact that nearly 70 years after later, historians have reached a consensus on how many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, for Rouhani there is room for doubt, and further discussion on the topic is necessary. After all, it may not be as high as 6 million, it could be as low as 3 or 4 million, or even only 1 million! Joining this illustrious list is the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, though to call him that is suspect, seeing as how he has threatened once again to disband the PA, and has been illegally holding office for longer than the four years held it legally. Abbas doctoral thesis includes the following gems: Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions — fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand, and, It is possible that the number of Jewish victims reached six million, but at the same time it is possible that the figure is much smaller, below one million. Abbas, however, takes it one step further. Not content with denying the number of Jews murdered, Abbas has also discovered the real reason behind the Holocaust: The Zionist movement led a broad campaign of incitement against the Jews living under Nazi rule to arouse the governments hatred of them, to fuel vengeance against them and to expand the mass extermination. As the siren wails tomorrow and Israel bows its head in sorrow, resolution and determination, we must turn to face this new threat which is being thrust upon us. The philosopher George Santayana stated that Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. For us to be able to fulfill our vow of Never Again, we must combat not only the physical threats against world Jewry, but the mental threats against the Jewish history as well. For, if we are not willing to protect our memory of the Holocaust, which took place a mere 70 years ago, how can we be trusted when we say that Israel has belonged to the Jews for over 3,000 years?
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 14:15:36 +0000