Have We Forgotten?

"The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again." -George Santayana

That phrase is written in Auschwitz, the largest Nazi Germany concentration camp, where thousands if not millions of Jews were killed just because they were Jewish.

It didn't start that way though. Do you know how the Nazis got such a following and power that they were able to implement concentration camps? It all happened during a time of economic crisis in Germany after World War 1, when people already weren't thrilled with their government and unemployment was high. They started with brainwashing the youth using propaganda about how to better society and convincing them that this was the best, and possibly only, solution.

The Nazis also went after school curriculum by introducing race studies in classes and encouraging anti-Jew protests on college campuses. Sound familiar? They also got into politics and started gaining major ground in the country's leadership. As much as they could, they controlled the media, books, radio, newspapers, and more to promote their ideas. They targeted Jews especially, first by trying to get them to leave Germany and eventually by sending them to concentration camps, only to then torture and murder the Jews by the masses, which we now call the Holocaust.

I don't want to get into all the ins-and-outs of Nazi politics and Hitler's rise to power, but I want to point out that where Germany was in the 1930s and where we are today are frighteningly similar.

Have we forgotten the repercussions of the Nazi rise to power?

Have we forgotten the six million Jews that were killed because of it?

Have we forgotten that the "Final Solution" of wiping out the Jews didn't work before because they're God's chosen people? 

On college campuses, students have been protesting the Israel-Hamas war with signs "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free!" I don't think many of them realize that the Gaza strip does not go all the way to the river, nor that the Gaza strip used to be part of Israel in the Old Testament, but the point is: if they want Palestine to run from the river to the sea, that means they'd have to wipe out Israel (look up Israel Gaza map and you'll see what I mean. I'd post a picture here but I'm trying to avoid copyright infringement). Jewish students have been targeted on college campuses too.

Now, I can absolutely see why so many are pro-Palestine in this whole escapade. The media makes Israel out to be a villain after their civilians were raped, trafficked, murdered, and more, including their babies. It's terrible what Hamas did on Oct. 7! What would you do if your neighbor came into your house, murdered your children and kidnapped and raped your spouse? You'd fight back, right? Yet when Israel did just that, they're made out to be the "bad guy" because they're killing civilians in the process, who Hamas has literally been using civilians as human shields the entire time. Israel has gone out of their way to still provide as much supplies and support to the civilians where they're fighting back to, far beyond anything the U.S. (or most other nations) has ever done in war (that's a whole other rabbit trail though). Yet, Israel's the one getting the scrutiny and push-back during this war, whereas Palestine is being victimized because of the propaganda the media presents, even though Hamas is literally a terrorist organization.

Seeing how many of my generation are pro-Palestine and against Israel and, as a result (for many), all Jews, I'm sad at the state of our nation and concerned about the direction we're headed. Antisemitism started with the youth in Germany a century ago. Look where it's starting now.

I'm not saying we'll hit the level that Nazi Germany hit. I'm just saying we, as a nation, need to be cautious about where you go from here and be aware of the impact the changes happening in our nation are having on the next generations. Maybe, if we're careful and work to turn it around, we can do better moving forward than Germany did in the 30s and 40s. But if we keep trekking down this path, who knows where we'll be? I have a pretty good idea...

Don't forget the past, or you'll end up going down the same road as those who went before you did. Learn from history. It's important. It's recorded for a reason. Let's not repeat the mistakes of the past, shall we?

If you have thoughts on this as well, feel free to share them. And once again, keep pondering folks!