Monday, January 25, 2010

International Holocaust Day- January 27

Tomorow, January 27th, 2010 marks the 65th year since the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet forces. Each year, leaders from around the world make their way to Germany in order to commemorate this day. People use this time to think back at the horrors of the Holocaust, and to look forward- with eyes of prevention to prevent further genocides and state sponsored discrimination.

However, tomorrow, when people around the world look back at the worlds biggest and most systematic genocide in known history they might not know that antisemitism in 2009 was at it's highest since the Holocaust. I think that people today have succeeded in separating the Jews of today, from the Jews of the Holocaust. I believe much of this antisemitism has arisen because of popular disagreement with Israeli policy. However, instead of gearing their disagreements towards the Israeli government alone, their frustration has spilled over to the Jewish people. It is as though Jews and Israeli policy, have morphed into one. Therefore, despite one's personal connection to their Judaism or to Israel, Jews are being targeted, only because they are Jews. After the controversial operation in the Gaza strip (Operation Cast lead) -which was just as controversial and disagreed upon within the Jewish community as it was in the world- antisemitic acts around the world equaled the TOTAL number of acts that were recorded in 2008. Now we also have to remember that these are the statistics that are collected, out of those which are reported, therefore we can probably assume that the number of acts actually committed was also much higher. Apparently, the world is justified to stop and criticize their ancestors for the terrible antisemitism Jews faced in the 30's and 40's but are mum on today's situation. Lets remember yesterday's antisemitism, but forget today's. How is it possible that a world leader is even able to stand up in front of the UN and accuse Israel of deceitfully controlling the world's economy and political situation?? Does this banter not sound identical to Germany's propaganda? Ahmadinejad said at the UN meeting:

"The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a minuscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner." For the full speech, click here.

While many UN representatives got up and left his speech (also note, many didn't even show up in the first place), let us not forget that he still had a hefty audience. And even if there had been no one there to listen to him, his speech was still recorded, and published worldwide, his words did not fall upon deaf-ears. After the speech, Elie Wiesel, acclaimed academic, Holocaust survivor and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize was accosted for being a "zio-nazi" at a UN EVENT- simply because he supports the Jewish state. (To see the video click, here) Ahmadinejad's threats against the Jewish people- his foresighted premonitions, that he is going to "wipe Israel off the map" also eerily remind me of Hitler's speech to the Reichstag on January 30, 1939. (NB: that this is BEFORE the final solution- annihilation of the Jews of Europe, was decided)

"In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the State, and with it that of the whole nation, and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face. Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!"

So while world leaders look back at the Holocaust, do they neglect to look at the years that led up to the extermination camps? Is the Holocaust only valuable for the clear genocidal part?- the gas chambers, the mass shootings, and the slave labor?? Or should it also include the elements that led to these horrible atrocities: world leaders denouncing Jews by inciting hatred and prejudice based on lies for propagandist reasons and a spike in antisemitic acts and general attitude towards Jews. Without these elements, the efforts of the practical genocide would have failed. These integral stepping stones led the path to the death of 6 million Jews. If this is so, then how can the world turn their back on today, which is mirroring this time period as well. Where is the world's outcry? Weak sanctions that cripple a country, rather than it's leaders? None other than a country which is trying to fight for what's left of it's democratic character, but it being beaten down by these same leaders. Now, I don't think that a second Holocaust against the Jews is creeping around the corner, what I'm trying to argue is the hypocrisy of the situation. Of leaders all over the world commemorating one group of Jews, without any plan to stand up to situations that are popping up in their very countries today. Has their been such a time that "Never Again" seems so much like a lie- an easy placebo to soothe the conscience of the world.

No comments:

Post a Comment