Holocaust ‘started with words of hate’

 

This version of my earlier antisemitism column that was published Nov. 4, 2022, in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, now appears online at Jewish Rhode Island.
It includes poignant comments from Holocaust survivors about how hate speech was the origin of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis.
They make the powerful argument that hate speech must be stopped before the kind of hate that led to the slaughter of Jews before and during World War II by the Nazis amid the both the indifference and active participation of the German people happens here.
The column also will appear in the December print edition of Jewish Rhode Island, which will be published on Friday, Dec. 2.
LINK: https://www.jewishrhody.com/stories/it-started-with-words-of-hate,22082?newsletter=22081

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Enough is enough, or is it?
Are Americans waking up to the disturbing resurgence of antisemitism to the point where they’ll stand up to those trying to make it open season on Jews?
Or, will the millions either embracing or acting indifferently toward antisemitic rants by the likes of entertainer Ye (formerly Kanye West) --- who on Twitter called for “death to Jews” --- continue their hateful view of the Jewish people, pushing us closer to the unthinkable?
Recent events have shown how dangerously close to a Holocaust we have become due to the demonizing of Jews by people who --- like the Germans during the rise of the Nazis In the 1930s --- want to blame the country’s problems on Jews.
Ye, in a post on Twitter (since deleted) to his millions of followers, wrote that he was going to go "death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE." Some companies, including Adidas, eventually cut their ties with Ye over the post, but his Twitter account remains.
Antisemitism mounts
But such despicable expressions of hate are only the tip of the iceberg:
* During a University of Florida-University of Georgia football game Oct. 29, the phrase “Kanye is right about the jews” was projected on the outside of one of the end zones at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.
* In late October in Los Angeles, antisemitic banners were displayed over the 405 Freeway.
* In Massachusetts, similar banners were spread across overpasses on highways in Saugus and Danvers in September, and in October, swastikas were found on a family’s lawn in Stoneham.
* In November, basketball player Kyrie Irving of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, and formerly of the Boston Celtics, was suspended for several days by the Nets for tweeting about a film that includes many antisemitic tropes and denies the Holocaust. Irving resumed playing for the Nets on Sunday, Nov. 20.
Chappelle mocks the gravity of antisemitism
The actions by Ye and Irving returned to the spotlight Nov. 12, when comedian Dave Chappelle, who like Ye and Irving is Black, devoted his lengthy monologue on “Saturday Night Live” to the controversies. He first read this statement: “I denounce antisemitism in all its forms. And I stand with my friends in the Jewish community.”
But then he added a series of jokes that made me feel extremely uncomfortable and had me doubting his sincerity: “And that, Kanye, is how you buy yourself some time,” he said right after his statement.
By the end of the monologue it was hard not to conclude that Chappelle was joining those who have either defended Ye and Irving or who have thought that way too much has been made of their hurtful actions.
That was unfortunate, because if you think hate speech is no big deal, you’re wrong, because such talk inevitably leads to violence, as it tragically did four years ago, when the deadliest attack on American Jews resulted in 11 being killed during a Sabbath service at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
‘It started with words of hate’
Holocaust survivors, including those who survived Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” are adding their inspiring voices to the warning against hate speech. On the night of Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis and Germans terrorized Jews in Germany and Austria, killing at least 91 and vandalizing 7,500 Jewish businesses.
Their voices have been raised as part of the #ItStartedWithWords campaign, which is being undertaken, according to the Associated Press, by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a digital education project allowing survivors a chance to reflect on the moments that led to the Holocaust.
“It started for me when I was 8 years old and I could not understand why my best friends were shouting bad names at me,” Auschwitz survivor Eva Szepesi, 90, told the AP.
Greg Schneider, the conference’s executive vice president, said in the same story that, “with the growing prevalence of Holocaust denial, distortion and hate speech on social platforms, the core message behind the ItStartedWithWords campaign becomes even more important: The Holocaust did not start with camps, ghettos and deportations; it started with words of hate.”
Indeed, that was precisely the strategy that the Nazis used in the 1930s as they targeted everyone not considered a “pure” German. That created the atmosphere that led to Jews being denied their basic rights, having their property seized and deported to concentration camps across Eastern Europe, where 6 million were slaughtered during the Holocaust. (Another 5 million non-Jews were also executed by the Nazis in their drive to “purify” Germany.)
Patriots owner takes a stand
Those determined to stand up to a revival of such vile hate include New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is Jewish. A nonprofit he founded aired an ad during the Oct. 30 Patriots-New York Jets NFL game that condemned anti-Jewish hate speech and encouraged non-Jews to speak up.
The 30-second spot from Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism said: "We hear you today. We must hear you tomorrow. There are less than 8 million Jewish people in this country. Fewer than are watching this ad. They need you to add your voice." The ad ended with the hashtag: #StandUptoJewishHate.
Kraft, in a statement on the dramatic rise in antisemitism, said: "I have committed tremendous resources toward this effort and am vowing to do more. I encourage others to join in these efforts. My hope is this commercial will continue to enhance the national conversation about the need to speak out against hatred of all types, and particularly to stand up to Jewish hate.”
Antisemitism, of course, isn’t new. Jews have been targeted for centuries, and when I grew up in Dorchester in the 1950s and ’60s, it was still commonplace for Jews to be excluded from many organizations and workplaces. My father was denied employment at the Boston Globe because in the ’50s, you could ask prospective employees their religion and he was told the Globe didn’t hire Jews.
Now, 77 years after the Allies liberated the Nazi death camps, neo-Nazis are using the same rhetoric, and with Holocaust survivors down to a precious few, it seems as if most Americans have forgotten what happened inside those camps.
That’s why American Jews will continue to be worried, if not frightened, until a majority of Americans say enough is enough to people who insist on demonizing them as a prelude to their extermination.
Think it can’t happen here? Many Germans who didn’t speak up when Hitler started persecuting the Jews thought it’d never happen there, either.
LARRY KESSLER (larrythek65@gmail.com) is a freelance writer based in North Attleboro. He blogs at https://larrytheklineup.blogspot.com/