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Antisemitism and the Holocaust

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Don't Buy From A Jew - Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS)

Photo taken at Yad Vashem - by RGC

There is a thought floating around that the current political situation in the US is beginning to mirror Germany's crumbling democracy prior to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The steady rise in antisemitism of the past has now escalated by over 400% just within the past three months, with no possible deceleration in sight. 

On a recent journey through Yad Vashem, Israel's World Holocaust Remembrance Center, my attention was drawn to a display entitled; “DON’T BUY FROM THE JEWS.” What I viewed validated the sentiments of those putting forth the idea that we are witnessing an uptick in America of activity reminiscent of pre-holocaust Europe, especially since the Hamas terrorists invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7. This should be of concern to ALL Americans, and not just the Jews who live here.  

“On 1 April 1933, the Nazis organized the first nationwide antisemitic action - an economic boycott that was part of a deliberate policy to isolate and ostracize Germany's Jewish citizens. On the day of the boycott, the public was urged not to buy from Jews, and slogans vilifying Jews were painted on shop windows. The entire day was planned as a mass demonstration against the Jews.”

“This was my farewell to everything German. My internal farewell to what had been my fatherland… I buried 43 years of my life… I could no longer be German… I went to the graves of my parents, my grandparents and my great-grandparents, and I spoke to them. I gave back everything German that I had received for three generations… I shouted at their graves: You were wrong! I, too, was misled.”

From the memoirs of Edwin Landau, a German Jew who immigrated to Eretz Israel

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestment, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations under international law, defined as withdrawal from the occupied territories, removal of the separation barrier in the West Bank, full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and “respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties”. The movement is organized and coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions)  

Those who buy into this movement won’t buy Israeli goods that are manufactured in certain areas of Israel, and pressure other individuals and organizations to do likewise.  Also, they will remove their financial investments and businesses from Israel, and refuse to buy from those who will not acquiesce to their ideological bent.  Simply stated, what they are saying is, DON’T BUY FROM THE JEWS!

If we follow this twisting, chronological holocaust trail, we see once again an attempt to isolate, ostracize, delegitimize, and dehumanize the Jews that ultimately led to Hitlers “Final Solution.”

Ron G. Campbell

A Night At The Garden

Eighty-five years ago, something evil happened in Madison Square Garden in New York City that most American’s were not aware of – an event now largely forgotten in American history – until now.

It was February 20, 1939.  Outside Madison Square Garden, the New York City Police Department reined in anti-Nazi counter-protesters. Above them was a marquee that listed a "pro-American rally" scheduled on that night, and a National Hockey League match and an NCAA Division I college basketball game later in the week.

Inside, a procession of flag bearers marched to a stage decorated with swastika-adorned pennants, U.S. flags, and a portrait of George Washington.  After a German-accented man led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance, Fritz Julius Kuhn stepped up to the podium and casually remarked about how he is depicted as a "creature with horns, a cloven hoof, and long tail" by "the Jewish-controlled press." 

Kuhn was outlining a program calling for a "socially-just, white, Gentile-controlled United States" and "Gentile-controlled labor unions, free from Jewish Moscow-directed domination," when a Jewish counter-protester rushed on stage in an attempt to attack Kuhn. He was beaten onstage by the paramilitaries, and was hauled away by the police.

What I have just described to you is now available to view, using archival fragments filmed that night.

The footage ends with a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by a German-accented woman, before cutting to a title card noting that the rally occurred when Adolf Hitler was overseeing construction of Nazi Germany's sixth concentration camp and seven months before the German invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II.

(Compiled of details from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_at_the_Garden)

”As chilling and disorienting to watch as the most inventive full-length horror movie.” – The New Yorker