International Holocaust Day, Berlin, Germany 27.01.24/Assaf Itiel
The director of "Schindler's List", the Jewish filmmaker Steven Spielberg, warned yesterday (Monday) of the rise of anti-Semitism again, and of repeating history so that "we will fight anew for the very right to be Jews".
This, in the background of the October 7 massacre, the war in Gaza, and anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic trends in the United States.
Spielberg said this at an event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the "Shoah" fund he founded, which collected tens of thousands of testimonies of Holocaust and genocide survivors from around the world, recorded and made them accessible.
In recent months, the foundation decided to also collect testimonies from among the survivors of the massacre that happened in Israel about five months ago.
According to a CNN report, the event was also attended by 92-year-old Selena Biniaz, one of the last survivors of the group rescued by German industrialist Oskar Schindler, whose stories the director's influential film was based on.
"The 56,000 testimonies we recorded are of great value in teaching new generations what the survivors have said and emphasized for 80 years: never again, never again, never again. When you listen to them, the echoes of history do not arise by chance in our current climate. The rise of opinions "Extremism has created a dangerous atmosphere and extreme intolerance that leads to a society that no longer celebrates differences, and instead conspires to demonize the different, to the point of inventing the other," said the director.
Steven Spielberg, Beverly Hills, February 12, 2024/GettyImages, JC Olivera/Getty Images
"The invention of the other is an idea that poisons the discourse and creates a dangerous wedge in our communities. It provides justifications for prejudices. It encourages the voluntary denial and distortion of reality in order to enforce them. It fuels extremism and illiberalism. And we see every day how the mechanism of extremism is used on campuses, when now 50% of Jewish students say they have experienced discrimination because of their religion. This happens at the same time as anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Sikh discrimination. The creation of the other and the dehumanization of any group based on differences - these are the foundations of fascism. It is an old rulebook that has been resurrected from the dust and is widely distributed today. Those who are unable to remember the past are condemned to repeat it," he added.
"I fear more and more that we may repeat history, and once again fight for the very right to be Jewish. In the face of cruelty and persecution, we have always been a compassionate people, who understand the power of empathy. We can rage against the heinous acts committed by terrorists on October 7 and also cry the death of innocent children and women in Gaza, and that is why we are here today to honor the work of the Foundation, which is even more important today than it was in 1994. It is essential, in the face of the shocking massacre on October 7. It is essential, to stop the entrenched political violence about misinformation, conspiracy theories and ignorance. It is essential, because stopping the rise of anti-Semitism and hatred is necessary for the health of our democratic republic and the future of democracy throughout the developed world."
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Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg