On the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, on January 27 of this year, remembering isn't enough. To remember is merely to record what was; it does not ensure that there will be no comparable sequel.
Less than a century after we recognized the depths to which supposedly civilized human beings could sink as they sought to carry out a “final solution” of barbaric genocide, we are again witnessing the rise of a similar kind of anti-Semitism to the sickness of Nazi Germany. And merely mouthing the post-World War II slogan of “never again” or building hundreds of memorials to the six million will do nothing to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust unless we take to heart the real lessons we need to take away from a moment in history that brings shame to mankind.
How did Auschwitz happen? How was it possible for a cultured society to countenance concentration camps, crematoria and death factories? How could madness become acceptable to a sane and civilized world?
In a remarkable article in the New York Times last week by Rivka Weinberg, a philosophy professor, the author asks us to change our perspective from the moral message we've been teaching for years as take away from the horrors of the Holocaust. The gist of her argument is captured in the title to her piece: “The road to Auschwitz wasn’t paved with indifference.”
Weinberg asserts that we don’t have to be heroes to avoid genocides. We just have to make sure not to help them along.
Weinberg takes issue with the historian Ian Kershaw who wrote “The road to Auschwitz was built by hate but paved with indifference.” Weinberg asserts no, it was built with collaboration. The Nazis succeeded wherever anti-Semitism was entrenched, where Jew hatred was endemic. Her conclusion: “The truth about how massive moral crimes occur is both unsettling and comforting. It’s unsettling to accept how many people participated in appalling moral crimes but comforting to realize that we don’t have to be heroes to avoid genocides. We just have to make sure not to help them along.”
According to her, what we are to take away from the Holocaust has nothing to do with the sin of indifference. Silence in the face of evil should not be blamed.
“The belief that atrocities happen when people aren’t educated against the evils of bystanding has become part of our culture and how we think we’re learning from history. ‘Don’t be a bystander!’ we’re exhorted. ‘Be an upstander!’ we teach our children. But that’s all a big mistake. All of it: It’s false that doing nothing creates moral catastrophes; it’s false that people are generally indifferent to the plight of others; it’s false that we can educate people into heroism; and it’s false that if we fail to transmit these lessons another Holocaust is around the corner.”
What then is the message?
"Next time the murderers come, it’s understandable if it’s too much to ask for us to risk our lives, our children, or even our jobs, to save others. Just don’t welcome the murderers, don’t help them organize the oppression or make it “less terrible” (that won’t work anyway), and don’t turn people in. That will usually be enough."
To which I can only add, yes that will usually be enough - enough to let the murderers succeed, to let the killings proceed without interruption, to permit the crimes to become so much a part of daily life that soon after having been originally met with silence they will no longer even have the ability to stir the conscience or move the hearts of indifferent viewers.
It is hard to believe that a distance of 75 years from Auschwitz can so cloud our vision and distort our perspective that passivity in the face of evil – simply not actively collaborating – frees us from any guilt and is even sufficient to defeat crimes comparable to the Holocaust. Far better to acknowledge the truth as Elie Wiesel understood it: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death.”
To do nothing is by definition in effect to collaborate.
Weinberg wants to limit culpability only to collaborators. How can she not understand what J.K. Rowling expressed so powerfully: “Those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters, for without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves we collude with it through our apathy.”
In other words, to do nothing is by definition in effect to collaborate.
That is what the Torah meant when it commanded us in the book of Leviticus, “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” Apathy is a sin. But it is more than a sin. Rollo May concluded that “Apathy adds up, in the long run, to cowardice.” It is the kind of cowardice that empowers evil. It is what makes draconian evil possible.
No one can absolve those who remained passive witnesses while six million were slaughtered in their presence.
No one – not any historian or victim, not any student of the Holocaust – can absolve those who remained passive witnesses while six million were slaughtered in their presence. Even if they didn’t “welcome the murderers, help them organize the oppression, or turn people in”, they carry the mark of Cain on their foreheads.
Weinberg feels we have no right to expect heroism. “Heroism is exceptional, saintly; that’s not who most of us are, nor who most of us can be, so we’re kind of off the hook.” It is a philosophy that preaches the victory of the wicked; human beings can never be counted on to fight on behalf of their better nature. We may be created in the image of God but we can never be expected act as if we are Godly. The most we can hope for is to educate against collaboration. And remarkably enough this acceptance of our imperfection is supposed to ensure we have liberated ourselves from the crematoria of Auschwitz.
No, the world needs a different lesson. It is the only one that can offer us hope. It alone can turn the dream of “never again” into the fulfillment of the vision of universal peace. It is the message that asks us to view our survival as possible only on a foundation of morality, rooted in the awareness of our potential for individual greatness.
As we watch the civilized world slowly begin to sink again into the swamp of hatred and anti-Semitism we need most of all to commit that we will never again be passive observers of evil. As difficult as it may seem, we need to call upon our spiritual and intellectual resources to pledge that Auschwitz will never happen again because we have no choice but this time around to be heroes.
(25) Brenda Williamson, September 3, 2020 10:50 PM
I Agree with this article.
I agree, wholeheartedly, with this article!
I do believe that "indifference to Evil, makes one 'complicit'!! in the Evil"; we Must! unite and take the stand, together, to fight against it, in whatever way we can! May God help us, All, to do that, in the future!
I pray to the Lord.
Shalom.
(24) Anonymous, January 30, 2020 6:58 PM
who else faces a holocaust
If entrenched hate leads to collaboration for persecution and even attempted extermination, what other groups of people in our country are at risk? I hears hateful things said about Jews but also about others: blacks, native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, people whose political views differ from the speakers, ….. This does not bode well for the future or even the present.
(23) Alexandra, January 29, 2020 8:01 PM
Exactly
Excellent article, todah rabah
(22) Jim, January 28, 2020 5:17 PM
When kindness is cowardice
We try to be nice, to be pleasant, polite. Show our kindness to others and imagine that is enough. But it isn't. Those who hate us only look at our kindness as weakness and cowardice. If you are lucky enough to kick a monster to the ground do not expect him to get back up transformed. He will still be a monster. It is not enough never to forget. Never stop kicking to keep that monster down. Talmud teaches: If you know someone is coming to kill you get up early and kill him. Those who are kind to the cruel are cruel to the kind.
(21) Frank Adam, January 28, 2020 3:08 PM
Evian Conference
Time to take the story of the Evian Conference off the archives shelf and admit that it was because the West especially the US quota acts did not issue visas to Jews to leave Europe between the wars that Hitler assumed nobody would object to his killing the Jews of Europe - Who remembers the Armenians now? as Hitler put down a questioner about his killer project.
Eventually something like 60 k refugees each were allowed into Palestine and UK, and 180k ? into the US BUT all the other states were too Christian to accept Jews before the war though given the White Australia Policy and their fear of China and Japan a million or two Jews there would have made sense.
The bottom line is that The Depression and unemployment was the open excuse not to take in refugees while pre-1914 in the boom of industrialisation all sorts of immigrants were welcome in the Americas, S.Africa and Australasia. Those who worship the Golden Calf come to grief in dishonour.
(20) H.E.Brown, January 27, 2020 6:35 PM
Holocaust.
We can't allow it to happen again. Indifference, and hate could come about again if we don't stand up to it. I don't think I have witnessed some much hate that is USA politics today. If we don't learn from the past we will repeat it. Scarce me.
(19) Sylvan Changuion, January 27, 2020 7:12 AM
The current strength of Israel
I have been disturbed for many years about HOW this could have happened. I understand now and I agree - collaboration, not indifference. I believe that not doing anything is the same as collaboration
My lifelong question has been - how did the Jews allow themselves to be led away to slaughter? I realise that I was not there, so cannot comment, nor be an armchair warrior. My heart broke every time I turned my thoughts to the arrests, cattle cars and death camps Why did they not run? I know that many of them fought and were slaughtered.
My question now to anyone more knowledgeable than I - has the creation of the powerful State of Israel ,created a stronger nation of Jews that can and will stop this from happening, Is the State of Israel with its great military prowess and powerful allies be able to go to war and annihilate those who wish to exterminate Jews?
Although not a Jew by birth nor by religion, I have been called a Zionist due to my views on Israel as a state. If I was ever able to convert and emigrate to Israel, my military skills and expertise gained South Africa in the 1980's would be put to good use..
Let us hope someone can reply with good advice and comment
Sylvan
Raymond, January 28, 2020 2:17 AM
The Myth of the All-Powerful Jew
Non-Jews often make the mistake of thinking that we Jews are somehow all-powerful and invincible, as if we control our every situation, but nothing could be further from the truth. Contrary to what some people apparently believe, we Jew do not have secret meetings in somebody's underground basement, to discuss our latest takeover of the world.
I mention this, because the people who think this about us, then wonder why we did not stop the nazis from murdering our people, as if we Jews were somehow in charge of such things. No we were not, and in fact, we Jews since our exile from Israel 2,000 years ago have been constantly persecuted, totally at the mercy of the often cruel non-Jewish world, totally defenseless as we try our best to not be completely wiped out by the antisemites of this world. adolf hitler succeeded in murdering six million of our Jewish people not because we Jews somehow allowed it, but rather because he got tacit approval for his murderous actions from virtually the entire world. The world, by-and-large, wants all of us Jews to be dead, so they were quite happy when one of theirs decided to carry it out to the extent that the nazis did.
Having our own Jewish State of Israel back in our Jewish hands after so many centuries has been a huge help in deceasing how many Jews are murdered each year, but that is no guarantee. Jews continue to be murdered, but just not at the same rate as they were before the Modern Jewish State of Israel became official not long after the Holocaust was finally over. Jews would be well advised to train to physically defend their lives, but again, there is just so much we can do to ward off such constant attacks against our Jewish people.
(18) Anonymous, January 27, 2020 6:31 AM
Agreement of Minds.
I commend you on your Sttrength in God. Your written words, are many of my thougjts, speak of the murderous actions taken by the demons of hell - nazis. No human beings should ever stand on the sidelines of life and "feed the d(evil)" by attempting to blind human-kind to subjegation, torment and murder of innocent Jewish souls. Thank you, Ralph O.
(17) Jeffrey Herrmann, January 27, 2020 1:42 AM
Old quote
“The only thing necessary I for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. John F. Kennedy
Raymond, January 27, 2020 2:26 AM
Edmund Burke Said It
I am pretty sure that it was the late 18th century British parliamentarian Edmund Burke who came up with that famous phrase. He was a very wise non-Jewish man whose life and ideas are very much worth studying, as they are totally consistent with traditional Torah values.
Annie, January 28, 2020 6:10 AM
It was Burke and not Kennedy.
(16) Patricia Deneen, January 26, 2020 11:49 PM
Non-collaboration is not enough!
Ms. Weinberg's Holocaust prevention theory is so far off base that I have to wonder if she is one of those who would like to see Israel wiped off the map.
Because that's exactly what indifference to the present rise in anti-semitism will do unless we all push back at every opportunity. If Israel ceases to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people, we may well see a repeat of the holocaust. It's going to take more than non-collaboration with anti-Israel forces to insure the survival of the People of the Book.
Anonymous, January 28, 2020 6:11 AM
Non-collaboration is active, not passive. We can refuse to join it and fight against it.
(15) stephen lefrak, January 26, 2020 10:55 PM
Auschwitz must lead to Zion and Jerusalem
The only way to assure “Never Again” is to hear again the “Utterances” of Sinai and accept Torah and Eretz Yisrael as our inheritance and recognize that without that and Y’Rushalaim and Ts’ion” , “Never Again” are empty words, however the good intentions.
We must revitalize the Land and be revitalized by Torah, Jerusalaim, and Zion.
(14) ALIICK MAZIN, January 26, 2020 10:41 PM
Long before the concentration camps, the world stood blind to the pogroms and murdering of thousands of Jews, because it was only Jews being done away with. Who cares! so a few less in the world, and so the Holocaust happened, and again when we asked the ALLIES to bomb the railway lines to the camps, there was silence, like before. Surely, anyone can see the obvious...nobody cares, except one little country.!!!
Anonymous, January 29, 2020 12:28 AM
The decision not to bomb the railway lines was made (as has been documented) because these are easy to replace and it would have achieved little. It was felt that the bombs should be used for buildings where they'd do most damage and would have far more impact and end the war sooner.
Needless to say that this was not broadcast for the Germans to hear.
A train came off the rails near where I used to live when the lines buckled, and it didn't take very long to remove the damaged ones and replace them.
I wondered why the lines to the camps were not bombed, but when I read the real story I could see why. It wouldn't have stopped the murders, just delayed them for a short time.
Anonymous, January 29, 2020 4:47 AM
Just an Expression
When people talk about bombing the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz, I am pretty sure that they are speaking symbolically, not literally. Of course actual railroads are easily replaceable, but what about bombing the gas chambers themselves? Or bombing their munitions factories? And then there is that nagging question as to why America closed its doors to the Jews of Europe, precisely when Jews were running for their lives from their nazi pursuers. Regardless of how precise one's language is, the point remains the same.
Annie, January 29, 2020 5:27 AM
No, the English government discussed it. It's documented. But Churchill et al had to decide not to do it for the reasons that I quoted. I can't speak for the US. Were they even in the war in Europe then ? They came in long after it began, as they did in WWI.
It's easy to be wise after the event. but imagine if the British had bombed the camps and killed the inmates. Of course they couldn't do it. How could they be sure that they'd just hit the gas chambers ? They couldn't. If they had, something else would have been used for the murders.
They did bomb factories, I believe, and other strategic places. The British were not stupid.
(13) Anonymous, January 26, 2020 10:08 PM
How to teach the Holocaust
I teach kids not to be bystanders. This does not have to involve risking your life. It can simply mean saying that this is not right. It puts the lid on early racism by deflating the prestige of the perpetrator
(12) Jonathan Tripp, January 26, 2020 9:40 PM
Excellent conclusion
A complex article that leaves its excellently concluding punch until the very end. As Edmund Burke said, "All that is required for evil to triumph is that hood men do nothing".
(11) Anonymous, January 26, 2020 8:43 PM
Thank you for important thoughts
which I will share. Look forward to reading your new book. and hope you will write many more. ......
(10) nixon kkiplangat koske, January 26, 2020 6:44 PM
It is true education can not translate our being,we are all obligated to be our brother's keeper.
It is so disturbing to learn that the so called civilized nations watched as million Jews were exterminated.This article has helped me to be assertive and not to sit at the fence when fellow humans are subjected so suffering and death.We can all learn to say NO to evildoers,and agents of death regardless of the consequences.We must all rise up and say no to Holocaust.No to Auschwitz.No to antisemitism.God forbid.
.It is godly to resist evil by all means.
It seems the world again is silent when antisemitism is taking root.
By choosing to respond to this article I believe I'm making my sentiments known and urging all the Jews and the Jew state to rise up and depend themselves with no apologies to anybody.
The all world is a big bystander.
.We must all say with courage, a big No to barbarism of prejudice,and hatred.
Holocaust commemoration is a fresh wound,not a scar to survivors because, more Jews are murdered in this current so called civilized era.Antisemitism must be stopped by all..Nations.It is a sad reminder to all humans that evil nature must never be allowed to rule us..Apologies will not change history which sadly seems to repeat itself before our eyes.
Let all people of good will resist the barbarism of racism and hatred.
(9) Raymond, January 26, 2020 5:03 PM
What Would Socrates Say?
Those reading my words here who are relatively young, may not have heard of the case of Kitty Genovese. Back in 1964, she was physically attacked, raped, and murdered in full view of dozens of bystanders over in New York, who did nothing to help her despite her many cries for help. The world was shocked by this display of utter indifference, and from it was borne the phrase "The Bystander Effect." In essence, it means that each witness to a crime thinks that their fellow citizens will do something to help, and meanwhile, as a consequence of handing the responsibilities to somebody else, nothing is done to save the victim. Well, that is what the Holocaust was all about, only six million times as bad, and made even worse in that those mass murders were official government policy. What that philosophy professor said was utter foolishness, but how embarrassing that she has such an identifiably Jewish name. It is bad enough when the world forgets the Holocaust, but how much worse it is when one of our fellow Jews either forgets the Holocaust, or displays such indifference toward it. And the fact that she is a philosophy professor, tells me that philosophy these days, at least as taught in most of our universities these days, does not teach wisdom. Socrates must be turning over in his grave.
Annie, January 29, 2020 12:22 AM
Urban Myth, it didn't happen.
The Kitty Genovese case happened, but the idea that people watched her being raped and murdered and did nothing is false.
She was followed and stabbed in the back, and screamed but was able to get up and walk away (this often happens with people who are stabbed in the back) A man leaned out of a window and shouted to the assailant 'Leave that girl alone !' The assailant fled but returned and caught Kitty in a place where no one could see or hear anything, robbed and killed her. She couldn't escape because the door to the building was locked.
People did call the police.
The bystanders doing nothing was in a newspaper story that has been exposed as a total fabrication but the legend lives on.
Anonymous, January 29, 2020 4:42 AM
My Point Remains the Same
Even assuming your words to be true, that does not change my point about the pitfalls of indifference, particularly when innocent human lives are at stake.
Annie, February 4, 2020 2:58 AM
Your point is pointless
You are using a false story about a real person to make a point, and the falsity makes it meaningless.
Enough has been written about the Kitty Genovese case and the fact that the story about the murder being seen was a fabrication by a newspaper, Google it and you will see that I am righr.
Raymond, February 9, 2020 5:31 AM
Details Are Not the Point
The story is meaningless only if you focus on the details rather than on the larger, and far more important, point.
(8) RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG, January 26, 2020 4:02 PM
HOLOCAUST CAN HAPPEN AGAIN
ANOTHER HOLOCAUST CAN HAPPEN. WE MUST BE VIGILENT. IF G-d forbid Israel were to lose one war, that would be a holocaust. Yehudah Bauer , the holocaust historian, said if it happened once, it can happen again .
I often write about the uniqueness of the Holocaust and state that the Holocaust is completely different from other genocides.
This position is controversial to some people. There are those who believe that the only way to preserve the memory of the Holocaust is by making it a universal lesson regarding the tribulations throughout the world.
Whether I am right or wrong, only our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will know. Seventy-five years from when the last of the Holocaust survivors are gone I predict that regardless of Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Museum, and all the other museums and books, the memory of the Holocaust will not be preserved. It will be regarded as just another genocide in the history of genocides.
Unless we preserve the memory of the Holocaust and tie it to Jewish observance and ritual by including the Holocaust in prayer service or, as I have done, creating a Holocaust the Holocaust will become a mere date in history. It has to be tied into a revitalized Judaism to keep it alive.
I for one, at this point in my life, no longer stress the pain, suffering and horrors of the Holocaust. Today I speak of the importance of learning about the heroic individuals who survived the Holocaust to make better lives for themselves and their families. Many Holocaust survivors have created synagogues, yeshivot and day schools and still support them financially.
We need to learn about those who resisted the Nazis, not only about the crematoriums. The memory of the Holocaust will be kept alive by future generations if we have pride in the accomplishments of the survivors and preserve Judaism.
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
EDISON
(7) miriam Cohen, January 26, 2020 3:45 PM
Fear leads people to self preservation.
I can not completely agree with this. Yes many Germans went along because they were anti semitic ar heart. But the Nazis ruled with fear and punishment. It takes great courage to resist. If you read the history, this was a government that took away every political right.
Anonymous, January 29, 2020 12:30 AM
They couldn't have done this if the people had refused to allow them; that's making excuses for the Germans.
Hitler's Willing Executioners by Daniel Goldhagen was a real revelation, or rather a confirmation of what I suspected.
(6) Anonymous, January 26, 2020 3:30 PM
Never Again
To mot be passive is to call out when we see anti semitism in print write a rebuttal article have shoftim in areas that are doing violence strike them where they stand we have to do what they do write articles post article utube articles every sort of message has to be put out there in all news papers at universities we need that kind of blitz like the haters
(5) Mointy Pogoda, January 26, 2020 3:21 PM
A very "to the point" article
Absolutely correct!
(4) Mario Zamora, January 26, 2020 3:20 PM
Many contributing factors
Both indifference and collaboration and many other factors can contribute to another Auschwitz. Hate, ignorance, negligence on our side, convenience, etc.
(3) Hilel Salomon, January 26, 2020 3:10 PM
Perpetrators, Collaborators and Shruggers all Contributed
Yes, the actual Nazis were the main culprits. But those who helped and collaborated share the responsibility. I, however, hold a large amount of hatred for those-like Roosevelt- who did nothing. My greatest animus is for those Jews, like Frankfurter, Sulzberger, and the Hollywood Moguls, who simply shrugged while other Jews were in or headed to the death camps. I see the same kind of indifference when religious Jews are attacked in Brooklyn, on campuses and elsewhere. Rockets from Hamas elicit yawns from these people.
Rachel, January 26, 2020 5:36 PM
Survivors and Vets
My in-laws are Holocaust survivors. They are thankful for the Allied forces, including my father and uncles, who defeated the Nazis and saved their lives. Roosevelt was commander-in-chief of American forces. That is hardly "doing nothing". There were many films (Watch on the Rhine, Casablanca, etc) that show the rising Nazi evil.
There were also people who did not "resist" in the sense of sabotaging the Nazi forces but who quietly did what they could to save Jews. My father-in-law and his brother were saved by nuns who ran a Catholic orphanage and claimed these little Jewish boys were French war orphans.
Barbara, January 27, 2020 11:00 AM
Roosevelt's disdain for Jews is well documented!
Read any reliable history book you may choose, Rachel, and you'll understand how many opportunities that man purposely missed to save Jewish victims of the Nazis, ym"s.
As commander-in-chief, he did not enter WWII to liberate the Jews, as you seem to imply! (After all, even the Russians -- no great Judeophiles! -- liberated Aushwitz.)
My parents were Holocaust survivors whose American relatives told them that their reliance on Roosevelt (a Democrat who garnered a high percentage of the Jewish vote) was sorely misplaced!!
Rachel, January 27, 2020 4:38 PM
US entry to war
I am not implying that the US entered the war out of concern for Jews. We entered following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, whereupon Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, also became our enemies.
National policy does not diminish the heroism of American troops fighting in Europe and the Pacific. Furthermore, many Americans on the homefront worked for the war effort in ways large and small.
Raymond, January 27, 2020 6:00 PM
FDR and the Jews
When FDR was President, ironically both his strongest Jewish supporters as well as his biggest, antisemitic detractors, referred to him as Franklin Delano Rosenfelt. They regarded him as being so pro-Jewish, that they claimed him to be Jewish himself.
Of course such a claim was silly nonsense, but my own mother was a huge fan of FDR at the time. My mother detested politics, but she did acknowledge how disappointed she was when she eventually found out that FDR was not the good friend to the Jews that she had been led to believe that he was.
My take on it is that I have a mixed view on this issue. On the negative side, yes, he refused to bomb the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz, refused to meet with more than 100 Orthodox Rabbis who had converged on the White House to plead with him to rescue the Jews of Europe, sent back to their deaths those more than 900 Jews aboard the ship St Louis who had sought refuge in America, and only entered the war when he was forced to by Pearl Harbor. On the positive side, he did choose some Jews to serve on the Supreme Court and, far more importantly, he did eventually enter the war and defeat the nazis. I cannot help but be moved by those scenes I have seen of concentration camp survivors being liberated by the Allied forces.
On balance, I consider FDR to have very likely been an antisemite. In fact, I have avoided reading books on this subject, because it is so painful to contemplate. I consider myself to be a strong political conservative, but it still disturbs me to think that any of our Presidents could have hated our Jewish people to such an extreme extent. Yes, I understand that Jimmy Carter is without a doubt a terrible antisemite, but the difference is that I don't think that Carter's antisemitism has caused Jews to die, while FDR's antisemitism caused countless Jews to die. Frankly, it is heartbreaking to fully acknowledge this tragic fact of history.
Anonymous, January 28, 2020 3:42 PM
Agreed!
Many Jews share your feelings about FDR, ym"s.
Hilel Salomon, January 28, 2020 3:42 PM
Roosevelt and the Holocaust
Roosevelt did much more damage than merely refuse to bomb Auschwitz. He conspired with the British to prevent Jews from being able to leave Europe and enter either Britain or the U.S. As for choosing Jews and being friendly with some of them, that was useless and counterproductive. Jan Karski who was giving an eyewitness account of the killing of Jews to Roosevelt, Felix Frankfurter and Congress, was asked by Roosevelt about the condition of horses in Poland without mentioning Jews. He was kicked out of Frankfurter's office and called a liar (later Frankfurter denied calling him a liar and claimed that "he simply didn't believe Karski). I'm not a conservative, but I do believe that Carter and Obama are indeed anti-Semites. Roosevelt, however, was a monster.
Raymond, January 29, 2020 4:40 AM
The Bitter Truth
Wow, so FDR's antisemitism was even worse than I thought. And the fact that you yourself are not a conservative, and thus presumably an Alan Dershowitz Liberal (meaning, you are one of the few good Democrats left) gives that much more power to your words. Thank you for valuing truth over political affiliation.
btw, both of my parents were Democrats (definitely of the good kind), but when i was still a teenager, I switched over to the Republican Party, precisely over the issue of Israel. At the time, I compared Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan on one side, and the notorious Jimmy Carter on the other side, when it comes to Israel, and concluded that the Republicans are the real pro-Israel political party. My contention at that time has since been demonstrated to be even more true than I had imagined it was. Watching Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson talk about Israel also had enormous influence over me in that regard, although of course as a Jew, I categorically reject their specific Christian theology.
Anonymous, January 29, 2020 12:33 AM
IBM provided the technology for the Holocaust and Thomas Watson who ran it was given the German version of a knighthood !
His punc card system made it possible to organise slave labour and other things.
(2) waljay, January 26, 2020 3:09 PM
Wrong again. The road to annihilation lies in fear of self defense. The killer strikes those that are unable to resist. Jews hate guns. So they stand around like sheep and ask others to feel sorry for them.
BB S, January 27, 2020 11:12 AM
You're the one who's wrong!
You evidently do NOT know any facts about pre-WWII Jewish history in Europe; otherwise, you couldn't possibly have made such a hatefully insensitive, stereotyped, and overwhelmingly ignorant comment, "Waljay"!
Raymond, January 27, 2020 5:39 PM
One Tin Soldier Rides Away
I am a proud Jew who does not regard Waljay's words to be hateful, insensitive, stereotypical, or ignorant at all. On the contrary, his words are close enough to the truth so as to be worthy of our consideration and contemplation.
About the most I can say against his words, is that they are oversimplistic. No Jew goes willingly to his death. It is not as if the six million Jews had any choice to live. But this was due in large part to gun confiscation. adolf hitler may have been pure evil, but he was not stupid. He made sure to first take away everybody's guns, before he implemented his FInal Soluation against our Jewish people. He knew that had the six million Jews had guns, the Holocaust would have never been heard of, because it would not have been able to happen in the first place. One of the most important lessons to take from the Holocaust is how critically important it is for all of us Jews to have the means by which to physically defend our lives against the countless antisemites of our world..
Anonymous, January 28, 2020 3:38 PM
Essentially, you agree that Jews couldn't have defended themselves!
Why, then, do you ignore Waljay's rather odious remark that "... they {Jews] stand around like sheep and ask others to feel sorry for them"?
We Jews unfortunately know first-hand the truth of "Esav hates Yaakov," so we're not about to ask for pity from anti-Semites who want us to forget the Holocaust, probably to facilitate perpetrating another one, chas v'shalom!
This assumption is not merely an example of "persecution complex" (as some will undoubtedly call it) since we can clearly see what's happening around the globe.
(1) RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG, January 26, 2020 2:55 PM
EXCELLENT ARTICLE
excellent article. Rabbi BLECH IS A MENTOR AND WAS MY TEACHER AT Y.U. , JSS. I AN A CHILD OF SURVIVORS