The Evil is Still the Same
Last month 50 world leaders met in Jerusalem for the fifth World Holocaust Forum, to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camps. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an emotional speech that his country assumes full responsibility for the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people, but his nation had not fully learned the lessons of the Holocaust as Jew-hatred is still growing.
I actually commend what the German president is saying here. It might shock many people’s ears to hear that he is saying that the German people have not yet grappled with the reality of their involvement in the Holocaust, and that the hatred of Jewish people still exists in Germany. The German president’s recognition, however, I think is a first step into solving the problem. You have to recognize that the problem exists. I appreciate Steinmeier’s bravery standing up at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, to tell the world that Germany is not the same as it was under Hitler, but to recognize that the evil is still the same.
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