At sunset tonight the day of remembrance of the Holocaust, or Shoah as it is called in Hebrew, starts. I will not write much on this matter, others who are considerably more talented than I could ever be have written better than I could on this subject.
However what I will say is this. We must still remember. We must continue to remember even though the time of the direct witnesses to the Shoah are passing from life and into memory.
We must remember not only those who perished or who saw their families destroyed by the Germans and their allies but also how and why the Shoah began and how it proceeded. It did not start with concentration camps or gas chambers or the actions of the Einstatzgruppen. It started with the Jew hatred that was a common currency in German life from long before the rise of the Nazis, even long before the fall of the Kaiser.
This Yom HaShoah will be different from many other Yom HaShoah remembrances and it is different because I see the same ingrained Jew hatred today that sent the Germans on their path to be mass murderers. It is in the ‘Jew knocking’ mobs that go around our towns in Britain seeking to identify Jews in the name of ‘Palestine’, I see it in the rhetoric in the mosques of the West and in the meeting halls of the gilded middle class Western political Left. I refuse to use the word ‘antisemitism’ because it was coined by a German Jew hater. Jew hatred is on the rise again across the West. Many thought that the phrase ‘never again’ when uttered by the leaders of Western nations meant something but it turns out that it often means nothing when Western politicians choose to ignore the Jew hatred that comes from their political allies.
If ‘Never Again’ is to be meaningful then it has to be backed up with power, whether that is Jews organising for themselves in the Galut (diaspora) and having a state in the form of Israel that can defend itself and its people. It means Jews being armed (where legal), Jews being confident and Jews not being wholly trusting of the weasel words of the politicians of the wider world. If the Shoah has taught us anything, then it must be that when we hear someone threatening our lives we should believe them, take seriously what they say and take steps to fight back against them.
Remember. Never Again. Fight back.
Mourners Kaddish (English translation)
May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified (Amen.)
in the world that He created as He willed.
May He give reign to His kingship in your lifetimes and in your days,
and in the lifetimes of the entire Family of Israel,
swiftly and soon. Now respond: Amen.
(Cong Amen. May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.)
May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.
Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled,
mighty, upraised, and lauded be the Name of the Holy One, Blessed is He
(Cong. Blessed is He) beyond any blessing and song,
praise and consolation that are uttered in the world. Now respond: Amen.
May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life
upon us and upon all Israel. Now respond: Amen.
He Who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace,
upon us and upon all Israel. Now respond: Amen.
