Yom HaShoah: Holocaust survivors against Gaza war say 'never again for anyone'

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Lithos (a host of the Israel/Palestine group).

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yom-hashoah-holocaust-survivors-against-gaza-war-say-never-again-anyone


Yom HaShoah: Holocaust survivors against Gaza war say ‘never again for anyone’

Survivors and descendants say official commemoration ignores outrage and accusations of genocide levelled at Israel over deaths of more than 51,000 Palestinians

Photo
Agnes Kory, who was born in Hungary in 1944, said 'what was done to us as Jews should not be repeated against anybody else' (Simon Hooper/MEE)

Published date: 23 April 2025 13:51 BST | Last update: 5 hours 42 mins ago


Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors in the UK have said they feel a burden of responsibility to speak out against Israel’s continuing war in Gaza as Jewish communities mark Yom HaShoah - Israel’s day of remembrance for the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany.

This year’s Yom HaShoah, which begins on Wednesday evening, coincides with the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe in 1945, as well as the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British forces.

Thousands of people, including a number of survivors and refugees who escaped to the UK from Nazi-occupied Europe, are set to attend an event in London later on Wednesday at the site of a proposed new Holocaust memorial close to the Houses of Parliament.

……But other survivors and descendants critical of the event have told Middle East Eye they object to how the memory of the Holocaust has been framed by the Israeli government and its supporters in the UK to justify the war in Gaza and say they fear Israel’s actions are inflaming antisemitism.

More……

[iemanja]

1. So much for the claim that anyone who cares

About the thousands of deaths in Gaza is loyal to Hamas and an antisemite. That was always a lie.

[Beastly Boy]

7. That was never the case. So it was never a lie.

The claim was, and always has been, that the hypocrisy of disregarding Hamas role in the thousands of deaths in Gaza is despicable. The claim is that this hypocrisy exploits the thousands of dead Gazans to serve an anti-Israel, and at times antisemitic political agenda.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

2. " Tragically, events like Yom HaShoah are now used to direct attention away from Israel's aggression."

But Agnes Kory, an 80-year-old child survivor originally from Hungary, told MEE: “I am outraged and deeply insulted by the Holocaust being used as an excuse for Israel's relentless war against the Palestinian people.

“Tragically, events like Yom HaShoah are now used to direct attention away from Israel's aggression. And, in any event, what was done to us as Jews should not be repeated against anybody else.”

[Beastly Boy]

8. More tragically, events like Yom Hashoah are now being appropriated to divert attention from

an explosion of Jew hatred around the world.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

3. More text....

Haim Bresheeth, an Israeli academic and filmmaker living in London and the son of Polish survivors of Auschwitz and Belsen-Bergen, told MEE he believed the memory of the Holocaust had been "annexed" by Israel as a key element in the country's Zionist ideology which he said had been used to justify apartheid and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians long before the current conflict.

"The calculated abuse of the Holocaust by Zionism is one of the great crimes against humanity. It's a stain on the history of the Holocaust," he said.

Stephen Kapos, an 87-year-old child survivor originally from Hungary, told MEE he was speaking out in “protest against the use of the Holocaust experience by Israel as cover for what they’re perpetrating right now”, and said he believed Israel’s actions would lead to worsening antisemitism.

[Beastly Boy]

4. Interesting that none of the 120,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel

who, according to the article, make up "about half of the total number of survivors worldwide", and who actually experienced the Gaza war, don't share this sentiment.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

5. "Holocaust survivors condemn Israel's Gaza genocide"

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/ten-holocaust-survivors-condemn-israels-gaza-genocide/

Sun 23 Jun 2024

Ten Holocaust survivors condemn Israel’s Gaza genocide

[Beastly Boy]

6. Does this have anything to do with my post?

You cited the sentiments of a total of ten people. From a year ago. Three of them escaped the Nazis prior to the Holocaust. None of them are among the 120,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel.

[Lithos]

9. Locking per I/P guidelines

Not based on a recent news or op-ed article.

This occurred in January 2025 and was previously published by the very same Media in March.