Jerusalem is a bustling city — one that the eyes of the world are always watching. But in the midst of all its activity is the Mount of Remembrance, a serene place specifically set apart for quiet reflection and resolving.

View Comments (8)

This is the home of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. The name “Yad Vashem” comes from Isaiah 56:5 — “…to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever” (emphasis added).

During my visit to Israel, I quickly knew it to be a place I would not forget. I must not forget. And that is because it tells a story we all must never forget.

Thankfully, many leaders in the world stopped for a moment of remembrance last Wednesday on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On January 27, 1945, Allied troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp that claimed over a million lives, so it is a fitting day to remember the atrocity of the Holocaust, particularly the mass murder of 6 million Jews (2/3 of the European Jewish population at the time).

Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić said last week, “Every year on this day we search for words that will describe the terror of the Holocaust. But words fail us. We cannot capture the suffering and loss. Our responsibility now is to ensure that we do not fail those who lost their lives, and those who have come after.”

She specifically called on for action to “preserve memory.”

Why? Well, our memory can be perilously short. One telling sign of that is a survey released last September that probed the Holocaust knowledge of U.S. adults under 40. An astounding 63 percent did not know 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust (many thought it was 2 million or fewer). Nearly half could not name one single concentration camp or ghetto of World War II. And 12 percent weren’t even sure they had heard of the Holocaust before.

We need to learn the stories remembered on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We need to look carefully at what Yad Vashem and places like the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum are trying to show us. When we do, we will soon see that the evil of the Holocaust did not just appear overnight.

The seeds of the Holocaust were found in anti-Semitic words and images that went unchallenged. Its roots formed with disturbing assaults on Jews that their neighbors felt either powerless to confront or more comfortable to ignore.

As we learn these stories, we should take note that anti-Semitism is again on the rise in our world — and our nation.

In its annual report last year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) actually dedicated a special section to this resurgence of anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe. Even though the European Jewish population is only about 1 million strong now (compared to more than 9 million before the Holocaust), Jews continue to be victims of particular acts of hate. For example, USCIRF reported a 27 percent increase in anti-Semitic acts in France, including assailants using Nazi symbols to desecrate more than 180 graves in Jewish cemeteries. Another example highlighted by the commission was a 7 percent rise in offenses in the United Kingdom — a trend underlined by a schism in the Labor Party over allegations of unchecked anti-Semitic pronouncements.

Those are a just a couple examples, and that is just Europe. There are more worries around the world, including in the U.S. The 2018 assault on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue and the 2019 Passover shooting in California are infamous examples of a dangerous trend towards increased intimidation and violence.

In a statement on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden affirmed, “The Holocaust was no accident of history.” He pointed to a quote from the late Congressman and Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos: “The veneer of civilization is paper thin. We are its guardians, and we can never rest.”

Let us pray against the resurgence of this threat. We must never forget. We must not avert our eyes. Let’s resolve to stand together against this evil.

Aaron Mercer is a Contributing Writer with two decades of experience in Washington, D.C.’s public policy arena. He reflects on faith, technology, and the public square at FTPolicy.com. (Photo Credit: Unsplash.)

Share your prayers in the comments below!