Yes, it is Holocaust Appreciation Day.
 |
| This priest wisely apologizes for the horrors of the Holocaust |
Now, I've been speaking out for some time now on this issue of great importance: We need a Holocaust Appreciation Month for the world to celebrate, not simply a single day. It must be a month with at least 31 days in it (no short February like the Blacks in the US received). I recommend December as that's the time of the 'Winter Holiday' where we celebrate the most famous Jew's life (Jesus the Jew) so it would be, I believe, appropriate to recognize the suffering that month, too.
I urge all readers to write to our friends at the Anti Defamation League or the JDL or whichever pro-Jewish/pro-Israel organization you regularly support with your donations, and urge them to organize their politicians in DC and their friends in the UN to run with the idea for a month-long celebration. And (this should go without saying, but...) it should be worldwide.
This is one way in which we can assuage some of the shame and guilt we collectively possess for our part in causing the holocaust. We are all to blame.
I regularly cut my wrists on April 8. Not deep enough to take my life, but deep enough to cause pain and fairly extensive blood loss. I want to feel, for a few brief moments, a twinge of the pain and fear and suffering God's Chosen People had to face during the 10 or so years that Germany operated the Death Camps. I also strip naked and spend the night out in the nearby woods, shivering and miserable in the cold. I'm not looking forward to that tomorrow as it is only in the high 30's right now and a frigid rain has been falling incessantly for 3 days. But a naked night shivering with blood dripping off my fingers is nothing compared to what was endured by our heroes. Were I a real man I'd spend a month or even a year like this. Alas, I am not a Jew.
One of my heroes, and I'm sure one of yours, is the Estimable Shimon Peres.
A few hours ago Mr. Peres delivered a heart-wrenching speech in regards to this very issue. I present it below, in full, for you to read and reflect. Please - do what I did - insure you have a large, new box of Kleenex handy. You'll need it as you blubber along to his words:
Dear Holocaust survivors, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, President of the Supreme Court, Justice Asher Grunis, Chief Rabbis, Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Yona Metzger, our dear friend Prime Minister Tony Blair, our dear friend the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, John Baird, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Directorate of Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev, Righteous Among the Nations, Honored guests.
The Holocaust will not sink into the dark hole of history. It is here with us, burning, real. It resonates as we step on the stones of the ghettos. It floats like a ghost in the barracks of the camps. It cries from the prayer shawls, the hair, the shoes that we see with our own eyes. It whispers from the tears that dried before we said goodbye. It is reflected in the photographs of the babies in their mothers’ arms.
The noise of those murderous trains which have ceased stills rings in our ears. The smoke which has not faded as it drifted into the sky above.
Survivors walk among us, the Holocaust and its horrors are with them every day. Their blood flows through our veins. Their bravery accompanies every step of our lives.
There was no greater horror in the history of mankind. Nothing can remove the greatest darkness that mankind has known. The 74 years which have passed are more biography than history.
Millions of names are still missing, of parents and children, of whole Jewish communities who were murdered. There is no substitute for the culture, for the values, for the talents which were and are no longer. They remain as an open wound.
We will not stop searching for every scrap of information, for a name yet to be identified, for a photograph that has been blurred. A third of our people, six million, were murdered with no reason.
The Jewish people today are fewer in number than on the eve of World War II. We decreased in number, but not in spirit. We are working with all our might to fill the void. Physically and spiritually. To grow out of the ashes, to create out of nothing, to build protection. To build a new independence, and not tire from working for a better world, for Tikkun Olam.
The Holocaust is an orphan with no comfort and a moral responsibility without compromise. It does not permit us, the Jewish people, to turn a blind eye. It must always be a warning to the entire human family.
The map of Europe still contains local stains of anti-Semitism. Racism erupted on that land in the last century and dragged it down to its lowest point. Ultimately the murder which came from her, damaged her.
To our shame, there remain some who learned nothing. Young skinheads. False scientists dressed in false suits. Yes! There remain those who forget the Holocaust, those who deny it. (Sick, sick bastards!)
Not all the flames have been extinguished. Crises are once again exploited to form Nazi parties, ridiculous but dangerous. Sickening anti-Semitic cartoons are published allegedly in the name of press freedom.
The journey for justice and freedom is not yet over. When I hear the four words, “Let My People Go,” I feel again and again that the journey out of the house of slavery, which began in our people and has not yet ended, must not stop. It must not stop until slavery, in all its forms, is stopped. In every place, in every situation. Until the winds of freedom blow away the stench of racism and decimate the evil smoke.
The civilized world must ask itself how in such a short space of time after the crematoria were extinguished, after the terrible death toll that the allied powers endured to put an end to the Nazi devil, it is still possible for the leadership, like that of Iran, to openly deny the Holocaust and threaten another Holocaust.(Damn it! We unfortunates who aren't Jews MUST destroy Iran as a penance for the Holocaust)
The Jewish people are a small nation in number, but large in spirit. That spirit cannot be burned in the ovens. From the ashes of the Holocaust rose spiritual redemption and political rebirth. We rose and we built a state of our own.
Whoever ignores the threat against one nation, must know that the threat of a Holocaust against one nation is a threat of a Holocaust against all nations.
We lost possessions, but retained our values. We returned to our ancient homeland. We renewed our moral legacy. We returned to independence. We returned to creating, to educating and we returned to hope. We built a defensive force capable of dealing with dangers, new and old.
The Israel Defense Forces, which was formed in response to the attempt to annihilate the Jewish state which had just been created, is also the right lesson from the Holocaust. It is founded upon the bravery of Jews in the Holocaust.
Today, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day is also the memorial day for 70 years since the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. There was never a rebellion like it. They were so few and their bravery remained as a model for so many. For now and forever. Today we salute their bravery with the flags flying in the wind of freedom. These are flags of exaltation, not only of grief.
A clear line exists between the resistance in the ghettos, in the camps and in the forests and the rebirth and bravery of the state of Israel. It is a line of dignity, of renewed independence, of mutual responsibility, of exalting God’s name. As a ray of hope which was not extinguished even during terrible anguish. The ghetto fighters sought life even when circumstances screamed despair.
A few days ago, Peretz Hochman passed away. The small tobacco seller who became a great hero. Peretz Hochman came home to Israel and fought in Israel’s wars with the courage which typified him. He passed away only a few days before he was meant to stand with us, here today, on this stage and light the torch. His light will continue to illuminate.
Raising the heroism of the fighters is not just a matter of doing justice to their bravery. It is an existential need, for each of us, for all of us as a people. It is time. We did not always listen to the beat of their hearts. To the health. The time has come to repair.
The history of the Holocaust is not just a lesson from the past, it is also a lesson for the future. That we will know how to defend ourselves against dangers and intercept them before time. That we can rely on ourselves.
That we must maintain our moral legacy, which withstood even impossible situations. That we can maintain friendship with friends, and work with them to foster a better future, for every person, for every nation, for all nations. And to guard against humanity ever losing its humanity again.
We’ll ensure that every person will have the right to be different… different and equal. We will never despair. After all, we were commanded: “Do not fear, my servant Jacob,” because “the Lord will give strength to his people.”
Heartbreaking, isn't it?
Our dear friend Prime Minister Tony Blair.....puke!
ReplyDeleteThe now Catholic Blair?
ReplyDeleteThat's probably his priest in the top photograph.