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| ADL Op-Eds | Holocaust |
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The Message Of The Holocaust's `Hidden Children'
By Abraham H. Foxman
National Director of the Anti-Defamation League
This article originally appeared in The Hartford Courant on
August 27, 2003
The last generation of eyewitnesses to the horror of the Holocaust is gathering in Washington this week for the third time in 12 years.
They are the Hidden Children - those who survived certain death at the hands of the Nazis because they were hidden by Christians, as I was, and often received new identities as Christians.
 As a group of survivors, we can speak volumes about the inhumanity and depravity of the Nazi era, but we can also testify to the humanity and power of those who refused to allow evil to reign unchecked. And we can work to ensure that these lessons are not lost today, an age marked by a resurgence of anti-Semitism on multiple, interconnected frontiers: political, governmental, educational and technological.
We learn from our experience as Hidden Children that when ordinary citizens take a stand and refuse to give in to evil, the miracle of survival can occur.
Indeed, I owe my life to a brave woman whose act of incredible moral courage ensured that I lived when so many others died. When the Nazis began to assemble Jews into the Vilna Ghetto, my parents entrusted me to my Polish Catholic nanny, Bronislawa Kurpi. She took me, baptized me and raised me as a Catholic. In a world beset by brutality, cruelty and destruction, she risked her life to save me. It is this part of the Holocaust that offers hope and redemption to humanity.
This lesson is especially poignant today, in a world beset by a reawakened anti-Semitism.
Many Arab and Islamic adults still believe that Jews and Israel, not Osama bin Laden, were responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Conferees at a 2001 U.N. conference on racism held in Durban, South Africa, labeled Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, racism. A recent opinion survey of adults in five European countries found that 21 percent harbor strong anti-Semitic views (17 percent of U.S. adults hold the same views). A huge wave of anti-Semitic literature - including the anti-Semitic forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion - continues to sweep the Arab and Islamic world.
Why this resurgence?
Much of this is fueled by those who cannot and will not separate their disagreements with Israel from their hatred of Jews. Criticism of Israel is legitimate and, as with any democratic country, is necessary. But how many times can one group or government condemn Israel - while remaining silent about pain and agony in the rest of the world - before one suspects that a different agenda is at work? How can one rationalize such double standards and one-sided criticism?
These trends have been exacerbated in the global marketplace of ideas. Bigots who could reach 10 people while standing on their soapboxes are now able to reach millions with the click of a computer mouse. Indeed, groups as diverse as American anti-Semites and Islamic extremists utilize the Internet, satellite technology and shortwave radio as methods of communicating, coordinating and raising funds.
And they are reaching one another. An anti-Jewish sermon in Gaza or Cairo is instantly relayed to mosques in Marseilles, Brooklyn and Sydney, and can be heard and seen on the Internet. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the United States communicate across continents and oceans with their counterparts worldwide.
Simply, anti-Semitism is a current event, not a history lesson. This brings us back to the gathering in Washington.
The voice and legacy of the Hidden Children are the reminder to all good people to have the moral courage to stand up and condemn anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry wherever it shows itself. As much as we expect this from our political leaders, we should also expect this from ourselves. As we move further away from the Holocaust, our story of moral integrity and courage is that much more relevant and poignant. Our mission is to educate future generations so that no people, no nation, may again suffer the evil of the Holocaust
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
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