YAISHWARYAJ: {Awareness} Remember Not To Forget

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This week's stories with PDF attachments:

- Remember Not To Forget

- 10 soldiers

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Remember Not To Forget

Jerusalem, Israel. It is spring, and visitors of all faiths, from many countries, have come to this holy city to celebrate Easter and Passover. A tall, handsome man enters a crowded souvenir store on Jaffa Road. "You speak German, perhaps?" the man asks the elderly shopkeeper.

"Yes, I do. Welcome to my store. You are enjoying your visit to our country?" the old man responds in flawless German.

"Yes, very much," the visitor answers. "Do you have one of those Jewish candelabras—you know, the kind that is the symbol of your country? I would like to take one home as a remembrance of my visit."

"Oh," replies the shopkeeper, "you mean a Menorah. Yes, of course, let me show you some."

After the young German selects a Menorah and pays for it, the shopkeeper shakes his hand and wishes him a safe journey home. As the old man stretches his hand forward, a distinctive purple number can be seen tattooed on his arm. It is the sign of a person once marked for death by other Germans, not so long ago.

Between 1933 and 1945 six million Jewish men, women and children were murdered in Germany and other European countries.

Although most of them died during World War II, they did not die because they were soldiers in battle. Neither were they guilty of any crimes. They died for only one reason: they were Jewish.

How could such a thing have happened? To answer this question, we must look far back in history.

Two thousand years ago the Jewish people lived in their own land. In the year 70 A.D. Jerusalem, their capital, was attacked and destroyed and the Jews were forced to leave their homes and their country.

For the next two thousand years they lived as wanderers and strangers in many countries of the world. And over those centuries the world witnessed the development of a new disease called anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism means a hatred of Jewish people, their religion, and their culture.

Its causes are fear and lack of understanding.

Its symptoms are name calling, unfair treatment, and violence.

Even when the disease of anti-Semitism seems cured the symptoms could break out again at any time.

As strangers in the countries where they lived, Jews were easy targets to blame for almost anything that might go wrong. Disease, hunger, war, unemployment—all these problems were blamed on the Jews.

For all those two thousand years Jews prayed for peace and the right to live again in freedom.

On the outside they endured:

Loneliness

Fear

Hate

On the inside they comforted themselves through:

Pride

Tradition

Religion

From 1933 to 1945 anti-Semitism was the official law of the land in Germany and the countries of Europe that Germany conquered. Under the slogan "The Jews Are Our Misfortune," Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party planned a series of programs designed to end what they called "The Jewish Problem."

First came the humiliations and expulsions.

Jews were no longer citizens. Their businesses were boycotted, and they were not allowed to practice their professions or trades. Jewish children could no longer attend public schools. And all Jews were forced to wear a symbolic yellow star in public.

Jews had lived in Germany for hundreds of years and had become active participants in all aspects of society. Soldiers, lawyers, businessmen, teachers—they proudly considered themselves, first and foremost, citizens of Germany.

Yet, there had always been anti-Semitism in the background. So when the Nazis came to power, openly threatening Jews, the Jews could not at first believe that any actual harm would come to them. When anti-Jewish laws appeared, some Jews saw the danger signs and fled Germany. But many others waited. By the time the danger became real, it was too late for them to escape.

…

(To be continued in the PDF attachment)

Norman H. Finkelstein

Remember Not To Forget

Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society, 2004

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10 soldiers

10 soldiers go to war, with a flower in each gun and a smile on their lips. The 10 soldiers go to war to defend, to defend… no one really knows what.

In the shelter, behind the castle walls, the Queen encourages them:

— Fight to the death!

The 10 soldiers take a stony road to go to war.

Martin goes ahead. He is a brave soldier. He marches like a warrior, making the others run to catch up with him.