Recycling Adolph Hitler
Small occurrences often reflect larger issues. This thought came to mind when reading an Associated Press report concerning the late Oscar Schindler. Schindler was the German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party who saved 1,200 Jewish people from death in Hitler’s concentration camps during the Holocaust. At his request, he was buried in Jerusalem in a cemetery on Mount Zion.
At a meeting of a regional council in the Czech Republic, Schindler’s birthplace, his name was dropped from consideration for honorable mention in a brochure recognizing important regional personalities and their accomplishments. According to the Associated Press report by Karel Janicek, which ran in the February 4 issue of The Internet Jerusalem Post, certain forces within the committee fought to have Schindler’s name omitted.
Thus Schindler was dubbed a “controversial figure” who had been accused of unspecified activities against the Czech state. Specifics of the accusations were not made known. In view of the fact that the industrialist had left Czechoslovakia in 1939, those who recommended him for recognition were mystified about what wartime, anti-Czechoslovak activities he could have been involved in.
“I don’t know what prompted the decision,” declared the mayor of Schindler’s hometown. He added that Schindler is a controversial figure for some Czechs. Nonetheless, the mayor said, “He saved 1,200 Jews. That’s a fact.”
With that statement, the mayor could well have put his finger on the problem. It was not, in all probability, “unspecified anti-Czech activities” that cost Schindler his place in the brochure, but his international status as a bona fide hero of the Holocaust tragedy—the fact that “he saved 1,200 Jews.”
It is also a fact that anti-Semitism is making a serious comeback in many parts of Europe. And with it has come a recycling of Adolph Hitler’s reputation and his demonic hatred for the Jewish people, both of which are being memorialized in the chronicles of modern history’s darkest chapter: World War II and the Holocaust.
Hitler set forth his creed and philosophy in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which he began writing while in prison in 1923. It was completed in 1927 and became the fountainhead of the philosophy of his National Socialist Third Reich. Hitler’s credo was the basis of his book. “The great masses of the people,” Hitler proclaimed, “. . . will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one.”
Adolph Hitler was correct.
New Twists to an Old Lie
Over the past decade, we have witnessed the rise of neo-Nazi elements in Germany, the militancy of skinheads throughout Europe and the United States, the republishing of Mein Kampf, and scurrilous attacks on Israel and its Jewish people in UN resolutions and at international conferences on racism. Now, with the rise of radical, militant Islam and the war on terrorism, come new twists.
First, America and Israel have been wed as inseparable enemies of the Muslim world—big Satan/ little Satan adversaries that must be destroyed at all cost. Elements in the Arab press are congratulating the Fuehrer for a job well begun on the little Satan (Israel) but are lamenting the fact that he didn’t finish it.
In a tract titled “Thanks to Hitler,” produced by Al-Akhbar, one of Egypt’s largest news organizations, Ahmed Ragab wrote, “Thanks to the late Hitler, who took revenge in advance for the Palestinians on the most vile criminals on earth, though we blame Hitler because his revenge was not quite enough.”1 When questioned about the article, Ragab’s editor offered an explanation: “You mustn’t take it word by word. You must take it by the feeling, the spirit.”2
With that statement, the editor said more than he knew. This same spirit or “feeling,” if you will, drives all anti-Semites. And, as the writer implied, their problem is not only with Israel. They hold all world Jewry culpable and see the Jewish people as “the most vile criminals on earth”3 and thus worthy of annihilation.
Second, America is frequently being linked to the Nazis and Adolph Hitler; and, to say the least, “the feeling, the spirit” behind the analogies are as vehemently anti-American as they are anti-Jewish. In another leading Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, columnist Anis Mansour called America’s treatment of al-Qaida prisoners being held in Cuba “worse than what Hitler did to his rivals from among the Jews and Christians.”4
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, called the article outrageous. “Unfortunately,” said Foxman, “there have been far too many instances where Egyptian newspapers print sensationalized commentary peppered with inappropriate or blatantly false comments about the Holocaust.”5
Still another twist of history went to press on January 31. An Egyptian government weekly, Akher Sa’a, printed an article titled “The Jews are Bloodsuckers and Will Yet Conquer America.” The writer claimed that a document housed at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia shows Benjamin Franklin disliked Jews. The chief librarian of the Institute has refuted the claim and said the Franklin Institute possesses no such document. It turns out the document in question, quoted as authoritative, was forged by the Nazis in a 1935 anti-Semitic book, A Handbook on the Jewish Question. It alleged that Franklin, one of America’s founding fathers, made comments against Jewish immigration during a recess in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1789. (The convention was actually held in 1787.) The following lies were put into Benjamin Franklin’s mouth:
If they [Jews] are not excluded from the United States by the Constitution, within at least 100 years, they shall stream into this country in such numbers that they shall rule and destroy us and change our form of government for which we Americans shed our blood and sacrificed our lives, property, and personal freedom. . . . If the Jews are not excluded within 200 years, our children will be working in the fields to feed the Jews while they remain in the counting houses, gleefully rubbing their hands.6
Such scathing attacks on Israel and the United States continued after President George W. Bush delivered his January 29 State of the Union address. Arab media aligned the language of the president with that of Osama bin Laden in his videotapes. They also compared Bush to Hitler and William Shakespeare’s notorious Jewish villain, Shylock.
Abd Al-Bari Atwan, editor of the London Arabic-language daily Al-Quds, wrote,
The American president George Bush, whom all agree is reckless and inexperienced, presented himself in his “State of the Union address” . . . as a leader thirsty for bloodshed and for declaring war on half the world to satisfy a sense of vengeance and in submission to the sick Israeli incitement that stems from the interests of the Hebrew state—even if [satisfying] these interests comes at the expense of the destruction of the entire world.7
It is both interesting and revealing that in these intemperate diatribes, never a word was mentioned about the fact that Islamic radicals plowed airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., murdering more than 3,000 innocent people, a number of whom were Muslims.
Equally revealing is the fact that such all-out assaults on America and Israel reflect the deep-seated hatred coming from the swelling anti-Semitic/anti-American axis of evil— an axis that reaches far beyond the three perpetrators (Iran, Iraq, North Korea) identified by President Bush.
Evil Axis
or Trinity of Evil?
This recycling of the spirit of Adolph Hitler and the accelerating obsession with the destruction of Israel and now the United States reach far beyond the realm of base human depravity. When scanning the dark pages of human iniquity, one can hardly find a more precise example of a satanically driven, demonically inspired figure than Adolph Hitler. That his name would ever be memorialized in print, glorified in political ranting, or admiringly referenced in human conversation is a blot on civilized humanity. That anyone would adopt as inspirational his sinister ability to inundate Europe in the blood of millions is a stunning revelation.
In the prophetic book of the Revelation, chapter 13 exposes a satanic trinity of evil. A beast (v. 1), a dragon (v. 2), and a false prophet (v. 11) come to the fore. The passage describes the end-times Great Tribulation, or “time of Jacob’s trouble,” as prophesied in Jeremiah 30:7. The objects of the animosity of this evil axis are the Jewish people and the Gentile Tribulation saints. This triumvirate establishes a world religion that despises the God of the Old and New Testaments and establishes a religious empire that bows in homage to Satan.
What is concisely presented in Revelation is a continuum of what is taught throughout the Scriptures. It is more than the much-discussed contemporary clash of civilizations. It is the final confrontation of good and evil; the sons of darkness versus the sons of light; the conflagration of a devastated creation; and, yes, the showdown between God and His arch adversary, the Devil.
Adolph Hitler aspired to create a new religion, the German Church; place a new “bible,” Mein Kampf, on every pulpit; wipe out the Jewish people; destroy historic Christianity; and fashion an Aryan empire that would endure for a thousand years. His script unfolded like a photocopy of the last days described in the Bible.
Now, sixty years later, we are witnessing a rerun of the same production. The only change is in the players. The plot is the same.
As always, it revolves around annihilating the Jewish people and driving them from the land given to them by God. It is a fact that the pervasive existence of anti-Semitism throughout history is one of the greatest confirmations of the accuracy of Scripture. Then there is the subplot—the determination to destroy or subjugate the whole of what is popularly understood as the Western Christian entity.
And center stage in this arena are evangelical Christians. These are the people who are dedicated to the authority of Scripture; believe in the sanctity of God’s program for Israel and the Jewish people; and refuse to be assimilated into a global consortium of cults, pseudo-religions, and pagan gods deemed to be equals or superiors to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The issues never change. With time, they only intensify. The fact that conflicts, once limited in scope, now have global implications should open our eyes to where we stand on the stage of human history. When we see the specter of Adolph Hitler inspiring a cadre of tyrants to do their worst toward innocent, peace-loving people, we should awaken to the seriousness of the situation and the lateness of the hour. May it be true for each of us.
ENDNOTES
- Jasper Mortimer, “Egypt’s Al-Akhbar: ‘Thanks to Hitler,’” The Internet Jerusalem Post, February 7, 2002, [www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/02/07/LatestNews/LatestNews.43035.html].
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- “ADL: Comparison ‘Outrageous,’” The Internet Jerusalem Post, February 3, 2002, [www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/02/03/LatestNews/LatestNews.42775.html].
- Ibid.
- “Egyptian Government Weekly Reproduces Nazi Propaganda Forgery,” Special Dispatch 339—Egypt/Arab Antisemitism, The Middle East Media Research Institute, January 31, 2002, [www.memri. org/sd/SP33902.html].
- “Arab Media on the State of the Union Address: Bush Like Hitler, Bin Laden, and Shylock,” Special Dispatch 341—Jihad and Terrorism Studies, The Middle East Media Research Institute, February 5, 2002, [www.memri.org/sd/SP34102.html].
