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Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah in Hebrew. The full name of this day of commemoration is Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, or Yom HaZikaron l'Shoah v l'G’vrurah. This is the day we remember more than six million European Jews who were murdered by the Nazis and their willing collaborators during World War II simply because they were Jewish, as well as heroes who resisted the Nazis' genocidal agenda.
The date for this remembrance marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, when imprisoned Jews resisted the Nazi effort to transport the remaining Jewish population to concentration camps.

The annihilation of six million men, women and children during World War II was the result of a comprehensive plan to identify and exterminate all the Jews of Europe. A number of gruesome methods were used to murder Jews wherever they were found, but the majority of the six million died in an extensive system of concentration and extermination camps. The most infamous camp was Auschwitz, which by 1945, had become the largest killing center where more than 1.1 million Jews, including more than 200 thousand children, were murdered in gas chambers and cremated in ovens.

The campaign to annihilate the Jews of Europe - also known as the "Final solution to the Jewish question" - was designed by high-ranking members of the Nazi party under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. However, the Nazis did not intend to stop with the elimination of European Jews and would have killed far more had they not been defeated by the Allied Forces.

On November 28, 1941, Adolf Hitler met with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. In that meeting, the German Fuhrer assured the Arab leader that as soon as the Jews of Europe were destroyed, the Jews of the Arab world would be as well. In fact, the Mufti - the leading Arab spokesman at the time - already had plans in place to carry out a genocide of the Jews living in their ancient homeland.

It is important to note that this meeting took place in 1941 - seven years before the reestablishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This means that - contrary to popular anti-Israel narratives which justify all violence against Israelis as "resistance" to an alleged "occupation" - the intent to eliminate Jews demonstrated as recently as October 7, 2023, is completely consistent with Arab plans to wipe them out long before the birth of the modern Jewish State. 

The existential threats Israel faces today come at the hands of Islamists who believe it is their religious duty to rid the world of Jews. Therefore, ever since the October 7th attack on Israel, we have witnessed an exponential rise in Islamist-inspired Jew-hatred worldwide, manifested in pro-Hamas marches that advocate for the elimination of the Jewish State, verbal and physical attacks on Jews, and encampments on college campuses in which pro-terror activists call for the destruction of Israel and America. 

Yom HaShoah in Israel

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Observance of Yom HaShoah in Israel started at sundown last night with the annual ceremony at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. The theme of this year's commemoration was “Out of the Depths: The Pain of Liberation and Growth.” Today's Yom HaShoah is the second since October 7, 2023, when more Jews were slaughtered in one day than any day since the Holocaust.

Speaking at the ceremony at Yad Vashem last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged parallels between what happened during the Holocaust and the terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, and applied those parallels to the current situation. He observed: “Yom HaShoah marks an important milestone in our efforts to eradicate those who seek to destroy us, bring back the hostages and to anchor our existence in our homeland for generations to come.”

He also honored ongoing efforts of the IDF to protect the people of Israel by stating: “Today, we have a powerful force that protects us, respected by the entire world. We have a country, we have an army, we have security forces, we have amazing soldiers who have a very fierce spirit.” 

In reference to ongoing efforts to restrain Israel's actions to completely defeat those who intend to destroy the Jewish people, Netanyahu declared: 

“No decision, no resolution can prevent us from settling the score with these despicable, terrible barbarians, who are as bad as the Nazis, who kidnapped, murdered and raped our loved ones.”  (The Hamas-led terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, resulted in horrific murders of over 1,200 men, women, children and elderly and the taking of 251 people hostage to Gaza.)

The Prime Minister further resolved: “On this Yom HaShoah, I promise that the military pressure on Hamas will continue, we will completely annihilate all of its capabilities, we will bring back all the hostages, we will triumph over Hamas and we will prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons.” The Jewish State “will not lose, will not give in and will not surrender—that is my mission as the prime minister of the State of Israel; that is the mission of all of us.” “Together, we stand, together we fight and together, God willing, we will win.”
 

A Call to Action

In light of the exponential rise in Jew-hatred since October 7, 2023 - manifested in pro-Hamas marches that advocate for the elimination of the Jewish State, verbal and physical attacks on Jews, and encampments on college campuses in which pro-terror activists call for the destruction of Israel and America - what is our responsibility as a Partnership of Christians and Jews? 

First, we must commit to stand together in the face of blatant evil. We must focus on what we have in common and work to build important and necessary relationships in such a time as this.

Second, we must learn from past failures to stand up to such evil. Historic Christian anti-Judaism fueled support for the Nazi agenda and enabled too many Christians to do nothing in the face of great evil. Erroneous beliefs that support Jew-hatred and anti-Zionism must be exposed and Christian opposition to Jewish life must never happen again!

Third, all of us - Jews and Christians - need to take to heart the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, renowned German theologian and pastor. He separated from the German Protestant Church over its support for the Nazis' "final solution to the Jewish question" and formed the Confessing Church, which unequivocally condemned Hitler's genocidal plan to rid the world of Jews. Before he was executed for his resistance to the Nazi agenda on April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer wrote:

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil...not to speak is to speak...not to act is to act."

This definitive statement is at least as relevant today as it was in Bonhoeffer's time. Therefore, on this day in which we remember the more than six million Jews who were murdered simply because they were Jewish, let us respond to the clarion call to speak and act in the face of evil made explicit by Bonhoeffer's stark observation.

We must not keep silent and we must not forget what happens when people do keep silent!

Indeed, in these times in which we live, we must strengthen our commitment to oppose Jew-hatred and anti-Zionism wherever and however they manifest. And in recognition of what happened to the Jewish people when they had no means to defend themselves, we must support Israel's right to exist and defend itself against those who intend to destroy the only Jewish State.  

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