I’m sometimes very impressed with my children (but I’m biased). A few weeks ago while driving one of them back to college, I was talking to one of them about the state of the world, immigration, war and intolerance. During the conversation, he dug up this quote on the topic:
“The increasing immigration of this new group of people is gradually becoming a serious problem. Although one may be far from wanting to deny these unfortunate ones the right to asylum, it must not be forgotten that a large proportion of these arrivals are made up of people whose immigration and settlement in our country meets justified concerns. Pity for them must not blind us to the fact that they are largely unfit for integration into our society.”
Sounds like a reasonable, conservative — almost mainstream(?) — position on Immigration, right? This was actually written about the refugees streaming out of Ukraine because of the problems there caused by the Russians flexing their muscles in the area, which force refugees into Europe — here Germany. Understandable, right?
Well, to understand the context better, know that this wasn’t a result of the war in Ukraine in 2023 that caused the refugee crisis above, but the a Russian-instigated Ukrainian Civil War of 1919-1923 which instigated the exodus.
Then, to be 100% accurate with the quote above, you need to change a couple of words. The phrase “our society” was actually “Germany” and “New group of people” was “Ost-Juden” — ‘Eastern Jews’ — because between 1919 and 1923 50,000-200,000 Jews were murdered for their religion, culture or heritage in progroms that forced more into exile, including perhaps 50,000 who fled to Germany seeking refuge from persecution, where they were not well received.
I didn’t know any of this, but it was well documented in multiple front page stories in the New York Times from 1919-1922 for those interested. (How easily we forget?)
People will take their own lessons about immigration, refugees and compassion from that story, but one of the things I got from the conversation was the reminder that the Holocaust was not an aberration — Its the sort of thing that callously indifferent governments do to scapegoat populations with alarming regularity, especially when they are using fear of “the other” to motivate the people. Of course we said “Never again” in 1945. And in 1992 during the Bosnian genocide when the Serbs needed an enemy to rally against. And in 1994 during the Rwandan Genocide when the Hutu needed an enemy to rally against. And in 2019 (and today) about the Rohingya Genocide when the Burmese needed an enemy to rally against. Or a dozen other genocides and atrocities that little noted nor long remembered in the US mainstream media, but which are indelible and cataclysmic to those scarred by them.
I think of Holocaust remembrance day as a reminder that there are entirely too many such events and vigilance against intolerance must be maintained every day to preserve our essential humanity.
Its ironic that this quote from Elie Wiesel’s 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech was in the news this week:
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
School administrators forced a teacher to take this quote down, because they judged the quote to “lack neutrality”, and it is an “advocacy activity”. The attention they received caused them to repent. The irony is rich and wide-ranging.