And, if this were not enough, we now have a blockbuster movie — arguably the most cleverly crafted and potent piece of anti-Jewish incitement our people have ever faced. During the war years, Poles had to travel all the way to Warsaw’s play-houses to watch Goebbels’s movies flickering in black and white. Now, courtesy of cable and DVD, this 21st Century libel will be beamed in living color into millions of homes and accepted as …”gospel.”
I conclude that the only real difference, between then and now, is the existence of the State of Israel as our protector and refuge of last resort. If the millions of our people who perished in Europe could see us today, what would they say about those who seek to undermine something so special and precious — something that might well have saved them in their day? They, who stuck together in brotherhood to prevent the disgrace of starvation, would surely beseech us to close ranks and — whatever our political persuasions — work as one nation to prevent our people from becoming extinct in their own homeland.
I leave the last word to the survivors of Lizhensk: ”To those who were dear to us, the people of Lizhensk, we overflow with a fountain of memories, so that we can remember them, and perhaps more importantly, so that their cruel and unusual deaths can be regarded as the deaths of martyrs. Their lives were dedicated to the existence of the Jewish community in any place and under any condition.”
