Holocaust: Learning from the Hurricane of hate

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs stopped millions in their tracks this morning who were listening to radio 4's ‘Thought of the day’. Whether you were brushing your teeth as I was,  eating your toast, and or just getting ready for work, his reflections forced you to stop what you were doing and listen attentively. In a most poignant few minute , he said the 'Hurricane of hate' that swept through Europe from 1939 to 1945 left more than a million children dead, along with five million adults, not killed on the brutal battle field of war but shot in the back, burned, or gassed in the notorious death camps.

What can we learn, Sachs suggested, from neighbour murderously slaughtering neighbour? During difficult economic times, he argued; we all need to be vigilant and concerned when you hear, ‘it’s all the fault of that lot’, those with a different religion or skin colour.

History has the potential of 20/20 vision. We know, for example, that in a very short space of time, what was seen by some, as the acceptable side of race hatred-‘we’re only being patriotic’, or ‘we’re just looking after our own’, quickly descends into racial violence. Its ultimate manifestation is murder and genocide; it inexorably has no other place to go.

The Holocaust memorial day not only forces us to reflect on the millions of innocent lives lost during the Nazi hurricane of hate. It also becomes a warning from the dead, from history, that screams: this is not just about evil people doing devilishly deeds, but sadly how ordinary people can be easily coerced into behaving abominable.

Simon Woolley