Every year, in honor of the so-called "Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day", the sirens blare solemnly for two minutes of still and silent contemplation. This is apparently meant to remind us of the horrors of the Holocaust, for some reason. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, this reason is to perpetuate the memory of insane, hateful individuals who took it upon themselves to kill millions of innocent people with horrifying efficiency.
Every year, between the depressing movies on the TV and the not-really-depressing songs on the radio, the various official ceremonies try to appear serious and respectful as they light 6 candles, and let 6 people say that, yes, they too might possibly have distant relatives that perished in the camps. The recycled texts and songs disgracefully remind us that nobody, in fact, cares enough to refresh the thoroughly chewed contents of these ceremonies. Now, I'll be the first to admit that this sort of remembrance by meaningless repetition is a staple of Jewish tradition, but from a sane and secular viewpoint, it's still disrespectful to the slain and the survivors alike.
Let's cut to the chase: every year, while the sirens scream, while the candles are lit, while the TV shows the same sad movies, who is it that we remember? Why, the exact same party we remember in any similar occasion, of course: The Bad Guys. Just like everybody remembers the name of Jack the Ripper but nobody remembers the names of his victims, commemorating this crime yields nothing but eternal life for the criminals. When you're standing still, some of the names that are likely to be etched inside your respectfully bowed head are:
- Adolf Hitler
- Adolf Eichmann
- Dr. Josef Mengele
- Joseph Goebbels
- Hermann Goering
- Heinrich Himmler
There are probably a few others that come to mind. You can take a peek at this list of 15 Nazis and, I am certain, find that most of them are familiar to you. Everybody knows Eva Braun, too, and she didn't even get personally involved with the Jew-killing (as far as I'm aware).
And who's on the other side? How many of The Good Guys (AKA The Victims) do we actually remember on this remembrance day?
- Anne Frank
Some might remember Mordechai Anielewicz, if they'd been extremely attentive, but I had to google his last name as well. The victims, the very people we pretend to commemorate, mostly remain anonymous.
You might say that this is an opportunity to remember family members who were murdered in the Holocaust, but then, why the special day and why the special treatment? You have hundreds of dead relatives, certainly some that died more recently and that were closer to you. Do you spend an entire sad day every year in their memory? The only difference is the circumstances, because these particular people were killed by Hitler.
Even supposing that you do want to dedicate a day to grieving those family members, and that this, of all days, makes sense for it, doesn't it become cheap by being shared with everyone in the country? This is not a day that you have chosen to dedicate to your family, but a day that has been chosen by someone else, arbitrarily, to collectively grieve some anonymous dead people that almost no living person today ever knew personally. Suppose you've lost a dear family member in recent years and every year you remember them on the date of their demise; would you trade that day for a national Remembering-The-Dead Day? Again, the only difference is the circumstances, because these people were among Hitler's victims.
Every year, a day is dedicated to the memory of something which, in itself, isn't amazingly memorable; people have been killing one another since the dawn of time. Even today, I have no doubt, somebody somewhere is killing a person in ways that would make Hitler cringe. Pretending to commemorate these particular victims, which, as victims, were so un-special that we cannot even remember their names, does nothing except commemorate their murderers. I, for one, do not feel that these murderers deserve to be commemorated.
But these reasons, on the whole, mostly appeal to those who frankly and actively want to remember the dead, which is a rather personal thing. Why must the rest of us face all this excess sadness? War, famine, pestilence and death ravage the world every hour of every day, and depression is generally considered an international epidemic; do we really need to dedicate a whole day every year to sheer sadness? Why should a person who enjoys their life stop on this day and be miserable? Worse, why should a person who is already miserable suffer more on this day?
This is as if somebody said: Hitler made it his goal to exterminate all Jews and failed, so for one day every year we're going to feel bad for him. For an entire day we will show respect for his handiwork. For 2 minutes we will even go as far as to stop our lives completely, and pretend to be dead for his sake. I cannot even imagine how this made it into Jewish tradition, which includes, for example, the following holy days:
But these reasons, on the whole, mostly appeal to those who frankly and actively want to remember the dead, which is a rather personal thing. Why must the rest of us face all this excess sadness? War, famine, pestilence and death ravage the world every hour of every day, and depression is generally considered an international epidemic; do we really need to dedicate a whole day every year to sheer sadness? Why should a person who enjoys their life stop on this day and be miserable? Worse, why should a person who is already miserable suffer more on this day?
This is as if somebody said: Hitler made it his goal to exterminate all Jews and failed, so for one day every year we're going to feel bad for him. For an entire day we will show respect for his handiwork. For 2 minutes we will even go as far as to stop our lives completely, and pretend to be dead for his sake. I cannot even imagine how this made it into Jewish tradition, which includes, for example, the following holy days:
| Day | What happened | What we do on this day |
|---|---|---|
| Chanukah | The Romans tried to kill us, conquered our land and destroyed our holy temple. | Light colorful candles, play with a dreidel, give money to kids, and eat delicious extra-oily foodstuffs. |
| Purim | The Persians tried to kill us, apparently unsuccessfully. | Give candy to people, wear costumes, donate to charity, and generally be happy. The Hebrew Wikipedia page on this subject claims the bible literally forbids being sad on this day. |
| Passover | We escaped Egypt after being enslaved for centuries, and Pharaoh commanding to kill all our male babies. | While most actual traditions of this holiday revolve around obsessive-compulsive behaviour, it is by all means a happy day and a happy month, and some go as far as saying the whole month is forbidden to grieve in. |
| Holocaust Remembrance Day | The Germans tried to kill us, but failed to finish the job. | Mourn, grieve, and pretend to be dead for 2 minutes. |
If the Holocaust deserves to have a day dedicated to it at all, it should be for celebrating our national escape from certain doom. If the destruction of our holy temple by a conquering empire can be given a positive spin (i.e. "God Almighty gave us enough oil to light our lamps!"), I'm sure that we can spare some happiness for the memory of how a murderous maniac, who initiated the biggest war in the history of mankind and killed tens of millions of people, ultimately failed in his carefully orchestrated scheme to kill all Jews.
While this covers the emotional and historical aspects, there is another reason for this holiday which people inevitably mention: What if another Hitler arises?
Well? What if another Hitler arises? How is remembering the original Hitler going to stop him? There is only one kind of person who would avoid doing something because "someone has done it in the past", and, frankly, I don't think hipsters are known for committing war crimes.
But seriously, what kind of reason is that? The reason not to commit genocide is not "it's been done before", but "it's a bad thing to do". If you're a parent trying to teach your kid that stealing is wrong you may choose the moral approach ("It hurts other people"), the pragmatic approach ("You'll get thrown in prison"), the philosophical approach ("How would you feel if someone stole from you?") or just the direct approach ("It's bad!"). Can you even imagine a parent telling their kid not to steal because "This guy 70 years ago stole a lot of things"? Sounds like a surefire way of raising a little criminal, if anything.
While some people imagine that the memory of the original event gives us a frame of reference for next time, perhaps a few pointers and indicators for warning signs to watch out for, the truth is the absolute opposite. This merely gives us a cheap weapon to use in arguments when we have nothing good to say, or an even cheaper weapon when we want to incite emotion in the masses. How cheap is this weapon? Approximately this much. How can you stop someone from being a Nazi if, as every resident of the internet knows, merely making a comparison to the Nazis makes you automatically lose the debate?
It's not just the internet, either. I can't remember any Israeli prime minister or defense minister in my lifetime who wasn't accused of being a Nazi, and so were countless other army commanders of varying ranks. Twice in the last few years our very own orthodox Jews have used Holocaust imagery in their protests against democracy. This probably isn't as widespread in the rest of the world, but plenty of foreign politicians are also called Nazis whenever the opportunity arises.
The very term "Nazi", in fact, has become such a tired cliche that it pops up everywhere, and in our very own country that should be holding the concept sacred, every right wing supporter has been dubbed a rightnazi, every left wing supporter is a leftnazi, every feminist is a feminazi and every vegetarian is a vegginazi. To see just how overused the Nazi cliche is, simply answer this question for me: what do you call a person, especially online, who often corrects grammatical mistakes made by others?
If another mustached madman ever truly arises in attempt to finish off the Jews, he will laugh and shrug off all Nazi accusations, just like countless thousands before him have. This constant use of the term in ridiculous settings has done nothing but desensitize the entire world to the actual horrors of the Holocaust; if pointing out the difference between "your" and "you're" puts me in the same camp as a genocidal dictator, then apparently being a genocidal dictator isn't all that bad.
If you want to prevent a second Holocaust, the best thing you can do is forget everything you ever knew about the Holocaust and argue this case from a moral or pragmatic, rather than historical, point of view. The best thing you can hope the memory of Hitler will achieve is absolutely nothing; the worst is inspiration for other people who already have a similar mindset and will not be deterred by an argument of this sort.
The name of Hitler, and other individuals of similar circumstances, is often mentioned in Hebrew suffixed by the expression יימח שמו, which Babylon helpfully translates as "May his name be erased". It might be time to do what we've been absentmindedly saying for two thirds of a century, and, instead of granting eternal life on the pages of history, to erase Hitler's name from those pages and let him rot in the anonymity that he so well deserves.