Message of the Shoah

Today is Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.

Shops are closed, radio and TV stations muted.

At least in some small part of the world there is more than lip service to the torture and ultimate destruction of 6,000,000 souls.

My father was one of the fortunate survivors. However, until his death at the age of 41 - from heart disease contracted in Auschwitz - he used every day of his subsequent freedom to ‘tell the story’. To ensure that future generations would know what happened. How inmates of the death camps risked their lives to bake matzah for Pesach and find oil for Chanukah lighting.

If he were living today, I am sure he would be warning all of us not to let history repeat itself. Adolf Hitler set out his clear plans to wipe out the Jews and subjugate the world to his will in Mein Kampf. Few took him seriously. Jews ignored the threat and world leaders like Neville Chamberlain described Herr Hitler as ‘an honourable man’.

Ahmad Ahmadinejad has done exactly the same. He says what he means to do and he means to do what he says. And he aims to do so with the help of weapons that will defy even the most powerful coalition when they finally wake up and get mobilised.

The message of Yom Hashoah and all the holocaust memorials around the world is no longer ‘Never Again’.

It’s beyond that.

Today’s message is: ‘You’d better believe it!’

And fast.