* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
I share the following list every year on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). It’s a list of six distressing facts about the Holocaust compiled by Professor Yosef Ben-Shlomo, of blessed memory:
1. Judenrein. For the first time in history (other than Haman's plot against the Jews in ancient Persia), one nation sought the complete elimination of another, despite the fact that the vast majority of the nation targeted for extermination lived outside the territory of the aggressor nation. The goal was not to just put the other nation into exile but to erase it from the face of the earth. In Nazi documents on the number of Jews destined for death, even the tiny Albanian Jewish community of 200 souls was noted.
2. Absence of opposition. In the Wannsee Conference of January, 1942, the "final solution" was unanimously approved by the fifteen attendees, all of whom held high-ranking ministerial positions in the German government, and eight of whom held doctorate degrees.
3. The Germans worked against their own interests in World War II. Even as Germany was losing the war, instead of investing in fighting enemy forces alone, this evil regime continued to “waste" energy on their Jewish extermination project.
4. They were not crazy. Among the murderers were family men and women, professionals, and intellectuals. They were perfectly sane. Millions of ordinary, regular folks did not see any problem with taking part in this giant extermination project.
5. The concentration camps were not bombed. The death factories continued to operate without interference by the Western allied nations or their armies, even while the allies regularly bombed Nazi munitions factories.
6. There was no way out. Unlike their ability to cope with other horrendous decrees and persecutions throughout history, the Jews of Europe had no way out. There was no possibility of saving themselves through cooperation with the enemy, or by being exiled, or by conversion to another faith. Death was their only option.
Today we face Holocaust denial, ignorance, and forgetfulness, as well as existential threats from Iran . It is therefore more important than ever not only to remember what happened, but to make a commitment never to allow the Jewish people to be threatened but rather protected throughout the world. The Holocaust was a unique, one-time event in human history that was committed upon a unique people. And so it is worth pondering this question: If absolute evil sees an enemy in us — what should be our mission?
