RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – How is it that this year, for the first time that I can remember, the annual international ‘Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day’ seems to be so front and center, to take on added meaning and to reach out across ethnic lines?
January 27 was the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, arguably the worst of the concentration camps. Is the long shadow of the Nazi’s murder of six million Jews touching us more now than usual and spreading? And why?
It’s a disturbing question fueled by events in the US and abroad of the past few weeks. A sampling:
- An eleven-hour attack and hostage-taking during a service in a Colleyville, Texas synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel.
- An unabashed Nazi demonstration in the streets of Orlando, Florida, caused a woman to write on Twitter: “This weekend in Orlando, Nazis chanted “The Jew is the devil” and “Jews rape children and drink their blood.” Their signs read “VAX THE JEWS” and “Let’s go, Brandon.” They gave Nazi salutes. It is not a drill, folks. It’s happening here.”
- In Poland, the government is practicing what has been labeled ‘Holocaust distortion’. Its government is focusing its remembrance not on the 900,000 jews murdered in the Treblinka camp but by honoring Poles who gave them some charity, among them railway workers and youths who stood close to the cattle cars ready to hand over water to Jews experiencing extreme thirst — in exchange for payments of gold or cash.
- With the few remaining Holocaust survivors in their seventies and eighties, recent surveys indicate that the seven decades of their cry to “never forget” is losing its former resonance.
Against the backdrop of a world that seems increasingly intent on abandoning human values and democracy in favor of the autocrat’s simplistic, easy answers to life’s hard questions, are we forgetting that the Holocaust was the result of an irrational fear among millions of otherwise average people and their unwillingness to ‘get involved’.
Typical of refusal to face reality is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who remained personally silent on the weekend’s Orlando Nazi demonstration until the following Monday afternoon and only then made a reluctant statement downplaying the whole affair and basically telling us he wasn’t getting involved. The unwillingness to get involved is almost as dangerous as the unrelenting drive of the leaders of many of the world’s democracies towards autocracy and perpetual power.
Just look at Hungary and Poland, countries shining lights on the road to democracy in the 1990s; both have now turned autocratic, consolidating their leaders’ power, suppressing political dissent, and forcing critics into silence. But not the adoring US right-wing media.
The arrogant and generally dishonest purveyor of disinformation, Tucker Carlson, a talking head with the largest audience on Fox News, recently spent a week broadcasting from Hungary, glorifying autocratic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the only European leader to endorse Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.
Michael J. Abramowitz, president of the esteemed Freedom House, said recently: “Democratically elected leaders are turning away from democracy and creating their own warped realities to consolidate and retain power. Through their successes so far, these anti-democratic regimes are setting an example and fueling the rise of authoritarianism in neighboring countries. Left unchecked, they have the potential to undermine democracy and legitimize the abuse of power in Europe and beyond.”
It is not a pretty picture.
While neither Brazil nor the US is there yet, that’s not because leading figures don’t wish to make the journey. There is no question that both Bolsonaro and Trump have strong fascist leanings.
The ‘Guardian’ has written that Brazil’s right-wing regime wants to censor textbooks, spy on teachers, and repress minority and LGBTQ+ groups. The paper has accused Bolsonaro of having “systematically undermined cultural, scientific and educational institutions in the country, and the press.”
In keeping with his awesome lack of sensitivity, Bolsonaro has proclaimed: “Work, unity, and the truth will set Brazil free,” echoing the motto on the gates of Auschwitz.
Banning books and denuding school libraries in the manner of the Nazis has once again become popular in the US. A school board in Tennessee, followed by numerous other states, has banned the Pulitzer prize-winning novel ‘Maus: A Survivor’s Tale’ from being taught in its classrooms. It graphically depicts the horrors of the Holocaust. Several states have recently passed laws against teaching “critical race theory,” an honest assessment of the history of US slavery.
No one ever suggested that maintaining a democracy was going to be uncomplicated. In the shadow of the Holocaust, as our countries trend towards the seemingly ‘easy’ answers to the world’s problems, the dilemma confronting us is simple.
Are we going to face the difficult choices required to keep democracy vital and alive, or are we going to look the other way and not get involved?