Without the Holocaust, Zionism would not have succeeded. It was a fringe movement, ignored by assimilated secular Jews as unnecessary, and by religious Jews as oppositional to its beliefs.
The Holocaust was critical for the formation of the state of Israel – it shifted the views of Jews around the world, it pushed world opinion to support the founding of the state, and it drove millions of Jewish refugees to the country.
Zionism was founded on the idea of Jewish self-determinism, that no longer would Jews go “like sheep to slaughter”. And yet Zionists failed the Jews of Europe – they were so concerned about creating a better future that they failed to create a better present.
“One cow in Palestine is more important than all of the Jews in Poland,” said Zionist leader Dr. Issac Greenbaum. In 1944, Zionist leaders were offered the chance to ransom tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews for 25 million dollars. They refused.
The more Jews died in Europe, the more valid the Zionist cause. Here is a direct quote from Sol Meyer, who turned down the deal to save Hungarian Jews: “if we do not have sufficient victims we shall have no right to demand an independent state.” Stated differently, the holocaust was the best thing that happened to the Zionists.
It did not stop there. Holocaust survivors were treated terribly after the war, looked down upon as victims, and their individual stories remained untold and invalidated until the Eichmann’s trial in the early 60’s.
Now, of course, things are different. Zionists will have you believe that Israel exists to ensure that the Holocaust happens “never again”. They take great pains in dragging everyone with a pulse to holocaust museums in Israel, Poland, and across North America. And anyone who questions any part of Zionism is equated with condoning the holocaust and marked with the ultimate accusation of being either an anti-Semite or a self-hating Jews.
Unsurprisingly, this obsession with the holocaust is all about image. A friend of mine developed an app that uses AI to help decedents of survivors identify their ancestors in holocaust photos. He approached multiple holocaust museums for support, but was turned down, because their goal is not to remember those who died or to help their decedents mourn. It’s to shove the holocaust into the faces of non-Jews. Holocaust museums are not for Jews. They are for everybody else.
Zionism’s ethnic Nationalism is essentially the mirror of Hitler’s racism. Jews are genetically different, says both Hitler and the Zionists. It’s just that Hitler saw them as the worst and the Zionists think they are the best. They are the most moral army in the world. They are the only democratic country in the Middle East. They are a beacon of morality, and the mounting evidence to the contrary is simply a gigantic pile of bad apples.
In reality, this concept of “never again” is highly specific. Israel has refused to recognize the Armenian genocide. It has colluded with countless countries with human rights violations to serve its own specific needs. And, of course, it is perpetuating some of the most violent acts against civilians in modern history, a brutal suppression of a similar desire for self-determination by a people who were there before they arrived and who rely on their good graces for their very survival. “Never again” indeed.
My father is currently on a book tour, a book whose entire thesis is founded on Hitler’s opinions around the Jews. These are analyzed and interpreted and turned, with a triumphant “aha!” into proof of Jewish superiority. Jews are innately spiritual, imbued with a drive to be righteous and good in their very DNA. They’re just different. They’re just better.
We’re right back where we started.
An earlier version of this post was entitled “why Zionists love Hitler”, which I changed after realizing the current title would be more accurate.
