by Naim Dangoor
A Reform Rabbi has suggested that the time
has come for the Holocaust not to be commemorated separately,
but to be relegated to the bin of the Ninth of Av, the date
reserved every year for major Jewish tragedies of the past.
Our friends also, seeing how painful the memory
of the Holocaust remains in the Jewish conscience, counsels
us to forgive and forget. Should the Holocaust, therefore
be forgot and never brought to mind? Certainly not! This
unique experience in human history still has to be dealt
with.
First and foremost, the Holocaust was a sin
against God and against humanity. One of the first commandments
of the Bible is - Whoever sheds human blood, by man his
blood must be shed. No room for forgiveness there. No pleas
for manslaughter can be offered. It was deliberate and premeditated
genocide.
The Holocaust was also a crime against its
victims and these victims are in no position to forgive,
nor is there anyone in a position capable to forgive on
their behalf. Whenever people raise the question "Where
was God during the Holocaust?" It is cleverly dogged by
the reply "Where was Man during the Holocaust?" Which is
not an adequate answer.
Are we to understand that God took no notice or interest
in the fate of the Jewish people. If that is the case, then
we may have to reconsider our attitude towards religion.
Where was God during the Holocaust? Answer me! I shudder
to think that while we prayed and fasted and opened our
hearts to God, the Jewish people were led to the slaughter
- gassed and burned in the extermination camps, day after
day, month after month, year after year!
But above all, the Holocaust was a challenge to the entire
Jewish people. Our enemies declared war on us, intent to
erase the House of Israel from the face of the globe. They
failed. We have survived. God has delivered Germany and
its allies into our hands. The proper question to ask now
is: Where is man after the Holocaust?
The difference between the Holocaust and other Jewish disasters
is that our enemies are still around us. But who are our
enemies, seeing that the perpetrators of the Holocaust are
almost all dead? Our enemies are all those who say Hitler
was right to kill the Jews, all current anti-Semites, and
racists, all the neo-Nazis raising their ugly heads in Germany,
France, Poland and elsewhere. All those who say Death to
Israel and all those who deny that the Holocaust ever took
place.
The Jewish people are at a defensive war against our enemies.
Modern science has developed weapons a thousand times more
potent than Zyklon B. The Holocaust book cannot be closed
until the enemies of God and of Man are laid low, until
the memory of the Neanderthal beast of Europe is obliterated
from under the sky - don't forget!
Recent research has revealed that the Allies were seriously
considering assassinating Hitler either by a bomb or by
anthrax, but in the end, they decided against it because
they thought that Hitler was making many mistakes in the
war, and should be allowed to continue making these mistakes.
What a daft and bizarre attitude! Hitler's death would have
been his ultimate mistake and the war would have come to
an early end. What the Allies did in effect, was to give
Hitler ample time to finish off European Jewry. You can
say that again! ... And again.
