In the wake of the largest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust and the ensuing wave of antisemitism across the globe, a sense of horror and dismay has been awakened among Jewish people everywhere. In the United States, the antisemitism was accompanied by a rise in Islamophobia.
It is a feeling that not just Jews, but all people, should share.
While the vast majority of those who died in the Nazi Holocaust were Jews (about two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish community was annihilated), members of many other groups were killed as well. They included Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, people with disabilities, members of the political opposition and others.
While living in Germany for over two years in the 1970s, I became aware of a dedication to avoiding a recurrence of the evil that can flow from prejudice and hatred. That commitment was born of harsh experience. Eight million Germans, including almost 2 million civilians, died during World War II. For several years following the surrender, German nutritional levels were low resulting in very high mortality rates. The economy was devastated, misery was widespread and Germans remained a divided nation until 1990.
Those Germans among who I lived had an understanding of how tolerating hatred can be self-destructive. It is an understanding that we need today.
The cover of this week’s edition of Germany’s leading newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, bears a headline expressing an emotion that honest reflection should make us all feel.
It reads “Wir haben Angst.” “We Are Scared.”
History for Tomorrow 