This year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 follows closely upon an almost unimaginable event that exposed the horrific cost of our failure to end antisemitism.Who bears the fault for the terrors of October 7, 2023, when Hamas murderers stormed into Israel from Gaza? The killers, of course, whose genocidal intentions are apparent in their Charter. But the Israel Defense Forces, AWOL from their posts, played a role. As did the Israeli people who wildly assailed each other over internal issues while the bloodthirsty enemy at their border plotted their deaths.However, the major fault did not occur on that day in October. That heavy burden lies with Jewish leaders who minimized threats from the Iranian ayatollah and his armored pawns, Hamas and Hezbollah.Opting to appease and placate aggressive Islamic nations, Jewish leaders joined Western nations in denouncing as “hate speech” the factually correct description, “Islamic jihadist fanatics.” Moreover, they championed the Palestinians’ demands for territory, convinced that their liberality would irresistibly lead to friendship and peace.Instead of steadfastly confronting those who slandered Jews and threatened to destroy Israel, Jewish leaders fixated on educating the world about the six million Jews killed by Nazis in the Holocaust, fully expecting the individual stories of Jewish victims to arouse sympathy, compassion, and understanding, which would then naturally dispel antisemitism. Their noble efforts proved delusional. Despite a fortune spent on Holocaust museums, the slogan “Never Again” carved on the museum walls did not protect Jews from being beaten while strolling in Brooklyn, or shot while at prayer in their synagogue in Pittsburgh.Even the heartrending story of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis, whose diary has been vital reading for tens of millions of young girls, could not move Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” Taylor Swift, to rally her fans (“Swifties”) and speak out for the release of a young Jewish Swiftie, taken hostage by the Hamas invaders. The unlucky girl was murdered.Our world looks away in silence, just as it did when the grandparents of today’s besieged Jews were prey for beasts.
A DIARY from the Nazi era that addresses these matters and assigns accountability for the Jew-hatred that plagued his country was written by Friedrich Kellner, a German justice inspector and Social Democrat who had campaigned during the Weimar Republic against Hitler and his Nazi party. When Hitler came to power, Kellner began his diary (while under Gestapo surveillance) to record Nazi crimes. He considered it a “weapon of truth” for future generations to use against their own Nazis.As for the world looking away in silence, Kellner criticized his own Evangelical Lutheran Church for not caring about the vast amount of casualties during World War I. He added: “The Church in Germany during this war says nothing about the terrible atrocities committed against the Jews.”
