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Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day
April 7 is Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is the 27th of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, which is the memorial day for those who died in the Shoah. Non-Jews generally refer to the Shoah as the Holocaust. People commemorate Yom HaShoah by lighting yellow candles in order to keep the memories of the victims alive. Most synagogues and Jewish communities gather together to commemorate the day through worship, music and the stories from survivors.
What is Shoah?
Shoah is Hebrew for catastrophe or utter destruction. The word Holocaust is from a Greek word meaning “sacrifice by fire.” Generally when people refer to the Shoah, they mean the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish people during World War II.
Why Did This Happen?
Members of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party seized power in Germany in 1933 after WWI left the country in economic despair. The Nazis believed that the Jews were to blame for their troubles. Much of this belief stems from generations of accusations of blood libel, the belief that Jews killed Jesus. This belief was perpetuated for centuries by societal and church leadership. Also, Nazis endorsed racial superiority. They believed that people of Northern European descent were somehow better than members of all other races – especially the Jews, who were “unworthy of life.”
What Did Nazis Do?
People often forget that the Nazis rose to power through elections. They took a people broken by war and poverty and made them feel like they did before the war. They convinced the people that the Jews needed to be removed from society.
The Nazis gradually restricted the rights of German Jewish citizens. They encouraged party members – especially children who were thought to belong to the state – to commit acts of violence and destruction against Jews and their property.
The Nazis implemented their “final solution.” Here are the two main parts of this plan to destroy all European Jews:
1. Relocate Jews into crammed ghettos and then slave-labor camps, where disease, brutality, and malnutrition were a way of daily life.
2. Then, Jews were sent to death camps, where millions were murdered in special facilities designed to kill a tremendous number of people over a brief period of time.
In addition to the six million Jews who died – two-thirds of the European Jewish population – the Nazis also killed millions of others, including Roma (Gypsies) and Slavs, political and religious dissidents, the handicapped, and gays and lesbians. Basically, anyone considered undesirable.
What About Today?
Today, we have the state of Israel and it has an excellent military. We have integrated rather well into society. However, many Jews in America have become a bit too complacent. They have been safe and no longer see a large government as a threat or Islamic terrorism as a problem because of political correctness.
Nazis and White Nationalists in America today tend to be pathetic, uneducated people with low esteem. They do commit crimes, but not generally as a group. They try to run for office but generally lose. Unfortunately, many have rebranded themselves as conspiracy theory obsessed Ron Paul supporters or Wall Street Occupiers who hate the “1%” that “control all the money.” Who generally is accused of controlling money and being the leaders of the one world government? Yep, Jews. Did you know that the American Nazi Party and Communist Party USA endorsed OWS? Um.. never again? How many of my fellow Jews were part of OWS? Frankly, without a significant financial resource, White Nationalists aren’t going to be much of a political threat in the United States.
BUT in Europe, anti-semitism is on the rise. As countries face economic troubles, we see groups like the Golden Dawn of Greece and other groups in Hungary and the Ukraine growing. Neo-Nazis are being elected to office.
We need to keep our eyes open and work to protect our fellow Jews … and Christians too! Nowadays, anyone who is religious faces ridicule. We need to join together and work to stop these evil influences on society.
Lovers of Zion 