Ongoing evil

January 31, 2025 by Michael Kuttner
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The late Elie Wiesel famously declared: “I thought in 1945 antisemitism died in Auschwitz but I was wrong. Its victims perished, antisemitism did not.”

Michael Kuttner

As another 27 January International Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated in many countries the spectre of a resurgent virulent virus can no longer be ignored. The stark reality we face eighty years after the liberation of Auschwitz must serve as a wake-up call for all who preferred to relegate the Shoah years to a long-forgotten era.

Memories are short and this is exemplified by the situation we find ourselves in these days.

Political leaders and other spokespersons deliver annual messages of sympathy and empathy. Rarely, if at all, do they dwell on their own countries’ shortcomings or past shameful policies with regard to saving Jews from becoming victims. Apologizing and admitting culpability for failure to stand up to the gathering evil seems to be beyond them.

By the time Nazi and fascist terror was confronted, it was far too late to save the six million Jewish men, women and children from the Final Solution.

The lessons from those dark days, unfortunately, do not seem to have been internalized today. It is, therefore, important that potential victims and decision-makers alike face the facts and act accordingly.

Eloquent oratory is all very well, but when it takes the place of actually confronting evil, it is merely an exercise in futility.

Elon Musk, touted by some as a friend of Jews and Israel, has demonstrated a rather warped way of expressing that friendship. His recent advice to Germany’s far-right party is a case in point. At precisely a time when rampant Jew hate is sweeping the world he advised The Alternative for Germany Party “not to put too much focus on past guilt” and to revel instead in “German values and culture.” Anything more mistimed and tone-deaf would be hard to find. Musk touts amnesia of past guilt precisely as the genocide of Auschwitz and the Nazi years is being recalled. Ironically, it was German culture and values that enabled the Shoah to be so efficiently facilitated.

It is the current headlong rush to bury the past, sweep the uncomfortable realities under the carpet and rewrite history, which lies at the root of the virulent malaise now infecting large swathes of the globe.

The Jewish People have a long tradition of remembering the past and internalizing its lessons for the present and future. That is what upsets and unsettles so many who would prefer that their sins are cleansed and forgotten.

Chanukah, Purim, Tisha B’Av and Pesach are just a few of the events we recall. These dates remind us that from the very earliest days of our history there have been regimes and groups who dedicated themselves to our demise. What roils our detractors is the fact that we defeated these oppressors and survived to tell the tale.

How many of the VIPs and representatives of various governments speaking at this year’s commemorations recall the sordid betrayal of Jews fleeing Nazi hate? Very few, if any, I guarantee, made any mention of their country’s refusal and reluctance to admit fleeing Jews.

In July 1938, five years after Hitler’s appointment as German Chancellor, the Evian Conference took place. Thirty-two countries were represented at this meeting called to address the problem of Jewish refugees. Jewish organizations and refugee delegates were denied accreditation. Of all the countries taking part only the Dominican Republic expressed a desire to accept refugees and provide them with land. European countries, the USA and Australia stated that they were unable to expand their quotas. The UK slammed the gates of Mandated Palestine shut in order to appease Arab hostility.

The conference was a huge failure. Chaim Weizmann commented “the world was divided into two camps: countries that did not want Jews and countries that did not want them in their countries.”  In December 1938, the UK, under great pressure, allowed 10,000 mainly Jewish children into the country on the Kindertransport, provided that they were not accompanied by their parents.

Deliberately ignored because it is not politically correct to mention is the uncomfortable fact that post-7 October, Jew hate and incitement have surged in Muslim countries. A recent study by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center found that this included online material, newspaper content and cartoons.

In other countries, what is being taught in Islamic schools and preached in mosques needs to be more strictly monitored. Jihadist indoctrination is radicalizing many impressionable youth. One has only to look at the banners carried by demonstrators and the slogans shouted by mindless mobs to realise that Jew hate has gone mainstream in universities and on the streets. Its inevitable targets are Synagogues, schools, Jewish communal buildings and then Jewish homes.

Who would ever have thought that 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, “gas the Jews” would be shouted in Sydney?

Another very troubling survey has revealed a black hole many knew existed but which, except for wringing of hands, has not been sufficiently tackled. This is the worrying and increasingly growing ignorance and lack of knowledge of the Holocaust. The results of a survey undertaken in eight countries about Holocaust knowledge should be a wake-up call. If the responses by 18 to 29-year-olds in the USA, England, France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Romania are any guide, the level of recognition of what took place between 1933 and 1945 is sinking fast.

In the USA, 48% of young adults were unable to name even one concentration camp. In France, 46% admitted that they had never even heard of the Holocaust. If this is any indication of the ignorance prevailing in other countries it is no surprise that the ancient virus has made a triumphant return. In countries like New Zealand, where Holocaust studies are not mandatory in high schools, the percentage of teenagers totally oblivious to the fate of 6 million Jews must be alarmingly high. A toxic mix of ignorance and incitement combined with hate and fake facts on social media will poison impressionable minds with dire results for Jews in those countries.

The United Nations was established as a reaction to the horrendous events of the war. Instead of it being a beacon of democratic and human rights values it has now been subverted by an immoral majority. In 1975, just a mere thirty years after the Shoah, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution branding Zionism as racist. It took until 1991 for this disgraceful lie and slur to be rescinded, and this only occurred because Israel threatened not to attend the Madrid so-called peace conference. Since then, anti-Israel resolutions have escalated, becoming a weekly ritual at all meetings of the UN and its associated corrupted groups.

In November 2005 International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January was established. It took sixty years for the UN to get around to designating this event and even then its decision was hedged with double speak language. Although the General Assembly was the venue, this resolution was never put to a vote.

It is not hard to guess why no vote was taken.

Its original intention was to commemorate the unique genocide against Jews. However, in order to appease opponents of the move the language was incorporated to include “other genocides” thus diluting the focus on the Jewish tragedy. No vote was taken because the spectacle of countries voting against it or abstaining would expose the shameful hypocrisy of the world body.

One needs to understand these facts in order to be aware of what transpires on this day. In Auschwitz and in the capitals of many countries, there are speeches pledging remembrance and solidarity.

Most of these same speakers or their representatives will then subsequently vote in favour of UN resolutions condemning the Jewish State, accusing it of genocide and delegitimizing any Jewish connection to Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. For the rest of the year they will be complicit in branding resurrected Jewish sovereignty as illegitimate and a crime against humanity. They will join with the world’s vilest abusers of Jews and other minorities in passing endless anti-Israel resolutions.

Spouting “never again” is a hollow gesture when one realizes that the cumulative results of condemning Israel for its determination to protect and defend its citizens actually guarantee that another Shoah is preordained.

No wonder 27 January has been described by some as Holocaust Hypocrisy Day.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.

Comments

One Response to “Ongoing evil”
  1. Lynne Newington says:

    Elie Wiesel…….a man of wisdom and quick wit.

    I recall he was a guest speaker at an “open'” function a referring to the Holocaust and plight of the Jews ,during question time a hand went up, the question asked, “why do you always keep repeating the past”?

    His spontaneous response?
    Why do you keep referring to a man who died 2000 years ago?

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