Seventy-four years ago, in July 1936, a Jewish journalist from Prague named Stefan Lux burst into the hall of the League of Nations in Geneva. Like many European Jews at the time, Lux was driven to anguish and even madness by the world's indifference to the eruption of anti-Semitism throughout the continent and especially in Nazi Germany. The international community, though, reacted indifferently to the scourge. Indeed, the League was engaged with a long list of issues -- most notably Italy's annexation of Ethiopia -- but not the mounting mortal threat to European Jews. Desperate to draw global attention to Jewry's plight, Lux staged the ultimate demonstration: He ran to the podium, shouted, "C'est le dernier coup!" -- This is the final blow! -- and, producing a pistol, shot himself dead.
Lux's sacrifice was, of course, futile. Wrought by anti-Semitism, his death could be counted among the six million Jews -- together with twice that number of Poles, Christian clergy, homosexuals and Gypsies -- slaughtered in what we collectively call the Holocaust. Still, history's greatest atrocity might have been easily averted had the League of Nations interceded in time or even at all. Subsequent acts of genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur were met with similar detachment. Nevertheless, the international community is today largely united around the conviction that silence in the face of mass annihilation is unconscionable. A prominent example of this conviction was rendered by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 in designating January 27 -- the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation -- as the International Day of Holocaust Commemoration.
Many events will mark this occasion worldwide, including state visits by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Poland and Germany to lay wreaths at memorials and concentration camp sites. Here in Washington, some 60 ambassadors will assemble in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and hear addresses from Holocaust survivors and historians, while the White House will send a Presidential Delegation to Krakow, the scene of one of Poland's deadliest ghettos.
Such actions are crucial not only for perpetuating the memories of those who perished but from preventing additional massacres in the future. Even as delegates gathered this week to mourn the Holocaust's victims, a Polish bishop and professor assailed the Jews for exploiting the Holocaust as "a weapon of propaganda used to obtain benefits which are often unjustified." And while it's worthy to applaud the United Nations for initiating a Holocaust Commemoration Day, we should not forget that the U.N. recently hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust's veracity and called for the elimination of another six million Jews (in Israel).
Anti-Semitism, too, remains rampant in many parts of the world, including Europe. The United Nations has also made a significant contribution to the fight against this oldest of hatreds by recognizing anti-Semitism as a form of racism. Still, immense efforts must be mounted to prevent the airing of TV programs based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and to dispel pernicious myths such as Jewish dominance of international finance and the media. Younger generations, in particular, vastly removed from the realities of World War II, must be reminded that the road originating in venomous words led to the ovens of Auschwitz.
By devoting substantive resources to the fight against anti-Semitism and, more broadly, acknowledging the continuing perils of genocide, the Obama Administration has set an example of how other countries can work to prevent 21st century recurrences of the Holocaust. The United Nations and other world bodies have also recognized the danger and have rallied to meet it. Much more energy must be channeled, however, and awareness raised, on the hatred of Jews and other minorities and its potentially murderous consequences. Stefan Lux -- whose name, fittingly, is Latin for "light" -- tried to expose the horrors emanating from indifference. We, more than seven decades later, must never lose sight of that beacon.
I also believe that anti-semitism occurs when people fail to distinguish between someone who's Jewish, and someone who's a Revisionist Zionist. It's like using Jerry Falwell to base an opinion of the typical Christian, or the 9/11 hijackers as the typical Muslim.
I question the Israeli Government's actions in the West Bank and Gaza, but in no way would I use it to form a broad generalization on the humanity of the Jewish people.
I am heartbroken to see what happened at that Californian University, I am worried about the future of America.
About a million Jews were ethnically cleansed from Middle East . Most were disposed, deprived of their properties, homes businesses and money.
Pogroms, arbitrary arrests and mass expulsion became common. Many were killed in pogroms and governmntal torture and arrests..
Here's a website of an organization of Middle Eastern and African Jews who seek recognition and redress of the wrongs:
http://www.jimena.org/
Their statement:
JIMENA seeks recognition for the nearly one million Jews indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa who were displaced from their country of origin.
JIMENA is dedicated to the preservation of Mizrahi and Sephardi culture and history.
A good read on the subject of Jewish Naqba --- "The Lost World of the Egyptian Jews: First-person Accounts from Egypt's Jewish Community In the Twentieth Century."
Review:
"As a professional historian, I found the material of immense potential scholarly value. As a Jew who left Egypt during the 1956 Suez crisis, it touches me in a deep and personal way. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the forces that affect cultural dynamics, political conflict and, last but not least, human nature.”
—Jean Marc R. Oppenheim, PHD, Teachers College, Columbia University
On May 15 I will be with Palestinian friends to do the same for Nakba day.
What short memories our benighted species seems to have.
Remembering the suffering of all is the
first step to finding
peace.
Read Gideon Levys take on the Holocaust rememberence media blitz by Israel.
"Wednesday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and an Israeli public relations drive like this hasn't been seen for ages. The timing of the unusual effort - never have so many ministers deployed across the globe - is not coincidental: When the world is talking Goldstone, we talk Holocaust, as if out to blur the impression. When the world talks occupation, we'll talk Iran as if we wanted them to forget. "
Why does Israel work closely with Turkey in the United States to squash any recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Congress? Are the mass deaths of Jews more important than the mass deaths of any other human beings?
Their motivation for this is entirely realpolitik, not racial. They need Turkey as an ally.
Do you have actual, verifiable research on your entertainment and financial staement?
I hear that tossed around, but where are authoritative reports?
Sony Entertainment - NOT Jewish
Many banks and/or investment companies are NOT Jewish
Even if they WERE, blaming "the Jews" IS anti-Semitic
I own no stock in any entertainment or financial company, and neither do the overwhelming number of my co-religionists
Chances are, you do have your funds invested in these sectors...you just don't know about it.
I HAVE seen the claim that Jews don't care about others made by anti-Semites
Do Jews think about their own losses first? Of course! It's called "being human"
In the early '90s I attended a Holocaust commemoration being held by a Rom (Gypsy) group for whom a friend was working as a lawyer. No mention was made - nor did I expect any to be made - of the suffering of any group other than their own
"among the six million Jews -- together with twice that number of Poles, Christian clergy, homosexuals and Gypsies "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/israel-turkish-prime-mini_n_436727.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/25/israeli-report-says-anti_n_435245.html
The vast majority of posters will not hear your words. They will hear the word "anti-semitism" and immediately ignore everything else, and will start talking about Israeli politics, accuse the Jews of "exploiting" anti-Semitism, start complaining about the etymology of the word, and otherwise. Few, if any, will think about what you are saying. I wish it were not so, but that seems to be the case.
Certainly makes me think about what Mr Oren is saying.
You should watch it!
It might make you think as well.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/09/israel-foreign-ministry-media
Unfortunately, lessons from the past seem to be ignored today. In 1994, over 800,000 people died in a few months in Rwanda and nothing was done. In the past decade, over 200,000 people have died in Sudan simply for being different than those in power and the international community still struggles to find an efficient response.
Very informative.