The Insider
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Long Shoah Shadows
n some parts of the world like Iran, Holocaust denial
prevails. In other areas like the Gaza Strip, teach-
ing about the Holocaust is forbidden. In many places,
Hitler's final solution to destroying European Jewry is
minimized via the argument that surviving Jews exag-
gerated the effects of Nazi Germany to curry favor for a
Jewish state.
I
Make no mistake about it: Attempts to diminish the
murder of 11 million people considered subhuman to
Aryans are on the rise. Nazi Germany's death toll included
six million Jews and five million others — Gypsies, Poles,
Russian prisoners of war, political prisoners, male homo-
sexuals, disabled persons and religious believers deemed
gone astray like Jehovah's Witnesses.
Sixty-four years later, shadows of the Shoah still cast a
pall. To think the Holocaust is too distant in our past to be
top of mind is to reopen the floodgates for intense anti-
Jewish sentiment.
Consider: The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal
Center continues its relentless search for Nazi hench-
men. Just two weeks ago, for example, Hungarian officials
questioned and confiscated the passport of a suspected
Nazi collaborator. As many as 20 important surviving Nazi
war criminals of Hungarian origin are still to be brought
to justice, Peter Feldmajer, chairman of the Alliance of
Hungarian Jewish Religious Communities, told the New
York-based Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Here in America, the Harvard student newspaper,
Crimson, attributed publication of a Holocaust denial
advertisement to a miscommunication. The ad was placed
by the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust,
whose founder, Bradley Smith, has been placing ads in
college newspapers for nearly 20 years. The Crimson ad
asked readers if they could "provide, with proof, the name
of one person killed in a gas chamber in Auschwitz." The
newspaper canceled the remainder of the publication
schedule and planned to return all revenue it received for
publishing the ad.
Anti-Semitism has infested the Middle East and parts of
Europe. It also is on the rise in North America and else-
where. We can't forget what happened on June 10 at the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington when a
gunman killed a security guard and wounded another per-
son in a violent tirade against Jews.
The depth of Jewish hatred hasn't been this pervasive
since the 1930s.
It's against this troubling backdrop that the Detroit
Jewish community's Holocaust Memorial Center (HMC) on
the Zekelman Family Campus in Farmington Hills will mark
its 25th anniversary with an Oct.18 gala.
The dinner not only will pay tribute to the first free-
standing Holocaust memorial in the country, but also
serve as a reminder of which side ultimately won World
War II. HMC founder Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig, who died
last December, would have been so proud of this mile-
stone celebration. He worked tirelessly to make a visit to
the HMC a transformative experience.
More than 125,000 people, Jews and non-Jews alike,
come to learn about acts of depravity and lessons on
morality while touring the striking structure on Orchard
Lake Road. In the HMC's International Institute of the
Righteous, visitors discover actions that demonstrate the
capacity of good people to reach the highest rung of vir-
tue and compassion.
Metro Detroit is home to between 1,000 and 2,000 sur-
vivors. As the ranks of survivors thin, it is crucial that we
preserve, honor and memorialize their stories.
Incoming HMC President Gary Karp put it well, "The
education of the young and all of society requires our
constant attention and resources as the days of the
Holocaust fade into the annals of history. We must under-
score the importance of educating and teaching about
the horrors of the Holocaust, about the dangers of big-
otry and prejudice as well as about the courageousness
and righteousness of too few. It is through education
that knowledge flourishes and through knowledge that
power triumphs — power to prevent atrocities such as the
Holocaust from ever happening again."
Never again, indeed. II
- Robert Sklar, editor
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Iran isn't Joking
ran's newly "re-elected" president denies the Holocaust
not only to perpetuate the myth that Zionists concocted
it, but also to divert attention from the Islamic Republic's
rush toward nuclear arms. Such armaments would reinforce
Iran's military might in the region. They also would endan-
ger Israel, which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
insists is the cause of the Middle East insecurity.
At a Sept. 21 rally marking Al Quds/Jerusalem Day,
when the Iranian regime expresses solidarity with the
Palestinians, Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a "lie"
and that Israel's days were "numbered" and that its
regime was "dying." He expressed pride in angering Israel
and its supporters. He also seems to be sympathetic
toward the Palestinians, but they really are mere pawns in
Iran's pursuit for global dominance. That pursuit requires
Iran to first jettison Israel, the Palestinians' neighbor.
I
Referring to Western leaders, Ahmadinejad said, "They
launched the myth of the Holocaust. They lied; they put
on a show and then they support the Jews."
Iran, under the command of its Revolutionary Guard,
isn't bluffing with its hatred of Israel. But know that it
despises the West equally.
The combination of an embargo on Iran's crude oil
exports and international sanctions on Iran's import of
refined oil is the preferred way to neutralize the Persian
state's nuclear threat. Iran has test-fired missiles with a
range of 1,200 miles, putting Israel in the line of fire.
Israeli military action shouldn't be stymied by America
and Russia if that proves the only ultimate option. Israel
might not root out all of the uranium enrichment facilities
in Iran, but it could wreak economic havoc there. II
- Robert Sklar, editor
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October 1 2009
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