Opinion Europe is no longer excited by the extermination of the Jews Israel today

In Berlin, on Christmas Eve, I found an original Christmas tree decoration: a little girl with a white dress and a golden star.

Next to her on the ground is another patch, that is, such a yellowish star.

She had an innocent face and a high ponytail.

A fine wooden miniature, well sawn by hand.

Lots of little details.

The artist did not forget to mention: "Handmade, made in Germany".

Han'la and the Holocaust dress, I called her between myself all the way to the checkout.

Prison uniform, The Last Scream, Photo: Moriah Kor

In Auguststrasse, one of Berlin's chic streets, I recognized in the shop windows fashion processes that reminded me of dark times: a prisoner's uniform laid out too similarly to what my grandfather had shown me in movies about the 1940s.

What is called "World War II" in the world, and "the Holocaust" in our country.

The stripes are indeed light blue or orange, but those who have tasted Hungarian wine to forget Birkenau, cannot deny it.

In another store on the same street I saw a stunning trouser suit, full of yellow and orange mazes, that if you look closely you can see swastikas.

I sent Grandpa on WhatsApp, and it reminded him too.

On the same street is the "New Synagogue", which was saved from Kristallnacht thanks to a German officer, but in 1940 its worshipers were already told to tick off their arrangements outside, because the hall soon became a warehouse of the Wehrmacht.

It was originally built next to the Jewish Hospital.

At the end of the war it was bombed, in the 90s it was renovated, and today, no matter what time you approach, there is security there.

"Community Shalom" holds prayers there.

Good night Europe

Today is International Holocaust Day, how fun that the UN set it. When you go around the world and see hints of what happened 80 years ago in total, you may feel that this is a private event. But to understand hints you need to know what happened here once.

In the house where I grew up, it was forbidden to set foot on German soil, it was forbidden to buy a washing machine made in Germany, and if I bought a pencil case made in Dusseldorf and accidentally discovered it at home - I had better go and return the goods at "Fleg" without first consulting with the provider.

I thought that's how it is with everyone.

The first time I was invited to a conference in Berlin and broke the family oath, I was blinded by the "stumbling blocks" on the sidewalks.

For the fourth time, I'm already used to it, I sat down on a bench and looked straight at the street to count how many locals and how many tourists were looking down at the brass squares, which commemorate the names of the tenants who lived here and were deported to their deaths in the most anti-Semitic episode in history.

How will you recognize Israeli tourists in Germany?

Their heads are in the ground, looking for Holocaust memorial squares.

Hanala's Holocaust dress, photo: Moriah Kor

and in the heart is brown

Could it be that the Holocaust only interests us?

Or maybe they just don't know what happened?

In Britain they stopped teaching about the Holocaust in schools.

The same trend is evident in France.

In Poland, the government claims that they teach about the Holocaust, but in practice - they omit this episode.

It is good for them to be ashamed, but it is better to acknowledge the sin and then be embarrassed by it.

In the German History Museum, on the banks of the Spree River, two critical exhibitions are presented.

One reviews the history of racism, nationalism and human rights in Germany, Poland and France.

The other - artistically documents one hundred years of wall.

In the first exhibition, the chapter on the Holocaust comes immediately after the chapter on the lack of rights for women - a shocking oversight, the subtext of which minimizes the genocide.

Like - once there were suffragists, then there was a ghetto.

easy.

In the second exhibition, the Holocaust is an episode that illustrates the delay in which the leadership intervenes in tragedies, and that is also beautiful on their part, but along the way the true dimensions of the Holocaust for Germany become clear.

It seems that for them, what Hitler did is ours.

Each nation chooses its own narrative and decides which trauma is worth nurturing.

The trauma that Germany chose is the wall.

It wallows in this, and over the years the tragedy of the Jews becomes an incidental footnote.

The symbols that shout clear words at me from the shop windows, perhaps talking to the subconscious of the person who designed them.

And as time goes by, neither will it.

My neighbor Dogo

The movie "My Neighbor Adolf" is currently showing in Israel.

My neighbor is my grandfather Dogo, who Mangala spoiled him with two numbers on his hand.

The filmmakers define their work as a "comedic drama".

When I watched Bis Planet Ashdod with Seba - we didn't laugh at all, even though Seba is the king of Holocaust jokes.

Grandfather said that the film is about revenge, and indeed it is a central motif.

The hero is looking for ways to close accounts, and even the Israeli embassy, ​​which rejects him for all kinds of reasons (ageism, Israeli pride, historical conviction...), finally reaches a turning point.

Did you want revenge too?

"never".

And in the process?

"There was one night, in the barracks in Matthausen, when I was terribly cold. We were let in by dozens of people, and from the window I saw an SS officer with his weapon a few meters above me. I felt sorry for him. I thought to myself: He is in an open position, at least I have a roof over my head."

Grandpa, that's a crazy thought.

"No, these are the thoughts of a child."

Grandpa, you were 15 when it happened.

These are not ordinary thoughts.

Children of Germans helped kill Jews at that age.

"I always looked at the suffering of the other, which is more difficult for him than for me. Even after the war, dealing with orphans and the uncertainty, I saw the Jews who survived and my good."

what do you see today

"It's easy to deny the Holocaust, because the things are so absurd and horrible that it's hard to believe they happened. The world always takes pity on the weak - provided they're not Jewish. We don't need to take revenge, we need to tell what happened to us, and defend ourselves even in places where Europe doesn't This. Even in the UN."

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