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Home » Auschwitz » Page 2

July 5, 2016 By Olivier Melnick 4 Comments

Holocaust Memory: What Would Elie Wiesel Do?

Elie-Wiesel-NYC-3.9.07-075Eliezer Wiesel was born in 1928 in Romania. He was fifteen when he and his whole family were deported to Auschwitz. He spent most of his internment in the camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, with his father Shlomo. Elie Wiesel survived the horrors of the Holocaust. He was greatly motivated by the desire to take care of his beloved father who unfortunately died in Buchenwald just a few weeks before the liberation of that camp. One of his three sisters and his mother also perished in the camps. Elie had become a Holocaust survivor and an orphan at age 17.

Elie Wiesel passed away on July 2nd , 2016 at the age of 87. In a sense, the passing of this giant is the silencing of one voice who for six decades, as he continued to live through the nightmares of his gruesome experience, chose to perpetuate Holocaust memory in any way he could. He leaves behind him 57 books, too numerous to list or recommend here except for Night, written in 1960, that should be a must read for everyone. Night is Elie Wiesel’s Memoir of his time in the Death Camps with his father. Among the myriad of awards and recognitions that he accumulated over the years, Wiesel received the Nobel Peace prize in 1986. But to him, even in his last days, much remained to be accomplished to remember the past and alleviate a similar future.

To Wiesel, apathy or indifference was one the worst evil in the world.   That is exactly why he spent the bulk of his life educating a world in shock that later morphed into a numb world to eventually become the postmodern world in denial that it currently is. He once said “I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.”  He had always felt guilty of not being able to do more for his dad during their imprisonment in the camps. He felt that he didn’t deserve to live as he also wrote “that I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to have toast and tea and live my life – that is what is abnormal.”

Beyond a powerful legacy, he leaves us with a tremendous challenge. We must continue his fight.  If we remain silent, his voice will fade away into oblivion or worse, get relegated to a couple of statements about an event that many are already starting to doubt. The world cannot afford to be silent, apathetic or indifferent.

The Holocaust took place more than 75 years ago which means that any survivor still alive today would be at least 75 years old–as unlikely as it might be–if they were born in the camps. The average age of all holocaust survivors today is closer to 80. Logically, the 500,000 worldwide Holocaust survivors, will all be gone within ten years…and then what? I fear that beyond the respectful eulogies and posthumous accolades Wiesel receives, people will quickly move back to their busy lives and allow the revisionists and antisemites to win the next battle.

We must continue to educate people about the Holocaust. There are numerous Holocaust memorials and museum throughout the world, many of them in the United-States. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Wasshington, D.C (whose founding chairman was Elie Wiesel) is one of them. Visit the one nearest you and make sure you accompany yourselves with some people from the next generation. This goes along with Wiesel’s statement that “Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.”

We must also continue to speak up against any form of xenophobia, being antisemitism or any other kind. Wiesel came out of the camps barely alive, but he still had enough breath to keep fighting. He wasn’t only the ambassador of Holocaust remembrance, but also spoke against any and all ills rooted in racism. The current threat of a global annihilation of Israel and the Jews is very real. Europe is on high alert, Israel has been on edge since 1948 and the rest of the world can often be found on the forefront of the new antisemitism, blindly demonizing the Jews. Be aware and sensitive to what is happening in your own community and be responsive to defend and even lend a hand when needed. It is always appropriate to reach out and help those in need, even if they turn you down, your intentions will not go unnoticed.

In Night, Wiesel capsulized the agonizing feeling of not being able to forget the atrocities of the Holocaust ” Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.”

To honor the memory of Elie Wiesel is more than appropriate, but to remember the Holocaust is vital to the survival of Western civilization. As a matter of fact, to remember the Holocaust and teach it to the next generation IS to honor the memory of Elie Wiesel.

Filed Under: Antisemitism, Featured-Post-2, God, Holocaust, Jewish, Political Correctness Tagged With: Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Death Camps, Elie Wiesel, Night, Racism, Revisionist, Xenophobia

January 27, 2015 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Why Do We Still Remember?

January 27 is International Holocaust Memorial Day and this year also happens to be the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Soon after the 1945 opening of the death camps and rescuing of those who had miraculously survived, a motto was born: NEVER AGAIN. Emaciated walking corpses believed in that statement and many of them tried to look towards a brighter future or any future if even possible. Seventy years later, most of these survivors have passed. Could it be that they have taken their motto with them?

Yom_Hashoah_candleAs it appears in some places, there is a tragic “Holocaust fatigue” plaguing the world these days. The BBC just tweeted the following statement: ” Is the time coming to lay the Holocaust to rest?”, demonstrating quite clearly that they either have a very short memory of the events of two weeks ago in Paris or that they simply are clueless about what is appropriate. But they are not alone in this postmodern quest to minimize the Shoah. They might not be deniers or revisionists but in their process of watering down the “Catastrophe” or even asking such a question, are they helping those who flat out reject the Holocaust? So they ask the question: ‘Why do we remember ?” I could answer that question but instead, I will let Evelyn do that.

In the 1970’s, Evelyn was in her forties, sitting in a park on the east side of Paris, watching her young boy playing with schoolmates after school had let out. This was a daily routine for Evelyn, as she was sitting on a park bench watching people. Suddenly she overheard two ladies that she knew from her small town having a discussion. It wasn’t long before the two ladies started to denigrate the Jews in their own words. Evelyn knew them and they knew her. She had not told them or anybody in town that she was Jewish, but that day was too much, so she interrupted the ladies and with all the boldness she could muster, she looked them in the eyes and said:” You know that I am Jewish, right?” The two ladies were taken aback and very embarrassed, while Evelyn was liberated from the prison of her Jewish identity.

That afternoon, as Evelyn walked back to her house with her son, I wonder how much better she really felt? I wonder if when she approached her home, she remembered the day some 25 years ago when she saw the Gestapo coming to that very house and taking her father Maurice to his death in Auschwitz -Birkenau? As she walked through the small corridor leading to her front door, she could probably visualize her father hiding in the cellar in 1942, right under her feet.

It had taken 25 years for Evelyn to dare speaking out and telling others she was Jewish. She remembered the time she spent in the South West of France, hiding on a farm in a small village near the town of Pau. She didn’t know it then, but her life was being preserved by a family of simple peasants who would later be recognized as “Righteous Gentiles” by Yad Vashem.

Evelyn is now 87 and she still lives in the same house. She has had a full life. She has two children, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. In a sense, that is the best revenge that the Jewish people could have had after the Shoah. Survivors got up, got better and started families to prove once more that God will never completely forsake Israel (Jeremiah 31:35-37).

Evelyn remembers all these events very well. But she is scared again. When the Paris terrorist attacks of early 2015 took place, she was very nervous. The Kosher Supermarket was only a few hundred yards from the house she lives in and only 30 yards from one of her granddaughters’ apartment. When her son called to check on her and ask her to stay inside, she started crying and said:” They’re coming back aren’t they”? Her son didn’t quite know what to say.

Why do we still remember the Shoah? Because current antisemitism could lead to another catastrophe if we allow our minds to even entertain the idea that the Shoah needs to be archived into history.

Why do we still remember the Shoah? Because people like Evelyn are real and they went through a real nightmare.

Why do we still remember the Shoah isn’t even the question to ask.

Evelyn is my mother, and the real question is: “How dare we forget?”

Filed Under: Antisemitism, Featured-Post-1, Holocaust Tagged With: Anti-Semitism, Auschwitz, Holocaust

August 26, 2009 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

HATRED BREEDS HATRED: WHO’S BETTER NOW!?

Two recent events have prompted me to write this article as I always seek to educate those around me (physically and virtually).

I constantly have to remind myself that in the process of exposing the vitriolic lies spread by anti-semitism and greatly through radical Islam, I am always a stone’s throw from hating back those who hate us. It has been a personal battle of mine to live Matthew 5:44 daily:

“But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”

It is so much easier to get on my “holier than thou” soap box and point the finger at the enemy(ies), but we MUST resist the temptation and respond to hate with love, the love of Yeshua the Messiah that is!

If we claim that we have the truth and that God lives in us, if we claim that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is LOVE, then we’d better show that love to those we know are lost and without it.

The question is: “Are we showing the love of Yeshua?”

In the case of a Florida church, I am not convinced that their approach to Islam is building rather than burning bridges. The fact is, few if any real bridges exist between Christians and Muslims.

Apparently, the church put up a sign on their property saying “Islam is of the Devil”. Additionally, they printed the same message on T-shirts that some of their congregants started to wear, including in school. The result was that the kids were sent home for “breech of dress code”.( read full article here)

It looks to me that some people are stuck in Matthew 5:43 “ You have heard that it was said, ‘ YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, and hate your enemy.’ and didn’t read 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you”.

Responding to hate with more hate is the opposite of what Yeshua told his followers to do. It looks to me like some of us believers in Yeshua need to take a closer look at His Word.

On another note but on the same topic, there is a new movie directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Brad Pitt, titled “Inglorious Basterds”. I must confess that I have not seen and have no intention to see the movie. But after talking to people who did and reading reviews, it appears that the movie focuses on “killing Germans” as some sort of revenge. This can only generate more anti-semitism as it will fuel the hatred that the world already has against Israel and the Jewish people.

I lost my own grandfather in Auschwitz after he was taken by the Gestapo from the home where his daughter (my mom) still lives in, near Paris. I guess I have a good reason to hate the Germans. My mother even more so,as they took her dad in front of her eyes when she was only 14.

But Yeshua changed me 26 years ago when I invited him to become My Messiah, My Lord and Savior. He loved me enough to die for me, I love Him enough to live for Him and if to live foHim means to love my enemies and pray for them…..

SO BE IT.


Filed Under: Antisemitism Tagged With: anti-Semitic, Anti-Semitism, Auschwitz, Devil Germanos, Hatred, Islam Muslim, Jew Flrida Church, Jewish

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