In the Shadow of the Holocaust
Horrified I watched the news about Hames’ attack on 7 October. Over 5000 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip against Israel. At the same time 3,000 militants crossed over the GazaIsrael barrier, killing civilians in over a dozen massacres, setting fire to their homes, and mercilessly murdering men women and children. In this onslaught over 1,400 Israelis and foreigners were killed and over 200 were taken hostage. In response Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched Operation Swords of Iron. In a televised broadcast he declared that Israel was now at war, threatening to turn all the places where Hamas was hiding into cities of ruin. He called Gaza the city of evil. As Israel’s bombardment of Gaza continued, Netanyahu declared that Israeli troops whom he met in the field were ready to make Hamas pay for its actions. ‘They are determined to eradicate this evil from the world, for our existence,’ he declared. ‘We always said “Never Again”. “Never Again” is now.’ What did Netanyahu mean by the expression ‘Never Again’? And why do Jews throughout the world appear to disregard the horrendous suffering of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Gaza citizens in this war? It is a paradox that we Jews—who for centuries have suffered at the hands of our enemies—are now responsible not simply for the deaths of Hamas soldiers but for so many innocent victims. Every day we witness the injuries and deaths of ordinary men, women and children as Israel pursues its campaign. The answer to this question lies in the the nightmare of the past. We Jews live in the shadow of the Holocaust. 80 years have passed, yet the Jewish community is obsessed by the image of
entire Jewish communities being herded into gas chambers. They did not fight back. Jews submitted to their fate. By contrast, Jews today are convinced we must be wholehearted in our resistance to evil.
Millions of Jews lost their lives at the hands of Nazi murderers. Yet the Jewish people survived. And once Hitler had been defeated, the Jewish community affirmed its commitment to Jewish survival through the establishment of a homeland in Palestine. Having emerged from the prospect of annihilation, the Jewish nation flourishes in Israel and elsewhere.
Nonetheless the nightmare of the Holocaust continues to haunt Jewry—it has deepened the Jewish determination to support Israel no matter what the cost. It has convinced Jews that we must be constantly vigilant and defend ourselves from antisemitic attack. Further, the murder of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis has persuaded us that Jewish self-interest must prevail over all other concerns. For most Jews today what is required is an uncompromising commitment to the continuation of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Such an attitude was most eloquently expressed by the late Jewish theologian Emil Fackenheim who insisted that it is a sacred duty to respond to the Holocaust. The intention of the Nazis was to eliminate all Jews. No survivor was to be left to tell the story of the horrors that took place. However Fackenheim insisted that in the death camps the Voice of God was heard. Out of the ashes of the crematoria God issued a further command. This 614th
commandment is directed to the post-Holocaust Jewish community. According to Fackenheim:
Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories. They are commanded to survive as Jews, lest the Jewish people perish. They are commanded to remember the victims of Auschwitz lest their memory perish. They are forbidden to despair of man and his world, and to escape into either cynicism or other worldliness, lest they cooperate in delivering the world over to the forces of Auschwitz. Finally, they are forbidden to despair of the God of lsrael, lest Judaism perish ... A Jew may not respond to Hitler's attempt to destroy Judaism by himself co-operating in its destruction. In a post-Holocaust world, the quest for Jewish survival has eclipsed all other concerns. Yet paradoxically such a focus has turned Jewry inwards —in its determination to endure at all costs, we too easily overlook the universal truths of biblical and rabbinic Judaism. For many Jews the Jewish preoccupation with survival has blinded us to the needs of those who are presently undergoing hardship similar to what the Jewish people endured through the centuries. In proclaiming ‘Never again,’ contemporary Jewry is in danger of losing sight of the prophetic vision of the Jewish people. In the struggle to overcome the tragedy of the Holocaust, we can too easily overlook the sufferings of others.
Day by day we are witnessing bombing and death. In Gaza, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. Nearly twenty thousand
Palestinians have been killed..The vast majority have been displaced from their homes; supplies of water and food are fast running out; hospitals are overwhelmed by casualties. Starvation is eminent. The horrors of the Holocaust are deeply embedded in Jewish consciousness. The phrase ‘Never again’ calls us to action. Yet our past suffering should not be allowed to harden our hearts. Scenes of terror and death in Gaza have awakened many of us to our ancient task to be a light to the nations. Forcefully we perceive that preservation at all costs should include not merely the survival of the Jewish nation, but also the survival of Judaism's concern for all humanity. As we watch Gaza bombed and destroyed with hundreds of thousand displaced from their homes, living in fear of slaughter, we should remember our past helplessness and fear in the face of terror and death. And we should be reminded that there is a lesson to learnt from the tragedy of the past. We Jews must recognise that pounding our enemies into the dust does not eliminate them. It radicalises them. From our own suffering, we should perceive how Palestinians will emerge from this war. Like us they too will say: 'Never again.'