Two stories made the headlines this past week – and to my mind there is an ironic connection between them.
The first is a revelation about one of the chief architects of the Holocaust. It was never disclosed until now but it serves as a remarkable and fascinating footnote to Israel’s execution of Adolf Eichmann for his unspeakable crimes against humanity and the Jewish people. In the aftermath of Eichmann’s trial which found him guilty of a major role in the death of 6 million, we now learn that he sent a letter pleading for his life and a pardon on the grounds that “I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty.” He was only, as he went on to say, “acting under orders” – the very same justification used by his codefendants at the Nuremberg trials.
No guilt, no remorse, no repentance – because Eichmann was able to rationalize the most barbaric acts perpetrated by the Nazi regime under his direction.
No guilt, no remorse, no repentance – because Eichmann was able to rationalize the most barbaric acts perpetrated by the Nazi regime under his direction. In his evil mind, an excuse was sufficient for self-justification; a reason warranted absolution and forgiveness.
The letter, handwritten by Eichmann in German, and other original documents from the case, were made public for the first time last Wednesday by Israel’s current president, Reuven Rivlin, during an event to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The then Israeli president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi rejected Eichmann’s plea. The hanging of Adolf Eichmann, the only time Israel ever carried out capital punishment, was meant to send a clear message to the world and to future generations that unmitigated evil dare not seek to be pardoned by rationalizations and that no explanations may ever be considered cause for justification.
In a handwritten note attached by Ben-Zvi to the telegram rejecting Eichmann’s appeal, the president wrote a biblical quotation: “But Samuel said, ‘As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women” (Samuel I 15:33).
Absolute evil requires condemnation, without explanation or qualification.
The revelation of Eichmann’s letter, especially as it coincided with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was a stark reminder of a truth the world needs desperately to recognize if it hopes to avoid a repetition of the tragedy which blackens the memory of the twentieth century: Absolute evil requires condemnation, without explanation or qualification.
And then, in an unparalleled irony which brings into question the very legitimacy of the United Nations, the Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon made clear that it is precisely this very idea that he neither accepts nor comprehends.
In response to the contemporary violence and terrorism plaguing Israel – terrorism of almost unimaginable cruelty – Ban Ki-Moon expressed his reaction to these horrific acts as events which need to be understood as “only human nature in response to the occupation.” They may on the surface seem wrong, he explains, but we can’t forget that Palestinian terrorism has a reason. It is no less than a response to Israeli provocation – and the meaning of its response, in all of its manifold perorations, according to Ban Ki-Moon, is nothing less than “human nature.”
Let’s try to absorb the full meaning of the Secretary-General’s slander against our supposedly human – and God given – nature. Webster’s dictionary is a good place to start. Human nature, Webster’s tells us, is “the ways of thinking, feeling and acting that are common to most people.”
So “common to most people” would be some of these recent Palestinian expressions of politically motivated response to grievances:
- Stabbing a mother to death in front of her six children
- critically wounding thirteen-year-old boy by stabbing him while on his bicycle
- murdering Jews whose only crime aside from their identity as Jews was to gather together for prayer in a synagogue
- randomly shooting to death people enjoying a coffee in a Tel Aviv café
The list goes on in gruesome and horrifying detail. It is a story of ceaseless cruelty which ought to shock the civilized mind by its depravity.
But this is what the Secretary-General of the United Nations, an organization ostensibly created to bring about the best of human kind, really believes is the truth of human nature – a truth which can then explain the prevalence of evil as nothing more than an expression of our innate and unalterable state of being.
For anyone who shares the biblical belief that human kind was created in the image of God, we dare not excuse evil behavior with the rationalization that we are really no better. Human nature at its source is rooted in our spiritual essence. Our souls seek to do good. True, free will allows the possibility of evil. But it can only sicken us when we see how people pervert their spiritual essence and ignore their divinely granted real “human nature”.
The Holocaust was made possible by people who felt their evil could be excused, that their crimes could be justified. How sad that 70 years later, the spokesman for the nations of the world repeats the same canard camouflaged only by slightly different verbiage. It would be tragic if we didn’t react with well-deserved outrage at the suggestion that by our “human nature” we could readily commit cruel acts of violence and murder – because a world which agrees with that obscene proposition would be but a step away from making it a reality.
(20) Harold Schafer, February 24, 2016 6:26 AM
Ask the leader of the joke called the UN if he would allow his wife or children to be shot or stabbed while the moron Moon watched - that may wake him up ("doubtful").
(19) KATHLEEN Ann Dahnke Nottestad, February 2, 2016 5:36 AM
The more things change the more they stay the same
The movie of Ann Frank when I first viewed it I was an adult - early on in the film when HITLERS barbaric hench men were taking JEWS from their homes and this one young innocent Jewish women ask very kindly one of the soldiers when they would arrive @ their destination - his answer was he executed her - I could no longer watch - it was years before I watched it in entirety. My question that still lingers with me today - was that sweet young women was she spared hell here on earth vs leaving - this to often barbaric world behind - was that not a gift - I believe she immediately was in heaven - that is how I view death
Those who are heaven bound do not and should not fear death -
so this precious young women never had to experience the crimes committed against man kind - now more than ever before I see more evil and have been targeted for many years by people who feel they have some right to invade another's home and claim what does NOT belong to them - when searching for someone to enforce just basic rights - a women in charge of the village I live in - after seeking help or direction - said What did you do to DESERVE this - Do you know who they are? I answered they are strictly back doorers - No one has confronted you? NO - I believe if the truth be known I am Jewish and the evil done back in WWII was in your face and now they know who to target and the same things I have experienced here in the USA - is the continuation of what has now been going on behind the scene and my letters seeking help have been blocked - the police say NO ONE ELSE has this problem. REALLY and what may I ask does that have to do with my reliving the exact things the NAZI'S believed they could and did have a right to - BECAuse they can! Bury their heads and chose NOT to acknowledge Evil. USA Judicial system lacks Justice, . - MY silver lining all will meet their maker - Justice will prevail - it's sad humans don't seem to get it until it's at their front door.
(18) William, February 2, 2016 1:52 AM
above story
How more ironic can it get? Eichmann pleading not guilty on the grounds that "...I was just following orders..."!? Orders from whom? Adolf Hitler, the supreme leader? All the Nazis were protesting their innocence in Nuremburg! There were stories that even Hitler did not know what was happening in those death camps! Really? Maybe. And, if Hitler ever faced a court of law, who would he blame for what had happened under his watch? As for the UNO, it became an absolute "toothless tiger" in the eyes of the world, if not worthless institution, solely in the hands of the Muslim world. Just to think: how many reprimands were issued against the Jewish State, the only democratic state in the Middle East, in the past 20 years vs the reprimands issued against the Muslim states, in that same period? Talk about even-handedness! What a joke! The less said, the better!
(17) Helen Schwab (Chaiah), February 1, 2016 9:07 PM
Thank you for writing this.
Clear and to the point.
(16) avi alon, February 1, 2016 2:12 PM
The stabbings of innocent people does not justify any nationalist movement.
(15) Bobby5000, February 1, 2016 2:12 PM
no more holocaust comparisons please
The U.S. government is like the Nazis persecuting gun-owners, Obama is a Nazi, Trump is a Nazi, environmental regulations reflect more Gestapo policies.
Condemn Ban-chi Moon, call him biased and anti-Israel, note that he ignores serious problems in Arab countries, note the pervasive discrimination against Jews in Iran and Yemen, but please no baseless Nazi comparisons for that undermines rather than helps your message.
Do note that the same people who invoke these comparisons with Israel resist them with others . When a sports person called a policy slavery, we all thought it silly.
Ely, February 2, 2016 10:02 PM
what holocaust comparison
Bobby, there wasn't any accusation that Ban is like a nazi. It was pointing out that people how rationalize evil - taking an extreme case of a well known nazi justifying mass murder of innocent people and comparing it with Ban who is also justifying, strangely enough, mass murder of innocents. There is a very accurate comparison here.
Just because you are sick of people making inappropriate nazi comparisons doesn't mean that we should stop learning from history.
(14) Mika krok, February 1, 2016 12:02 PM
And what this little man
at the UNO has to say about the cruelty and assassinations of innocent of these IS ? Are they too answering to crimes of all humanity ?
(13) Shoshana-Jerusalem, February 1, 2016 10:46 AM
"Palestinians"
The above article is really excellent.
I just wish that the word "Palestinian" would be taken out of our vocabulary. There is not and never was a Palestinian people. There was never a Palestinian state. The whole thing is one big lie, used against Israel.
And what "occupation"? Doesn't anyone remember that when the Six Day War started the Arabs had the pre-1967 boarders? Including the Old City, the Golan Heights, Yehudah and Shomron, Kever Rachel, etc.
So why did they start the war? They were frustrated because of the "occupation"? No. To "push Israel into the sea", in the words
of Nasser. And we, thank G-d, won the war.
And we handed the Gaza Strip, with it's beautiful and flourishing
Gush Katif, to them on a silver platter and they turned it into a rats nest.
Doesn't Ban Ki or anyone remember this quite recent history?.
(12) Anonymous, February 1, 2016 6:41 AM
misprint
The source of the beautiful quote from Shmuel A was transcribed incorrectly. It should be Samuel I, 15, 33.
(11) Anonymous, February 1, 2016 6:29 AM
More words from Ban Ki-Moon -- worth considering
From The New York Times 1-31-16 (concerning response to his earlier comments):
"Some sought to shoot the messenger — twisting my words into a misguided justification for violence. The stabbings, vehicle rammings and other attacks by Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians are reprehensible. So, too, are the incitement of violence and the glorification of killers.
"Nothing excuses terrorism. I condemn it categorically.
"It is inconceivable, though, that security measures alone will stop the violence. As I warned the Security Council last week, Palestinian frustration and grievances are growing under the weight of nearly a half-century of occupation. Ignoring this won’t make it disappear. No one can deny that the everyday reality of occupation provokes anger and despair, which are major drivers of violence and extremism and undermine any hope of a negotiated two-state solution."
Anonymous, February 1, 2016 2:20 PM
About "occupation"
Read Shoshana's comment (13) about "occupation".
(10) Howard Sanshuck, February 1, 2016 3:16 AM
Eichmann and The Head of the UN
Eichmann deserved his punishment and he deserves whatever is happening to him on the other side. I know that Judaism believes in reincarnation yet know that some one with a soul that tainted with evil could never be reincarnated into an innocent baby just born. The head of the UN is not evil in that sense. Just saying that the intransigence he sees in the Israelis justifies Palestinians attacking and murdering innocent people is no where near the evil of Eichmann. Before you condemn Eichmann what would have happened to one of the Hebrews ordered to attack Amalek but ( if such a person exited!) refused because he felt it was wrong? His Neshama would eventually come to reside in the body of a great Tsaddick for his righteous refusal to murder in cold blood.
(9) Elyahu Ben Moshe, February 1, 2016 2:42 AM
Hatred and Antisemitism
The Holocaust was mainly the doing of Germany.
But today many countries, and especially Europe, hate us.
They rationalize their hatred as usual. We can only rely on
Hashem. May He help us.
(8) H.E.Brown, January 31, 2016 11:46 PM
Making excuses for evil.
I guess there will always be those making excuses for evil? Noticed in the news for example that maybe O.J.Simpson has brain damage from playing football. That could be why he murdered. If you get the meaning. I guess no one is responsible for their actions. Just survival of the fittest? Then no one is responsible for anything. Excuses excuses.
(7) Moriah, January 31, 2016 8:34 PM
The Essence of Amalek
"For the Hand is on the throne of G-d: Hashem maintains a war against Amalek from generation to generation." Rambam and R Bachya explain the plain meaning of the verse as a reference to Jewish kings. As long as a Jew's hand, i.e., power, is on the the royal throne, he must carry on G-d's war against Amalek.(from Artscroll Chumash, commentary, parshah Beshalach 17:15.) Imagine if Yassar Arafat had been destroyed as he rightly should have been when they brought him back from Tunis. How much less misery would have been brought to the world.
(6) Hirsh, January 31, 2016 7:43 PM
Get US out of the UN
The UN was not a good idea gone bad. From it's formation, the first Secretary General was Alger Hiss, a Soviet Spy. Ever wonder why each country got one vote no matter how big or how much support it pledged yet the Soviet Union got three votes?
We need to immediately get US OUT of the UN and get the UN OUT of the US!
(5) J. F, January 31, 2016 4:58 PM
Irrational Ban Ki moon
How would you feel Ban Ki Moon for this comment:
The distruction of the submarine in South Korea by North Korea is a natural and understandable reaction due to South Korea's aggressive provocations. It is the right of North Korea to protect itself against the nasty democratic obssessive will to fight the Saint people of the great North Korean Communist country.
Of course that we aould be angry and outraged by such comments Mr Moon. G-od help our South Korean dear friends and protect them from the North.
You are biased and anti-Semitic and distort the truth. What a pitty...
(4) S.A.MILLMAN, January 31, 2016 4:28 PM
It is no surprise that a large majority in the UN is anti Israel. Especially when the appearance of it comes from the white house. The corrupt UN fails to mention that the Christians in the middle east are being slaughtered by muslims and do nothing to stop them. The only place in the middle east where Jews and Christians and other religions are safe is in Israel, however that is never mentioned in the corrupt halls of the UN. The UN wants Israel to give up land and cut their borders to such a narrow area that it would be next to impossible to defend. Where were all of these countries after WW1 when borders were changed and the winners expanded at the cost of the loosers. All the middle east Arab countries have failed in total to accept any Palestinians into their country as citizens they make them live in tent cities however in Israel all religions are welcome to join and be part of Israel as citizens, this as well is never recognized by the corrupt UN. So my feeling is this, Israel should do whatever it has to do to survive no matter what the UN or their minions say or feel .
(3) Edmond Richter, January 31, 2016 4:24 PM
Ban Ki Moon accused of war crimes
Ban Ki Moon accused of war crimes!
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/207137#.Vq40Zd9PbMX
(2) Ari, January 31, 2016 2:11 PM
Why am I not surprised?!
This isn't the first time the idiots at the UN have come up with such ridiculous statements. They've never made those excuses when Israelis kill Palestinians (the ones who ignore the written warnings from the IDF to get out of harm's way and choose to be human shields). The United Nutcases have a reputation for being one sided with regard to Israel.
(1) Anonymous, January 31, 2016 12:29 PM
no excuses for any violences
There should not be any excuses for all terrors and violences against the innocences. Thank you Rabbi for describing them very clearly here.