Holocaust survivors have a message that we must hear

No one with any sense of decency and regard for humanity can be other than deeply moved by the heartfelt statement issued on Wednesday by 102 Holocaust survivors living in Australia. Having got through the unspeakable horrors of Hitler’s Nazi pogroms, their warning about the barbaric Hamas terrorists’ mass slaughter of Jews on October 7, and the appalling wave of gross anti-Semitism seen in our country and around the world that has followed it, could not be more important or timely.

Some now in their 90s, they were all witnesses to the Holocaust. They were among its victims. They know what they are talking about. They are, as their statement read, “the last witnesses to the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi regime”. That they see parallels between then and what is happening now should sound alarm bells with everyone – Australian and non-Australian – living in our country and elsewhere. The actions of Hamas are so familiar, so barbaric, yet instead of condemning this, the response across the globe is a shameful spike in anti-Semitism.

“Our memories and our experiences in ghettos, concentration camps and in hiding – seeing our families and communities vanish – compel us to raise our voices and implore humanity to reject hatred, bigotry and violence. To recognise the agenda of Hamas, condemn it accordingly and call for the immediate release of all hostages – men, women, babies and the elderly,” the Holocaust survivors said.

Few words written since October 7 have been more relevant as Australia and countries across the world watch the horror of what is happening in the Middle East and try to make sense of the mindless upsurge of anti-Semitism in our midst. Out of the mouths of the bloodthirsty thugs who run Hamas, an Iranian proxy, comes not the slightest remorse for its gross massacre of innocents and the anti-Semitism it has stirred, but the promise, like that from Hamas politburo member Ghazi Hamas, that the terrorists are aiming to repeat October 7 “many times … there will be a second, a third, a fourth October 7 until Israel is totally annihilated”. And warnings like that from the top Hamas leader, Khaled Mashal, when, in discussing “freedom” for Palestine, he noted cynically “nations are not easily liberated … the Russians sacrificed 30 million people in WWII to be free from Hitler’s attack … the Vietnamese sacrificed 3.5 million people until they defeated the Americans”.

That is the terrorists’ utterly evil mindset. And that is why the alarm sounded by the Holocaust survivors, with their experience and wisdom, must be heard even by those like the 300 Australian lawyers who sent a painfully naive letter to the Albanese government on Wednesday demanding a ceasefire in the Middle East and urging that Australia halt defence exports to Israel “and secure the immediate return of hostages” – as if Australia has any power to do so.

Such claptrap is typical among those who see moral equivalence between Hamas’s evil and the Jewish state’s inalienable right to defend itself and its people against the terrorists’ unprovoked bastardry.

The same mindless, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel sentiment doubtless underpinned a gathering of 200 journalists working for the taxpayer-funded ABC to consider its coverage of the war. Anxiety was reportedly expressed about the ABC’s “unwillingness” to use language such as “invasion”, “occupation”, “genocide”, “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” in relation to Israel. The poor ABC employees were also concerned that coverage of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza “relied too heavily on the talking points of the Israel Defence Forces”. Not much, however, about the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry’s unverified claims about the number of Palestinian casualties caused by Israeli bombing.

It is probably being seen, too, in the absurd decision the wacky Merri-bek Council, which includes Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs, including Brunswick, Coburg, Glenroy and Pascoe Vale, took to use its vast powers to intervene forcefully to influence the course of the Middle East crisis. Trumpeting the “war crimes” being committed “by Israel against the Palestinians”, it resolved to fly the Palestinian flag for six months, demand Australia end all economic, political and diplomatic ties with Israel, and cancel contracts with companies that support Israel. That should have an impact!

Sadly, the Merri-bek Council is not alone in its irrational, one-sided lunacy. The “Free Palestine” protests being seen across Australia and the world are similarly ill-conceived. They have more to do with the wave of anti-Semitism that the Holocaust survivors have warned of than any serious concern for the plight of Palestinians suffering the consequences of the unprovoked war launched by Hamas on October 7.

Holocaust survivors, including 99-year old Auschwitz survivor Abram Goldberg, whose entire family other than his sister was murdered by the Nazis, have sounded the alarm. It is a warning that must be heard, not just in Australia, but across the world. The likely consequences if we do not could not be more dire.