A New Holocaust Film Every Young Person Should See
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Auschwitz was built on lies that still haunt Israel and the world today.
Auschwitz was liberated 80 years ago. Its lies still imprison us today.
It was with lies about work abroad that the Nazis persuaded the Jews of Europe to get on the trains, and it was with lies about showers that Jews were greeted when they got off.
There are the lies the world told itself as these atrocities unfolded. That they were doing all they could − even as the railroad tracks to Auschwitz were not bombed; as the St. Louis ship, full of Jewish refugees, was turned back from Florida to Europe; as Britain froze European Jewish immigration to the British Mandate for Palestine, preventing the escape of hundreds of thousands who could have been saved.
And finally, there are the lies told in the following decades because they were convenient. “They were victims,” President Ronald Reagan said in 1985 of the Wehrmacht soldiers buried at Bitburg cemetery, where he intended to visit, “just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.”
It was too late to stop this last lie, but my father, Elie Wiesel, was determined to try. His response made headlines around the world.
“The issue here is not politics,” he told Reagan on national TV, “but good and evil. And we must never confuse them, for I have seen the SS at work, and I have seen their victims.”
My father was unsuccessful. Reagan paid his respects at Bitburg anyway, and the line between the perpetrators of evil and their victims continued to blur.
Today, only 40% of people under 35 recognize the Holocaust as historically accurate. That number is even worse in the Middle East, where only 16% of Israel’s neighbors accept the facts.
Many in the younger generation see today’s Hamas fighters as victims; they’re the underdog heroes.
But the problem is worse than ignorance. Many in the younger generation, reliving Reagan’s moral confusion, see today’s Hamas fighters as victims just as surely as the Israelis they kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023. To them, Hamas is the underdog hero.
My father spoke out against indifference. What we now face is something else. Nobody is indifferent; everyone has an opinion on the Israel-Hamas conflict. Is it mass gullibility? Good intentions gone wrong? Surely many Christians who slaughtered Jews in the Middle Ages believed that they were protecting their families, that the Jews had in fact poisoned the wells. Had they not seen the dead body of a child, produced as the blood libel’s evidence?
It is hard to look evil in the face. To see the jihadists in Gaza fire rifles in the air as 90 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for only three Israeli women.
One of the terrorists set to be released by Israel is Abu Warda, who was responsible for killing 45 civilians in the 1996 bus bombings in Jerusalem. Does he occupy the same moral universe as these women?
It is easier to believe that this militant mob wants their own state than to hear, really hear, what they shout: that their mission, as the Hamas charter states, is the eradication of Israel. Since this ceasefire, Hamas has retaken the Gazan streets − and we’ll watch them wreak further destruction on the people of Gaza.
My father, in his Bitburg speech, quoted the great New York Times executive editor Abe Rosenthal. He had visited Poland and wrote a piece in 1990 called “Forgive them not, for they knew what they did.”
The Christian desire to forgive and move on is a powerful one in the American psyche, especially when the terror being forgiven was visited on others. But Americans must not forgive Hamas. We must confront evil when and where we see it. There is no time to lose.
Good intentions are not enough.
To differentiate good from evil, one must begin by choosing between truth and lies.
My grandfather Shlomo Wiesel, who perished at Buchenwald a week after the liberation of Auschwitz, was also the son of an Eliezer. My great-grandfather was killed as a medic in World War I, drafted into service for the Kaiser. And now I see my father’s rebuke of Reagan drafted into service by those who hate Israel, who shout that to fight indifference is to blindly support the eradication of a democratic state.
It is terrifying to confront a mob, especially when it contains our own − our friends, coworkers, even our children, swept up in that deep moral confusion laying waste to college campuses. But on this anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we must ask ourselves these questions:
Will we continue explaining away the images of non-uniformed Palestinian civilians celebrating − and actively aiding Hamas − in the Oct. 7 attacks, much as a previous generation sought to explain away the SS, the Wehrmacht and the civilians who kept them in power?
Will we continue confusing the concepts of perpetrator and victim, of terror and a just war, losing the distinction between Hamas, who hide behind human shields, and the Israel Defense Forces, who do more than any army ever has to avoid loss of life while bombing the tunnels built to facilitate the next Holocaust?
Will we continue giving moral credibility to voices who say that the tiny nation of Israel is the villain for refusing to die?
To differentiate good from evil, one must begin by choosing between truth and lies.
Forty years ago, President Reagan had not learned this lesson. Eighty years after the liberation of Auschwitz − have we?
This op-ed originally appeared in USA Today
Psalms 83 says it all, the world wants to destroy Jews and Israel, but in the end Hashem will destroy whoever wants to destroy the Jews/Israel, and lies never have a leg to stand on, the word truth in Hebrew as the first letter aleph the middle letter mum and the last letter tuv so the truth as legs to stand on
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Excellent article. Yes unless we draw the line between good and evil this horrendous evil will continue. God have mercy
As a Jewish mother whose 2 adult children and an adult grandchild have chosen to stand with the dark side, this article was very poignant. They have chosen to support the pro pali protesters, are antizionist and they believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. I am a proud Jew and a strong supporter of Israel. The fact that my children do not recognize the evil that is hamas and choose to believe the lies of a terrorist organization has destroyed my family.
It is sad that your children and grandchildren refuse to see the truth, that Israel( formerly known as Palestine) belonged to Jews, since ancient biblical times it was the land of the Jews, a long time ago there were Philestines that had Gaza and other lands they were invaders and it is written in prophets Joshua and Judges and one of the judges was Samson which fought the Philestines, and ended up killing more in his death than life, these ancient invaders intermarried with others and no longer exist now and now a bunch of Muslim Arabs call themselves Palestinans but in fact the Jews are the real Palestinans also the name Hamas is written the bible, prophets, and Psalms it is translated has violence,
The land that the Jews lived were called by names the Jews used, Israel, Samaria, Judea. The term Palestine was a coinage by the Romans who were land-grabbers building an empire. The term Palestine was used to designate land occupied by the Philistines. The Philistines eventually disappeared, some time around the 6th century BCE. There was never a nation called Palestine, and therefore there are no real Palestinians. But there are real indigenous people, the Jews, who lived in Israel, Judea, and Samaria.
I know the Jews are the rightful owners of the land
The 3 terror groups starting with a h are proxies of Iran which was formerly known as Persia, and in the past with have a holiday called Purim from winning against Persia in the pas5, and now I dreamt much before what happened on October 7, 2023 there will be a war of good is evil, and your family is unfortunately on the wrong side, pray that they will wake up and see the real truth,
Dale Kern, you are dealing with a difficult, painful family situation. I hope your children eventually return to the values and ethics that you hold. I feel deeply for you. You are strong. Stay strong.
Thank you, I appreciate the support. It is very painful and there is nothing I can do.
Dale, there is something you can do:
Fight for Israel any way you can: join AIPAC and stay current on all the issues
Watch JBS tv (Jewish Broadcasting Services) and be nurtured by ‘all things Jewish’, look up CAMERA on line and follow up on action items, and. Bombard elected officials with letters and phone Calls.
Be Proactive — that’s the Best thing you can do.
Good luck!
I‘m so sorry for you. My mother and one of my daughters are progressive, Ím conservative. My mother will listen to my arguments and be persuaded a little, but I have to tread very lightly, with my daughters i avoid politics. The split between keeping our family together and not betraying my convictions is difficult. It‘s not easy and I feel for you! It must be agonizing.
Thank you for an informative article, The ability to recognize and call out evil, is perhaps the greatest challenge of our times in the West. What stands between recognizing the truth and clinging to lies? Of course , one can be simply ignorant of the facts, and will believe as he does because of social pressure, or laziness to pursue the truth. Then, there is the matter of personal gain and personal comfort. Emerging and taking on liars, opportunists, collaborators, and manipulators is extremely hard work, and at times threatening and dangerous. What tools do we have in the face of all the pressure to accept lies?
Only our moral education including strong role models and belief in a Higher Being who exacts and expects Truth from human beings.
The only country with Western values to call out the evil is Israel, first they started with Israel but the West should be on be on side of the Jews and Israel because in the end they will start up with the rest of the world, in the past when the Holocaust happened they started with the Jews but it did not end with the Jews, it ended up with everyone else people should learn from the past, that you stand up for Jews and Israel before the whole world is in jeopardy, if G _d forbid Iran gets nukes capabilities
Thanks for this article. I'm just wondering why more Palestinian prisoners swap to small number of hostages? Is this fair?
Surely not, but this is a manifestation of the world of lies (Olam Hasheker) that we live in, and "Palestinians" are champion liars!
The title of this TRUTHFUL article says it all - and in my own opinion, every single "Palestinian" adult, that is, everyone above the age of reason, should be forced to be re-educated in the true history of the Jewish people, and their enemies (including themselves). Hard to look one's own face in the mirror, but necessary. Ever since about the 60's and 70's in America morality has been touted to be conditional-two sides to every story, yadda-yadda. I call B.S. Had forgotten myself this tidbit about one I believe to be one of our very best Presidents, Ronald Reagan. That even he could be so deluded says a lot. In the meantime, what do we do/allow done to these so-called "Palestinians?" Good question, but one thing is sure, never, ever allow them to do this again.
I read in my newspaper the Jewish Press the enemies of the Jews have such hate that they will destroy themselves trying to hurt or worst to Jews, in the time of the Holocaust the Nazis( may their name be erased) send Jews to their death, when Germany was losing the war and had the German soldiers ran out of supplie, anti semites need a scape goat to blame instead of blaming themselves, and they pick the Jews to be a scape goat instead of fixing their own broken system of doing things
excellent article - i appreciated the chance to learn about the bitburg controversy. the argument is sound, and the call of the hour is to distinguish between good and evil - but that is easier said than done. often things are grey. let me put a spanner in the works. wiesel's great grandfather eliezer died as a german soldier serving as a medic in world war one. should his senseless death not also be mourned, even though the germans were responsible for starting the war and for the deaths of so many millions? was he victim or perpetrator? the soldiers in the wehrmacht were also conscripted into a war not of their choosing. im not talking about ss sadistic murderers but young men drafted into an army. this is the human wreckage that reagan spoke about. in cemeteries everwhere.
Thank you Mr. Wiesel. It is as such a well written article and reveals key times when people thought wrongly. There is always a right and wrong to each situation. When it was announced that Regan would visit THAT cemetery it was shocking to me and I tried to send a telegram to the White House but found telegrams were no longer printed but called in so I called the White House and left a message for President Regan that it was my opinion that it was an extremely wrong decision for him to enter that cemetery and to please reconsider. I was and still am so sorry he went. My opinion of him changed.
This is an excellent article.
I would say that there can be innocent civilians in any war zone, especially children. But there was a difference between elite members of the SS and the ordinary German soldier drafted into the military. Young children and babies in Gaza are innocent victims and Hamas is their victimizer by creating the war zone in which they have been injured or killed. Hamas invaded Israel, just as Russia has invaded Ukraine, as the Acis powers invaded neighbouring countries. For invaded nations to fight back is a moral imperative.
In my view there are no innocent children in Gaza, and other places in the world where they learn to hate Jews and Israel with their mother's milk, being brainwashed from a early age, it is sad but true a very bad reality
Powerful article. Thank you for re-publishing.
Great article. Unfortunately, moral confusion abounds today. Many people cannot distinguish between good and evil. The great lesson of history is that man does not learn from history.
Unfortunately that is the problem not to know the difference between good and evil, maybe in this generation they lines are blurred there is a lot of lies and propaganda that some people can not seem to get to the truth, they must try harder to get to the real truth
Excellent op-ed, succinctly and factually presented, with a powerful closing.
Unfortunately, the only people who will answer affirmatively to the question posed at the end are those who are familiar with the history of the Holocaust and/or the true story about Israel.
Perhaps when Arab immigrants become the "overdog" in their host countries, wreaking havoc as they're wont to do, will others begin to understand the truth.
In the meantime, we rely on Hashem to watch over us, as He always has. May He continue to answer our earnest prayers for the success of the IDF and Israeli intelligence & security forces, and release of the hostages, as well as stemming the tide of global antisemitism.
Because the US is so diverse, Arab immigrants and especially their children have been successfully integrated into American society. Of course there are exceptions. However, one of my close work colleagues is the US born son of Egyptian Coptic Christians who emigrated to the US decades ago, and Copts are a persecuted minority in Egypt. Not all Arabs are Muslim, not all Muslims are Arab, and the great majority of both are not terrorists.
Indeed, not all Arabs are terrorists and non-Muslim Arabs are by and large different.
However, the Bible refers to Arabs as "pereh adam" (wild men), and even many of their Western-educated "elite" have not lost this 'distinction,' so it's no wonder that those who nursed on hatred become hateful.
In Europe the Muslims are wreaking havoc also some parts of Europe have unfortunately Sharia Law( Muslim Laws) in place there, and the host government is scared of the Muslims and in France and maybe other parts of Europe are a no go zone police are scared to go there, women are in big danger with Muslim men on the loose, I hope you get the picture it is not a pretty picture
Excellent article. Classic. This article should be read by Jews more than Gentiles. It is an anthem to be proud of our ancestral role models who experienced and looked EVIL in the eye and understood the importance of living and promoting GOOD, the values of our Torah. While the world reviled us, the values that we stood for impacted Western democracies, which are based on Judaic values, not Judeo-Christian values.
Agree - to a point. The fact is, there would be NO "Christian values" without that faith's predecessors, Torah-observant Jews...! There would be no Christian faith without Judaism in any case, no true moral baseline in this world at all. Humanism fails us, as does every other world religion, really, as Hashem is, truly, Father of us all, whether or not we acknowledge Him. That said, I believe it is up to people of BOTH faiths to draw a line, make "Never again!" a reality. May it be so...