Arnold Schwarzenegger: It’s Time to Step Up

This week, Arnold Schwarzenegger received the inaugural Award of Courage from Los Angeles’ Holocaust Museum, for his ongoing efforts confronting antisemitism.

In accepting the award from Oscar-winning producer Mike Medavoy, Schwarzenegger said, “I’ve received many awards involving muscles, but tonight was about recognizing heart. Education to fight antisemitism has been something I’ve cared about since I was a young man. Love must always prevail over hatred.”

Addressing the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 people, Schwarzenegger asserted that people need to step up.

“There's all this chatter out there and all this stuff and all this negativity and hatred that we have to speak up and confront them. The more we speak out about that issue, the better it is. So every day you have to talk about that, you have to talk about it over and over again.”

He continued: “Because we cannot let them get away with those lies and with this hatred. You’ve got to talk to them, and talk them down and let them know that the only way to go is through love… hatred you never ever win; love in the end always wins.”

The son of a Nazi, Schwarzenegger reflected about his Austrian background, and told the audience his desire to fight “for inclusion against hatred and speak out about hatred, and how wrong it is to not look at everyone’s life equally. And to attack each other because of someone’s religion and religious background or their color or their sex, whatever it is.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger honored at Holocaust Museum LA (Photo Credit: Al Seib)

He added: “I felt it was very important, especially since I come from a country that is known to be a big part of the Second World War and had the most vicious Nazis during the war and beforehand. I thought it is important to go out and to let people know that the next generation doesn’t have to be the same, that the next generation can change.”

I have to go and speak out about hatred.

The much-loved actor told the audience about the moments when he first dealt with antisemitism with his dad – when he bought a bodybuilding magazine as a teenager and his father disapproved of it when he found out its publisher was Jewish. Then, years later, after Schwarzenegger won Mr. Universe and was invited to the U.S., and given shelter and money, he called his father to tell him it was that very same publisher who had helped him.

“From that moment on, I said to myself, ‘I have to go and fight that, I have to go and speak out about hatred, I have to go and get involved in this issue,'” he said. “And the more I became a celebrity, the more I became a movie star and a bodybuilding star and all that, the more I felt like, ‘Oh, I have another power,' in being a public voice against antisemitism.”

Schwarzenegger visited Auschwitz last year and wants to return with “a whole bunch of Hollywood celebrities so they can see what is going on, what went on there and to put the spotlight on this issue.”

Also in attendance at the gala were 27 Holocaust survivors. One thing was clear; the fear of history repeating itself was clearly in their eyes.

Ildako Good, an 84-year-old child survivor from Hungary who was in a concentration camp for 11 months, has immensely been affected by the atrocities that occurred in Israel, she told Aish.com.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t watch the news and yet I have to. It’s incredibly upsetting, I can’t help but worry about antisemitism and what could happen next. The world has gone mad.”

Both Good and survivor Eva Perlman have spent time as public speakers, educating children and teens about the Holocaust.

“Holocaust education is vital – it’s very important to get the word out,” acknowledged Perlman, who attended the event with her granddaughter.

Eva Perlman and her granddaughter

“I am absolutely horrified by these recent events – it seems as if people have lost all morality. To celebrate killing families – I don’t know where we are going… That there are people who have been conditioned since infancy to hate Jews, we can’t do anything about them, they are so set in their beliefs. This is why I must be as vocal as possible about what happened to me during the Holocaust.”

Beth Kean, CEO of Holocaust Museum LA, said, “Holocaust Museum LA’s mission of education to fight antisemitism and stop hate is more critical than ever. Both Arnold and our survivors have demonstrated throughout their lives the courage, determination, strength and resiliency to remind the world that we must never forget the critical lessons of the past.”