“Hate never disappears. It just takes a break for a while.”

Ida Margolis, GenShoah Chair

Since Jan. 6, I have been reading articles and statements relating to the insurrection at the Capitol. Generally, I was disappointed by the statements put forth by organizations that I expected to make a powerful statement about the horrible events that took place in front of everyone watching television that day.

I have read some well-written letters to the editor and thought-provoking articles. Two articles that I found significant were written for Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27, 2021. While some months have passed since the events of Jan. 6, the horror of the insurrection is still fresh for many and those articles are extremely relevant, especially as Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, approaches. (This year Yom HaShoah is on April 8 and will be commemorated locally on April 11. See page 24)

“‘Hate Never Disappears. It Just Takes a Break for a While.’ Why the U.S. Capitol Attack Makes Holocaust Remembrance Day More Important Than Ever” is the title of an article from Time.com, on Jan. 25 by Olivia Waxman. Waxman wrote that among the most shocking images from the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill were pictures of a man wearing the antisemitic sweatshirt that said, “Camp Auschwitz” and “work brings freedom.” She went on to say that, while the display of antisemitism was shocking, to Holocaust scholars it was not new. Rather, it was the latest example of the association between white supremacist and pro-Nazi sentiment in the U.S. Over 75 years since WWII, the attack on the Capitol was a reminder of the continuation of Nazi ideas.

University of Southern California history professor Steve Ross said the Jan. 6 events showed that hate never left this county, it was underground and resurfaced, and this is one reason that the Holocaust should be remembered. Ross noted that, after WWII, resentment grew in areas of the U.S., when minority groups started demanding more rights. In 1946, there were groups that wanted the extermination of the Jews and the return of all Blacks to Africa.

Ross said there were times in the past when, if government leaders and others had spoken out against white supremacy, antisemitism and racism, they could have stopped the hate groups. Ross concludes that right now, we have a chance to make a difference, “but nothing is going to change unless we confront our own history and confront it right now, not just for the past, but for the present.”

An article in American, a Jesuit publication, noted that Pope Francis said, “Remembering the Holocaust and its victims is not only an act of solidarity, but also serves as a warning to humanity that such horrors could happen again.”

In January, the pope called on the world to “remember the Shoah” and to “be aware of how this path of death began, this path of extermination, of brutality.

“To remember also means to be careful because these things can happen again, starting with ideological proposals to save a people, and ending up destroying a people and humanity,” he said.

Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, stated, “As hateful voices continue to rise, denying or distorting the implacable reality of these facts, we have a universal responsibility to remember each and every individual whom the Nazis sought to erase from the face of the Earth.”

In Germany, Catholic bishops marked Holocaust Remembrance Day by calling for action against all forms of antisemitism.

“The memory of the Holocaust fills me with profound sorrow, but also with shame, because so many remained silent at the time,” the president of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, wrote.

He said people must courageously oppose “anti-Jewish prejudice, conspiracy myths and every form of hatred in everyday life, at school or among friends.” The “industrial murder of the Jews” had been at the end of a path “that began with hate speech, conspiracy myths and social exclusion. We must never go down that path again.”

Holocaust survivor Margit Meissner said, “Days of Remembrance is an opportunity for us to remember the suffering that was and the efforts that were made to put an end to such suffering, and it’s a call to conscience today in our world to make sure that we aren’t the silent ones standing by, contributing to the suffering of others.”

Another survivor, Tova Friedman, said, “Today, as antisemitism is rearing its ugly head again, the voices of protest are not many and not loud enough.”

Please register for the Yom HaShoah at www.jewishnaples.org. Then decide if you will speak up and if you will be loud enough.