Holocaust survivors, their children and grandchildren are greatly concerned about two vital issues – the first being how to ensure that memory of the Holocaust is preserved, and does not become just another chapter in history; and the second is the spread of antisemitism, which has become such a growth industry, that it reminds Holocaust survivors and researchers of Germany and Austria in the 1930s.
Jews and Roma (gypsies), have so far preserved the memory, but other victims, (except on an individual basis) have not, nor has the world at large.
According to Gideon Taylor, president of the Conference of Material Claims Against Germany, in surveys taken among young Americans, not a single one could name any extermination or concentration camp. They had never heard of Auschwitz, Treblinka or Sobibor. Likewise they were unaware that six million Jews had been murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.
“The absence of the hostages, (still in captivity in Gaza), reminds us of the consequential situation we are in, and also reminds us of the Holocaust,” said Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan.
Each was speaking last week at an international conference in Givatayim on “Shaping the Memory of the Holocaust – Future Challenges.”
Organized by Colette Avital, the chair of the Center Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel together with her CEO Avi Rosental, the conference also dealt with combating antisemitism.
“We know the difference between history and memory,” said Avital. “Our collective memory has shaped our people.” Looking to the future, she underscored the importance of passing the torch of memory to the next generation.
Among the attendees were several diplomats including ambassadors to whom Rosental expressed special appreciation for their presence, which was an unspoken indication that the governments of their countries were profoundly interested in both aspects of the conference.
There was consensus that educational methods used to date have been inadequate, and that there had to be more thinking out of the box for messages on both counts to be absorbed and passed to future generations.
THE POINT was made by several speakers that there cannot be memory without knowledge, and that lack of knowledge leads to difficulties in countering Holocaust denial and distortion.
Taylor emphasized that it’s not just knowing what happened during the Holocaust, but how and why.
“We must teach the Holocaust differently,” he said, but did not offer specifics with regard to changing teaching methods.
Dayan, alluding to the current preoccupation with AI and what it can do for spreading knowledge, underscored that “technology is the tool, not the aim.”
Piotr Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, noted that the world is changing rapidly, security systems have collapsed, and there must be a realization that memory will be different in 10-15 years’ time, as will impressions.
“The war against Hamas has created a new image of Israel and the Jewish people,” he said.
He also warned that growing antisemitism, xenophobia and populism pose a danger to all ethnic minorities, not just Jews.
“We are at the end of the post-war era,” he said by way of explaining a different world to come.
He and others also emphasized that memory is not history, but is based on common experience, and the power of identity.
Researcher and educator Muki Tzur made the point that religious antisemitism is not national antisemitism. Although the two learn from each other, he said, “they are not the same.”
He also stressed that what preserved memory amongst Jews was hope. At the end of the Second World War, most people treated it as a painful episode that had finished. But Jews looked towards the future.
Although he didn’t say so, in some of the newly liberated camps, Jews sang “Hatikva” (The Hope), which is the national anthem of the Jewish people as much as it is the national anthem of the State of Israel.
Amongst the survivors, there was the hope that a Jewish state would finally be re-established. Amongst the ultra-Orthodox Jews, there was the hope that they would live to see the Messiah. In Tzur’s perception, hope is the key to preserving memory.
In a passionate and eloquent address, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism, said that it was devastating that so many countries share the mutation and mainstreaming of antisemitism in a post-October 7 world.
She also spoke with anger of the systematic hijacking of the Holocaust for the propaganda purposes of antisemites. This is not new, but it has become more obvious. Cotler-Wunsh listed a series of antisemitic resolutions and hate events over more than half a century in which there had been Holocaust connotations.
IN A REFERENCE to the 2001 Durban Conference on Racism, she recalled that “a conference against racism was appropriated as a hate fest against Israel.”
Moving fast forward to the present day, she spoke of the appropriation of genocide and the continued blood libel against Israel as an apartheid state on university campuses around the world.
As for Hamas and its treatment of the hostages whom it kidnapped in October 2023, she declared that “Silence is one of the most dangerous manifestations when there is a denial of atrocities.” This holds true with regard to both the Holocaust and the atrocities perpetrated today in Gaza.
She also spoke of the need for a much clearer universal definition of antisemitism. “You can’t identify antisemitism without defining it.”
There have been extremely disturbing reports about antisemitism in Australia.
It was always there, acknowledged Robert Goot, the deputy president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, but never before as it has been since October 7. This to a large extent is due to the high ratio of Muslims compared to Jews. Whereas there are approximately 120,000 Jews in Australia, the Muslim population is close to one million, and most Muslims in the country came there from the Middle East. Nonetheless, Australia’s Jews are slowly but surely making headway by influencing legislation that makes all forms of racism illegal, and that can result in convictions and prison terms for perpetrators.