January 27 marks eighty years since the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp, and the date has been designated since 2006 as the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust by the United Nations General Assembly.
An event and a commemoration that should somehow be a bitter reminder of something that would never be repeated. It has not been like that, and it is not like that. What is striking about this is precisely how little it impresses the entire world, including the part that considers itself more civilized.
Jews do not have a monopoly on suffering in the world and in history. But there is no doubt that they are important and permanent protagonists when it comes to being victims of hatred and discrimination. They have the unedifying honor of being hated and discriminated against as individuals, as a minority, as collective groups and, also, as a country in the case of the only Jewish state. It is something so frequent that it is even natural and dangerously tolerated.
Eight decades after the liberation of Auschwitz, the world has not yet grasped the gravity of the phenomenon of hatred. One of them is in full swing and is in full swing today: October 7, 2023 and all its consequences. It is currently the liberation of hostages from the hands of those who control Gaza. Another chapter in a story that has lasted almost 500 days and has brought to the world's attention situations and circumstances that seem Kafkaesque in their absurdity, but terrible in their truth.
The attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 is the worst attack against Jews since World War II, and there have been many. The massacre of that day was known immediately: the pain of the Israelis and the celebration of the perpetrators. The beginning of a war fought on seven fronts. First and foremost, the terrible existence of hostages. A fact that permanently denounces a world that is not impassive, but rather a world that is complicit.
Everyone in their right mind, and everyone for the sake of appearances, considers the kidnapping of people to be a crime. It is not only ethically acceptable and fair, but also politically correct. Everyone also advocates the return of the hostages home, thus putting an end to the kidnapping. But the facts and actions do not match the practice.
Negotiating with the kidnappers as if they were the counterparty of a legitimate transaction, discussing and accepting conditions, constitutes a more than tacit recognition of kidnapping as a valid strategy and tool for conflict resolution, to force the grieving victims, who turn out to be very few outside Israel and the Jewish people. One could accept as an extenuating circumstance that there is no alternative if one wants to recover the hostages, since, after all, there does not seem to be another mechanism at hand, no matter how much one wants. Although, to tell the truth, if another general attitude prevailed, there would be one. But there are a series of facts and attitudes that reflect incoherence between the condemnation and what happens. Or perhaps a lot of coherence if one is suspicious (or realistic).
With seven young girls released under a leonine release agreement, we see depressing things. The International Red Cross, which cares for the helpless of war and misfortune throughout the world, has limited itself in the case of the Gaza hostages to the task of offering transport to the victims for a few meters from the captors to the delivery point. It has not reported or found out anything about any other aspect of the unfortunate hostages. An international news channel broadcasts images and comments from the scene of the events, and is considered a first-rate journalistic source despite its links and affections with the kidnappers. The kidnappers, who also subject their population to the most terrible deprivation, carry out acts of liberation of hostages with the presentation of diplomas that border on the most absurd of stage shows. The terms of the negotiation are spoken of as just that, as a negotiation, without mentioning that it is a combination of kidnapping and blackmail. No emphasis is placed on the status of those released by the Israeli counterpart, nor on the disproportion even in numbers. Friends and supporters of the Gaza rulers are treated as honourable, bona fide beings. When handing over the hostages, the kidnappers display weapons and hide their faces in masks that already announce their legal and moral status. All of the above, and much more, is met with silence and acceptance by many.
The battered and stunned Israeli society pays any price for its victims. Alive, dead, wounded, healthy. It is a principle of law. Everyone wants the hostages home, the mere mention of the possibility that they may not return because Israel is perceived to not adhere to the conditions, or to changing them, or to the future consequences of the release of confessed and convicted prisoners, results in collective terror. Those who object to the terms of the agreement are considered traitors even though it is known that they want the hostages home as soon as possible, as everyone wants.
As of Saturday, January 25, only young girls have returned alive, in physical and mental condition, which are being checked, to the joy of all Israel. In the next deliveries, scheduled every week, corpses will come. It is a foreseeable eventuality that will cause even greater pain for the families, society and a country that finds itself alone. The psychological torture to which all of Israel is subjected is indescribable. Just watch any newscast, any report, browse social networks.
Eighty years after Auschwitz, with the gradual and inevitable physical disappearance of its victims, it is clear that this spirit of hatred and cruelty still persists. It has often been said that if the communication facilities of today had existed during the Second World War, if people had known what was happening in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe, everything would have been very different. What is happening does not seem to support this assertion, since it is happening with everyone's knowledge.
Eighty years after Auschwitz, the world is no better than it should be, to put it politely. And Jews, in Israel or elsewhere, despite some occasional and always welcome friends, must, as always, rely on God.
Eighty years… and counting.
Elías Farache S.