"Those who forget the past, are condemned to repeat it."
During the Second World War, six million Jews were murdered in Europe. They were killed because they were Jewish. The world is filled with museums to remember this tragedy. From Jerusalem to Washington, and thru the remains of the concentration camps in Germany and Eastern Europe, the Holocaust is probably the most documented genocide in world history. The Germans were very proud of what they were doing, they took all those pictures and filmed clips you see today in movies and documentaries.
Although several people risked their own life to save Jewish lives, it must be said that it was not only the Germans who killed the Jews, many other nations also contributed to this crime. Germany was the most civilized society at the time. The Jews had lived in Germany for over 1000 years, and they were loyal German citizens. If this happened in Germany when it happened, then it could happen again anywhere and anytime.
Children learn about what happened during the Holocaust in school. Certainly most Jewish children learned about it. "Never Again" is the slogan commonly used to say the Holocaust will never happen again, because we will not allow it. But, have we learned all the lessons about the Holocaust? Do we really understand what happened, and why? Apparently most Holocaust museums and remembrance sites have ignored this questions.
Most importantly, is there anything the Jews and the nations of the world could have done to prevent the holocaust? Was enough done to save innocent Jewish lives?
About a year before becoming Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon made an interesting comment. He said that if Zeev Jabotinsky would have been the head of the Jewish Agency instead of David Ben-Gurion, millions of Jews would have been saved from death during the Holocaust. Immediately afterwards, leftist politicians told Sharon he should apologize for having said this. To which Sharon replied, "I was there and I know what happened, if you want we can debate about it in public." No further comments from the left were heard.
For many years, some groups in Israel are blaming other Jewish groups for not having done enough to save Jewish lives during the holocaust. Some are even being blamed for contributing to this tragedy. As an example, religious groups are saying that immigration visas for Israel were only being handed out to secular Jews wanting to escape Europe. Leftist groups say that it was the Rabbis fault for not letting their congregations come to Israel.
Years before World War II, Zeev Jabotinsky traveled to Europe to try to convince Jewish communities to immigrate to Israel. He told them that dark times for European Jewry were coming. That they should move to Israel to save their lives. Most Jews laughed at him, and many Rabbis did not allowed him to address their congregations saying that he was not a religious Jew.
For most assimilated European Jews the idea of leaving Europe and moving to Israel was a crazy idea. Why leave all their high standard of living and move to the desert? Why leave their jobs as bankers, industrialists, businessmen, and move to Israel to work as farmers drying swamps? Why leave the peace and quiet of Europe to get shot by and Arab in the Holy Land? Yes, Arabs were already killing Jews in Eretz Israel back then.
On the other hand, the bulk of the religious Jews were poor, but did not want to move to Israel because their Rabbis would tell them that the government being formed in Israel was anti-religious. They were all waiting for the Moshiach to return home to the Land of Israel. And they thought it should be a religious government in Israel. Therefore, they decided to wait for Moshiach in Exile.
It must be said that all great Rabbis told the Jews to move to Israel even many years before the Holocaust. The Vilna Gaon and the Chofetz Chaim were big Zionists, telling all their students to move to Israel. Rav Kook and all great Rabbis of the Religious Zionist movement told every single Jew at the first opportunity to move to Israel. But many religious Jews simply chose to listen to the wrong Rabbis.
So while the leaders of the assimilated Reform Jewish movement in Germany proclaimed that: "Berlin is our Jerusalem," the leaders of the religious community in Eastern Europe said that they will move to Israel: "When Moshiach comes." And so the Jews stayed in Europe. They stayed there because it was their decision. And when some of them wanted to get out, it was already too late.
Many countries contributed to the large number of Jewish casualties during the Holocaust. Without a doubt, the British blocade of Palestine during WWII, prevented thousands of Jews from reaching the Land of Israel and saving their lives. Disagreements erupted within the Jewish community in Israel during this time. While Jabotinsky's followers in the Irgun and the Etzel wanted to fight the British to allow for free immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel, forces led by Ben-Gurion opposed such a move and cooperated with the British. In some ocassions they even betrayed fellow Jews in the Etzel and Irgun.
Some disturbing facts about what happened during the Holocaust are exposed in the book "Perfidy" by Ben Hecht. This book was banned in Israel for over 30 years. It tells the story of a lawsuit brought in 1953 by Rudolph Kastner, a Jewish Agency official and the Industry Minister in Ben-Gurion's government, against the man who accused him of collaborating with the Nazis to murder a million Hungarian Jews. Perfidy is an indictment not only of Rudolf Kastner but also of the wartime leaders of the Jewish Agency for how they acted with regard to the Jews of Hungary during World War II.
The Nazis had decided to slaughter the one million Jews of Hungary. They promised Kastner, then a Jewish leader in Hungary, that for his silence about their plan, he could choose 600 Jews who would be allowed to escape to Switzerland. Kastner agreed and promptly arranged the escape of his family members and the prominent people of the town where he had once lived. If the Jews had known of the Nazi plan they could have easily escaped to Romania. British policy was to keep Jews out of Israel. Hecht claims that not only the British wanted to keep the Jews out but that the Jewish Agency itself was not that interested in a million Hungarian Jewish refugees.
As the trial went on, it became apparent that the trail of collaboration would lead right to the doorstep of the ruling Labour Party, and this Israel's leaders would not allow. The first to be murdered was Dr. Moshe Keren, one of Israel's leading political journalists, who was investigating the Kastner case. Just days before Kastner himself was to stand trial for collaboration, he was shot dead outside his house. Hecht himself may have been the last victim. Shortly after Perfidy was published, he too succumbed to a most suspicious death. Perfidy should be read by all. It turns out to be a damning portrayal of those first leaders of Israel who were the mentors of Israel's present leaders.
After analyzing the actions and the mistakes of the Eastern European Rabbis, of the assimilated communities in Western Europe, and of the Jewish Agency, the Israeli government at the time, let's now see what is happening today in the Jewish world. Have we learned from our mistakes? Or could it happen again?
When the Rabbi of Belz arrived in Israel after WWII, he said that the Rabbis of Europe had commited a grave mistake. If they would have encouraged their communities to move to Israel fifty years ago, Israel would look very different today. Despite this tragic error, all the destroyed religious communities from Eastern Europe have been reborn in Israel. And what do the great Rabbis say today?
Rav Shach, considered to be the head of the Yeshiva world, wrote in 1977: "The Jews of the Diaspora are sitting on a time bomb. Antisemitism is raising rapidly in all parts of the world. The only safe place for a Jew to live is in Israel. Just before the holocaust, the same warnings were sounded: Assimilation brings antisemitism. I remember those religious Jews in Europe who were starving. And if they would find a way to make money, even if they had to work on Shabbat, they would take it. They would say it was a life threatening (Pikuach Nefesh) situation. Assimilated Jews pretending to be religious. Who were they fooling? Only themselves."
Rabbi Menachem Mendl Schneerson, the Rabbi of Chabad-Lubavitch, the largest Chassidic organization in the world, said in 1979: "All Jews living in the Diaspora should strive to move to Israel. The Jewish Nation must settle the entire Land of Israel. Not even a grain of sand of our Holy Land can be given away to a non-Jew, certainly not to Israel's enemies (referring to the plan to give away Sinai to Egypt). Giving away Jewish Land will bring war and death to the Jews. I call upon all Jews living in Exile, go up to Eretz Israel, settle our Holy Land, redeem our inheritance, choose life."
Just like before the Holocaust, the great Rabbis are calling upon Jews to move to Israel. The alternatives may be death by assimilation or worse. Of course many Rabbis in Galut don't want people to go to Israel. For if their communities move to Israel, who is going to pay their salaries? Over who are they going to be a Rabbi? Money and power, that's the main issue for them. Hopefully, this time Jews will listen to the right Rabbis.
For most Jews in Galut, it is still a crazy idea to move to Israel. And what about the attitude of the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency? Apparently, they seem to be happy with the donations they get from Jews overseas, and don't really care if they come or not. What a shame. Has nothing been learned from the Holocaust?
