If you’ve ever taken a history class, you’ll know that one of the main reasons we are taught history is so that we do not repeat the blunders and often grievous errors that those before us have made. One of the subjects that exemplifies this concept of teaching history to avoid repeating it is the Holocaust, where some 11 million individuals received a merciless death, six million of whom were Jewish. There are very few people who would dispute the absolute horror that was the Holocaust. And yet, in Europe we are seeing the fire behind the Holocaust begin to rise up again--making many people fairly concerned.
I’m going to give a very brief history of antisemitism. Antisemitism goes back as far as 2,000 years ago--first with the Romans, then largely in a Christian Europe by rulers who were offended by the Jews' rejection of Jesus as the son of God. Christians even went so far as to blame the Jews for the death of Jesus, which is now broadly accepted as the result of a political clash between Jesus and the Romans. Even before the Holocaust, the Jews were subject to violent hate crimes called pogroms in Poland and Russia during the latter half of the 18th century. While these events may or may not have been endorsed by the government, they certainly were not stopped by them.
Why have these people been the channel through which so much hate and blame has been funneled? There is no logical reason except to say that humans always need someone to blame for something, and a term very commonly used to describe the Jews in terms of those who discriminate against them, is that they were a scapegoat--they were there, so they became Europe’s personal punching bag. Hate is taught, not hardwired into a child’s DNA. For this reason, and based upon the antisemitic uprisings in Europe, I’m going to conclude that there is a great deal of hate being taught there. The proof for this is in the numbers. While they vary from source to source, I will give you ballpark estimates. From 2013-2014, the number of antisemitic acts rose form about 423-851, in Britain 535-1168, and in Germany 788-1,036. What chills me in particular is that there are large numbers of these events occurring in Germany, the very place where you would think there would be absolutely no tolerance for it.
I understand that the population of Europe at large does not endorse antisemitism, but enough citizens do so so that according to the President of the European Jewish Congress, a mass exodus of up to 2.5 million Jews from Europe can be expected to occur over the next decade--and if that many Jews feel unsafe, something is deeply amiss. Last year, I had the opportunity to run a Google hangout session with Holocaust survivor Jacqueline Mendels Birn. While she now resides in America, I asked her how some of her friends, also fellow Holocaust survivors, felt about the rise of antisemitism in Europe. She responded that while her friends were aware of the situation, they were at a point in their lives where they would not move out of the country. It is said that there is no such thing as fair, but I would like to say that in the case of Ms. Birn’s friends, their situation is extremely unfair. Almost every Jew was affected by the Holocaust, and even today there are many people who still feel the loss that their families endured during that time. For those who were not personally affected by the Holocaust, I would compare what they may be feeling to if there was reasonable evidence that an attack similar to 9/11 would occur again in our country. This is something that I’m sure instills dread in the heart of many Americans and most would never want to repeat. Europe understands that this is a serious problem, and the European Union’s vice president Frans Timmerans has been cited as saying, "This is unacceptable. I thought we knew better. I wouldn't have thought this would be possible 20 years ago. But it is happening again." As the European Union seeks to combat the rising antisemitic atmosphere, “The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution “regarding the safety and security of Jewish communities in Europe.”
Exactly what the EU and America have in mind to combat the rise of antisemitism, I am unsure. Personally, I feel acute distress regarding this situation, because I know from my education and from what I’ve learned about Europe’s education system that the Holocaust is extensively discussed and taught from an extremely negative point of view, and I’m not sure what more can be done to stress the serious nature of it. Possibly, the world has become desensitized to the Holocaust--I know that to a point I was and have been. At first, learning about the Holocaust is shocking. But when it is discussed year after year, the shock factor that accompanies it begins to dull. Or perhaps we are concerned about sheltering children and young adults from the grisly images and videos that reporters obtained, and the Nazis meticulously documented. However, I believe that once students enter high school, the time of sheltering them from the full reality of the Holocaust must cease, and for me, the Holocaust never impacted me more than when I viewed this media. History is teetering on the edge of repeating itself, and as informed citizens, we all have a responsibility to prevent it from happening.
