Sept. 1, 2020 — 81 Years Since Nazi Germany Invaded Poland
Every year on Sept. 1 — I once again reflect on how the gates of escape from what would become Nazi-occupied Europe swung shut on this day of Sept. 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany attacked Poland.
This morning of Sept. 1, 2020, I was especially concerned when I read this article by Toby Axelrod:
“Hundreds associated with anti-Semitic movement attempt to break into German parliament building” — AUGUST 31, 2020
(JTA) — Several hundred protesters, some associated with an anti-Semitic movement, stormed through a group of police officers to the doors of Germany’s parliament building in Berlin before being removed by other officers.
The demonstrators from the Reichsburger (Reich Citizens) movement were among some 38,000 people who showed up for a mostly peaceful rally Saturday to protest the country’s coronavirus restrictions.
The Reichsburger, which had some 16,500 members as of two years ago, has been described as an assembly of groups and individuals who sometimes espouse violence in their “fight against the Federal Republic of Germany.” They believe that the 1937 German borders still exist, and many of them deny the Holocaust happened.
As someone who does a great deal of reading about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, I am all too aware of how the Nazis party started out small — and grew to take over the entire country of Germany and then many other countries. Obviously I found this news item very troubling.
NEVER AGAIN EDUCATION ACT SIGNED INTO LAW
On the other hand, I was pleased to read in the July/August 2020 edition of Hadassah Magazine:
On May 29, America’s commitment to ensuring that future generations learn the important lessons of the Holocaust marked a turning point when the Never Again Education Act was signed into law by President Trump. It was the end of a process that began more than two years earlier, when Hadassah adopted the effort to strengthen Holocaust education as its own.
Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York introduced the Never Again Education Act in the House of Representatives and, after the legislation was enacted, called Hadassah’s support and advocacy for it “instrumental.” Hadassah managed to keep the bill bipartisan and increase the number of supporters 13-fold from the original number of co-sponsors. With the organization’s continued focus on the bill and an outpouring of support from across the country, the United States House of Representatives passed the bill on January 27 of this year — International Holocaust Remembrance Day — by a vote of 393 to 5.
In the Senate, Hadassah recruited senators of both parties to support the bill, including co-sponsors Senators Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). After 10 months of lobbying by Hadassah and a coalition of organizations that it led, the Senate bill had amassed nearly 80 co-sponsors. It passed the Senate by unanimous consent on May 13.
The new federal program, which includes awarding $10 million in grants for Holocaust education to schools, will help reverse the disturbing trend of students graduating from high school without any understanding of what the Holocaust was, how it happened and to whom and why. Hadassah also hopes that it will help to undercut the appeal of hate groups and communities that traffic in anti-Semitism.
As a Lifetime Member of Hadassah, I have now written to the organization’s headquarters to offer my free nonfiction theater play project developed to combat anti-Semitism and hate — see www.ThinEdgeOfTheWedge.com and www.ThinEdgeOfTheWedgeProject.com
And, finally, you might like to read the blog post I wrote four years ago today — the day after I returned from Germany for the first time since being stationed in Munich with the U.S. Army from Sept. 1970 to May 1972 — “Reflections on Sept. 1 of 1939 and 2016” — that includes information on the memorials in Berlin to the murdered Jews and murdered Sinti and Roma (formerly known as Gypsies).