Holocaust Remembrance

The European Jewish Congress and Tel Aviv University jointly released surprising new survey findings regarding the state of anti-Semitism worldwide.

According to the survey, anti-Semitism rose in major Western countries throughout 2008, particularly in Germany, Switzerland and Canada, and spiked dramatically in early 2009. The survey also found that without any outside triggers, anti-Semitism remained at high levels even before the onset of the economic crisis or the Israel offensive in Gaza. What’s more, despite efforts at Holocaust education around the world, anti-Semitic perceptions prevailed and the exploitation of Holocaust metaphors and symbols of the Nazi era rose steadily.

The survey also found that synagogues, cemeteries and Holocaust memorials were desecrated in 2008 on a weekly, sometimes even daily basis in many European countries. After dozens of violent incidents, Jewish children increasingly fear being attacked on their way to school or synagogue and need special protection in most European capitals.

This day marks the mournful remembrance of 65 years since the liberation of the infamous Auschwitz death camp. With the end of the Second World War, news of the extent of Nazi determination in pursuing their "Final Solution" become public, as photographs of skeletal survivors of the Nazi death camps were printed in newspapers all over the world.

It was established that through a regularized system of collection, incarceration and slow but steady mass murder the world was relieved of the existence of no fewer than six million Jews.

These were men, women and children whom the Nazis conceived of as sub-human, eminently dispensable, in an urgent need to rid the world of a race of people subsumed by the need to control the international community through their (sub-human) skills, intelligence, creativity, enterprise and expertise expressed through their malign intent to control the world's banking system and news publishing.

A dramatic increase in anti-Semitic incidents and violence against Jews has been recorded during 2009 around the world and especially in Western Europe, according to an annual report authored by the Coordination Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism (CFCA) which was presented Sunday by the Chair of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky.

The report was published ahead of the International Day against Fascism and Anti-Semitism and the Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz which is marked on January 27.

According to the report, an increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents was recorded last year, especially in Western Europe, where 2009 had a record number of violent acts committed since World War II.

More anti-Semitic incidents were recorded during the first three months of 2009 than during the entire previous year – a fact the report attributes to Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip at the end of 2008.

The sharpest increase was reported in France, where 631 anti-Semitic incidents occurred in the first half of 2009 (compared with 474 throughout 2008); Britain came in second with over 600 incidents, while the Netherlands recorded some 100 anti-Semitic acts – same number as the year before.

In addition to the increase in the number of cases, there has also been an escalation in the severity of the acts themselves. Hundreds of incidents were considered extremely violent, and included eight murders – six slain during the terror attack in Mumbai, India; Johanna Justin-Jinich, a Jewish student who was murdered in Connecticut and the security guard that was killed during the attack on the holocaust museum in Washington D.C.

The authors of the report also noted the "modern blood-libel" phenomenon such as the Swedish newspaper article that accused Israel of organ trafficking and anti-Semitic television shows that have been broadcasted in several Muslim countries including Turkey. The report also mentioned the latest allegation of organ trafficking in Haiti.

One of the report's main findings was that some 42% of Western European citizens, mainly from Poland and Spain, believe Jews exploit their past as victims in order to extort money.

Another surprising discovery was an increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents that stem from internal political conflicts ahead of elections, such as those that occurred in Hungary and the Ukraine, with cooperation between radical left factions and Muslim communities.

The report also noted that when governments actively battle Anti-Semitism, it results in cases such as those that occurred in the US, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

The conscience of the world was stricken after the revelations of institutionalized mass murder concentrated on ridding the world of that pestilential race that was responsible for proving its value to humankind in a multitude of ways, from the disproportionate numbers of Jews in all fields of the humanities, the arts and the sciences who contributed outstanding work on behalf of the entire global community.

It was well enough known that even before the end of WWII - and before the liberation of all the Nazi concentration camps that held a minute portion of Europe's Jews that had been successfully annihilated - that their fate appeared of scant concern to those in power, from the sitting Pope, to heads of European states, to humanitarian groups. Disinterest more than adequately demonstrated that little was done to save those Jews, including orphan children, that could be saved.

Ocean-going ships carrying desperate Jews were turned away from one potential safe-haven port to yet another and finally the ships were forced to return their human cargo to certain death.

And then, the creation of the State of Israel, through the initial effort of Great Britain, then the United States and Russia, carrying the votes that would succeed in its establishment, through a UN declaration of partition, paving the way for two states, one Israeli the other Arab. Nothing has been adequately resolved since that time in 1948, to pacify the outrage of the surrounding Arab countries and the festering refugeehood of the Palestinians.

The support that the world had initially bestowed upon worldwide Jewry through acceptance of the Zionist agenda to reclaim the historical Land of Israel for Jews has slowly eroded over the course of the years since then. Anti-Semitism so strenuously condemned and deplored post-war, slowly returned with a vengeance in the past decade, as Holocaust-deniers made their pact with the devil and closet anti-Semites enjoyed a renaissance in Jew-bashing that permitted their public disclosures equating Jews with the old tropes of racist diatribes.

Israel itself now has become the foil for world hatred of Jews. The State's fierce critics claim innocence of any agenda deeper than friendly criticism, helpfully recommending trade and academic boycotts to instruct Israel how best it should behave toward Palestinians whose aim is to ultimately destroy the state and integrate it into a greater whole representative of Arab need, desires and aspirations. The world commends moderation to Israel, while it offers friendly sympathy to Palestinian suffering.

Israel has re-discovered its ancient pain. That it must rely solely on its own resources, for none will be readily forthcoming from outside its immediate Jewish enclosure to facilitate an end to its problems as an embattled state representing a reviled people. This was the lesson of the Holocaust, and it resounds to the present day. It is the legacy that history left to this historical people.

And the measure of the resolve of the Jewish people through the actions and determinations of the State of Israel will stand in stead of exterior enablement, proven to be a will-o-the-wisp. Another lesson in human relations and humanity in a long tradition of such lessons.