Holocaust Remembrance Day comes around each year, and as we move further away from one of history's most brutal genocides, it's easy to treat it as an issue of the past. But the words 'Never Again' are only weakly comforting; look at the treatment of the Rohinga Muslims in Myanmar and you'll see a 21st century story of a group being persecuted for their faith. Now more than ever, I think it's essential to remain educated and aware of the prejudices that divide our world today.
We all know that a lot of discrimination goes on in the world, yet I feel anti-semitism is a type of discrimination that is hardly ever spoken about.
After having visited Auschwitz last year with my grandparents, I was horrified to learn that human beings could perform such acts; the murder of 13 million people, 6 million Jews. The car ride back to the hotel was a silent one, speechless. I still struggle to even describe that day. Since then, my outlook on society has changed and I am more aware of the antisemitism which lies beneath its surface. I would like more people to understand and be able to identify antisemitism.
What is anti-semitism?
The Oxford definition of Anti-semitism is ‘hate that is felt towards Jewish people; unfair treatment of Jews’. This refers to when Jewish people are abused physically or verbally. The most extreme example of this was the Holocaust/Shoah, where 6 million Jews were murdered.
How did it come about?
Antisemitism is a complex issue, rooted in centuries of intolerance.
In the year 70 C.E The Jewish State was destroyed by the Romans, meaning that the Jewish community was scattered across the ancient world. In the subsequent 2000 years, Jewish communities have lived as small and peaceful minorities in most countries.
During the middle ages the majority of the population were Christian, and Jews were often alienated for their faith. Due to Jewish involvement in The Crucifixion story, they were the frequent victims of prejudice and were sometimes isolated from the rest of the population, forced to live in ghettos.
In the 13th Century Jews were often obliged to wear yellow circles on their chest or pointed hats, in order to visibly ostracise them. As prejudices accumulated, Jews were prohibited from owning land, so were therefore unlikely to work in agriculture or farming. As a result, many Jewish people became involved in the finance industry as money lenders or bankers, given that Christians were not allowed to lend at interest during the Middle Ages.
Due to their presence in trade and finance, people began to accuse the Jewish community of being greedy and power-hungry, leading to the evolution of ghost stories and harmful stereotypes. This unfair legacy has lasted hundreds of years and become deeply rooted in society around the world.
In 1920s and 30s Germany, Hitler and the Nazis used these ghost stories to make the Jews into scapegoats for the economic crisis and loss of WWI. Hitler believed that the effect of a Jewish presence was a “race-tuberculosis of the peoples”. When Hitler came to power in 1933, discriminatory laws agaisnt the Jewish community came into place and eventually led to his ultimate goal: “the removal of the Jews altogether.” This was called the Holocaust/Shoah; humanity’s most shameful hour, which resulted in the murder of 13 million people. This was exclusively the Jewish community, but also Roma, Sinti, disabled and gay people were persecuted and murdered.
Prejudice, unfortunately, did not end with the war. Antisemitism still exists today. At times it is obvious, for example, when people are verbally or physically assaulted for looking Jewish or when objects are vandalised with hate symbols like the swastika (which has just happened again to the Anne Frank memorial in Idaho between Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th December 2020). A lot of hate speech towards Jewish people also can be found online, often promoting the stereotype that Jews are secretly in power in many countries or that they control the finance industry. The ghost stories and prejudices from the middle ages are still prevalent today.
How can we identify it?
It can be hard to identify antisemitism, but it’s important to stand against this form of prejudice. I would urge everyone to be aware of this discrimantion, and speak out against any forms of hate speech you witness. The world will be a better place when we are all kind to one another
Some films & books I recommend to understand the treatment of Jews during WWII:
Films:
The Pianist
Schlinder’s List
Books:
The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman
The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank
Josephine Peel, Yr12
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