"NEVER SAY DIE"

World War II was different from any other military campaign - it was actually two wars running on parallel lines. One was with the usual objective of conquering territory. The other objective was a war of worldwide liquidation of  the Jews. In fact, Hitler was so obsessed by hatred that his last anti-Semitic tirade was written in his will, right before putting the pistol to his head!

Three weeks in the summer is an annual period of mourning for many Jews. It begins on the day when the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans in 69 BCE, and concludes when both Temples were destroyed. It is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, and incorporates many other tragedies that happened to the Jews at the same time of the year.

Fasting during the last day of this period (this coming Sunday), the book of Lamentations is read in the darkened synagogues. Although the events described above happened over 2,000 years ago, the book of Lamentations, which is part of the Bible, could have been written in our times.

The reality of the Holocaust was no less horrendous. It was the worst crime against humanity that has ever been perpetrated.

Last week, my son and his wife, myself and a friend, felt this was the right time for a visit to the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, called "Yad Vashem” - “Hand and Name” in English. These two words are taken from a psalm, which tells how the Jews fell into Babylonian captivity and God cheered them: "You will lose, O Israel, both sons and daughters. But I will give you an arm (strength) and a name (fame) …” Therefore, these two words, are an involuntary remembrance that, although millions of Israel's sons and daughters died, the Jews still have a strong arm and eternal name.

After a three-hour tour of “Yad Vashem”, I was so shattered that I was unable to continue for the last hour of the tour, which dealt with Hitler’s “final solution.” The following is a translation of the words written by my daughter-in-law:

“After passing several ghettoes, such as Lodz and Birkenau, we reached the “final solution” section. Amongst other terrible exhibits, were gruesome photos of piles of skeletons/ bodies being shovelled up, which were terrible to view.

Before  exiting the building, we were shown a short clip of a children’s choir singing the Israeli national anthem “Hatikva” – “the Hope”, together with Ben-Gurion’s announcement of the founding of the state of Israel.  It was clear that not one of those children in the choir survived the Holocaust - in which 1,500,000 children perished.

While Ben-Gurion was still speaking, we began walking a path which was sloping upwards (until this point we had been descending all the way). At the same time, the triangular walls of the whole building  were widening, until we finally reached an opening flooded with natural light - leading to an observation standpoint, with an outstanding birds-eye view of Jerusalem.

It was an overpowering, emotional  experience, hard to put into words. The understanding that, even after the inconceivable horror  of the Holocaust, there still remains an opening for hope, light, and vision. Almost surreal. What I felt was not only emotional but, in some way, physical.

It is very different between knowing the historic facts and experiencing them in the way they were so realistically depicted in Yad Vashem.

In the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “The hate that begins with Jewry never ends with Jewry. Antisemitism is the world’s most reliable early warning sign of a major threat to freedom, humanity and the dignity of difference.”