HERBERT LONDON
February 19, 2014
Holocaust museums around the globe present in remarkably
graphic form pre-war Nazi conditions that promoted anti-semitism and
the belief that Jews were sub-human. Children read schoolbooks in which
Jews were depicted as exploitive, dangerous, lacking in essential
human qualities. Jews were demonized to an extent that led inexorably
to concentration camps and extermination. The horror of this period is
told and retold in museums as a reminder that this must never happen
again. Propaganda of a vicious variety has consequences, a condition
the world now knows all too well.
Or does it? For decades Palestinian school texts repeat the same
dangerous lies about Jews. A crossword puzzle for children asks "what
is a four letter word for an exploitive people? Answer: Jews." Summer
camp bunks in the Arab section of the West Bank are named after
"martyrs" who have killed Israeli women and children.
Last year Syria had a four part television series on "the blood
libel" the claim that Jews kill Christian youth so their blood can be
used for the making of matzos. Saudi textbooks have actually reprinted
perverse Nazi cartoons from the 1930's. And the
Protocols of The Elders of Zion,
a classic anti-semitic book based on nothing more than the ill-advised
ideas of a fantasist, has been reprinted in many Arab venues and has
been circulated by imams as evidence of Jewish turpitude.
None of this material is surprising. It has been revealed in many
newspapers and journals. There have been courageous journalists who
have campaigned against these contemporary atrocities. Yet progressive
Jewish leaders and Holocaust museum curators ignore these conditions.
If one attends a Holocaust museum, the last exhibit is invariably on
genocides in our time from the boat people in Vietnam, to the long
march in Cambodia, to Darfur. Poignant photographs are displayed that
tug at the heart strings and display Jewish sensitivity to human
depravity. This is as it should be. If any group is aware of the horror
people can inflict on one another it is the Jews.
However, what is missing is the existential evidence of
anti-semitism. Where are the tracts pointing to the rise of
anti-semitism in many European communities, the hatred directed against
Jews in Muslim populations, and the vile images about Jews promoted in
Arab and Persian nations? I suspect the reason for this obvious
omission is political correctness. It is certainly not a lack of
awareness.
I reside near the downtown Holocaust Museum and admire the way
history is recaptured in the exhibits. It is also telling that the
final pathway in the museum offers a splendid view of the Statue of
Liberty. Yet remarkably, challenges to Jewish liberty at the moment are
ignored. There appears to be a deep sense that what is happening
across the globe now could be glossed over.
In a perverse way this is history repeating itself. So many Jews in
Germany and elsewhere during the 1930's dismissed the routine
caricatures of Jewish life as adolescent rants, something that will
evanesce over time. Why make a fuss about this matter? It seemed better
to avoid controversy. I suspect that is the same explanation used by
curators now. Political correctness is a silencing device used by some
Jewish leaders against Jewish interests.
It is time to realize museums are a sacred cultural trust that not
only tell a story of the past, but offer a narrative of what must be
countered in the present. If "Never Again" is a goal - a goal that
should not be forgotten - then the anti-semitic facts of our time
should be told just as museum attendees are reminded of the historic
horror of the Shoah.
Herbert London is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan
Institute and the President of the London Center for Policy Research.
He is president emeritus of Hudson Institute and author of the book
The Transformational Decade (University Press of America).
Read more:
Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/what-jewish-museums-wont-show?f=must_reads#ixzz2tmaJfHHE
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