I just returned from a trip to Berlin and I wanted to mention a few things on the blog. The reason I went was last summer my Dad said he wanted to see Berlin so we decided to go for several days over Memorial Day weekend. It is a beautifully diverse city with much history to explore, both recent history and earlier. My Dad was most interested in the Jewish sites such as the holocaust memorial and the Jewish Museum which were both very well done.
The Berliners we contacted were very pleasant and elicited mixed emotions from me. On the one hand these are the decendents of perpetrators of the worst crime ever commited in the history of humanity yet on the other hand I had empathy that they had to suffer the stigma of sins commited by others. What should be the realtionship between son of perpetrator and son of victim? I do not think there is a resolution to this conflict.
The next to last day we took a walking tour of Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp, located twenty minutes outside of Berlin. It was a very emotional visit especially since my wife's grandfather had been a victim of the Nazis in that particular camp. The tour guide was excellent as he tried to bring the site to life. He tried to have us picture in our minds the sufferring of the victims as individuals and the evil of the Nazis also as individual monsters.
I asked the guide if many Muslims come to visit the site as Berlin has a sizeable Muslim/Turkish population. I was curious because of the holocaust denial that seems prevalent amongst the Muslims as spearheaded by the modern day Hitler, Ahmadinejad. He said not many Muslims come but tried to put a spin on my question by relating a story that there was one Muslim victim of the camp during WWII. Not a satisfactory response. Although he did say that school children, including the Muslim school children come to the site as part of their curriulum.
Of course, holocaust denial is not a purely Muslim phenomenon. But my sense is if you polled Americans or Europeans the percentage of deniers would be under 5% while the same poll amongst Middle Eastern Muslims would be 20% at the minimum. I do not have hard data to support thiese numbers, just my suspicion. The horriffic fact is that the current response by Muslims is not the denial of holocaust but the desire to recreate it in the name of "the prophet". Check out the link below.
The one thought I kept coming back to was the importance of the State of Israel to the Jewish people. It is absolutely critical for our ability to defend ourselves and we must only depend on ourselves for our future. Next time we are not going down without a fight. AM YISROEL CHAI!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0qkUB_SHQE&feature=player_embedded
The Berliners we contacted were very pleasant and elicited mixed emotions from me. On the one hand these are the decendents of perpetrators of the worst crime ever commited in the history of humanity yet on the other hand I had empathy that they had to suffer the stigma of sins commited by others. What should be the realtionship between son of perpetrator and son of victim? I do not think there is a resolution to this conflict.
The next to last day we took a walking tour of Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp, located twenty minutes outside of Berlin. It was a very emotional visit especially since my wife's grandfather had been a victim of the Nazis in that particular camp. The tour guide was excellent as he tried to bring the site to life. He tried to have us picture in our minds the sufferring of the victims as individuals and the evil of the Nazis also as individual monsters.
I asked the guide if many Muslims come to visit the site as Berlin has a sizeable Muslim/Turkish population. I was curious because of the holocaust denial that seems prevalent amongst the Muslims as spearheaded by the modern day Hitler, Ahmadinejad. He said not many Muslims come but tried to put a spin on my question by relating a story that there was one Muslim victim of the camp during WWII. Not a satisfactory response. Although he did say that school children, including the Muslim school children come to the site as part of their curriulum.
Of course, holocaust denial is not a purely Muslim phenomenon. But my sense is if you polled Americans or Europeans the percentage of deniers would be under 5% while the same poll amongst Middle Eastern Muslims would be 20% at the minimum. I do not have hard data to support thiese numbers, just my suspicion. The horriffic fact is that the current response by Muslims is not the denial of holocaust but the desire to recreate it in the name of "the prophet". Check out the link below.
The one thought I kept coming back to was the importance of the State of Israel to the Jewish people. It is absolutely critical for our ability to defend ourselves and we must only depend on ourselves for our future. Next time we are not going down without a fight. AM YISROEL CHAI!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0qkUB_SHQE&feature=player_embedded
BRAVO well said as Rabbi Kahanah A"H said NEVER AGAIN
ReplyDeletei think it is great that you went with your father. in another blog you captured his perspective on I believe anti-semitism relating back to the holocaust. I wonder what his experience was? hearing from someone who has first hand experience is very powerful. hearing that you visitid the camp of your wife's grandfather is also very powerful....may your children be a source of jewish growth and a source of merit to him.
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