Telling true stories

Last week, our South African Jewish community solemnly commemorated Yom Hashoah in Johannesburg. Adverse weather prompted a difficult but necessary decision to relocate the commemoration from the iconic Shofar monument at Westpark Cemetery, its home for 65 years, to the King David Linksfield school hall. This decision was made with the utmost gravity and in consideration of our elderly community members and Holocaust survivors. The result was a success, with more than 900 people, including dignitaries and diplomats, in attendance. The ceremony, as always, was profoundly moving and emotionally charged, and feedback from attendees has underscored its enduring impact. We’re equally heartened to report that poignant, well-attended Yom Hashoah ceremonies took place in Pretoria, Durban, and Cape Town, each reflecting the strength of our national commitment to remembrance.

As we have emphasised in recent months, the responsibility to carry the baton of Holocaust remembrance grows ever more urgent as the generation of survivors dwindles. This sacred duty compels us to educate, engage, and inspire younger generations to understand the Holocaust’s singular place in history. In this spirit, I accepted an invitation to appear on eNCA to discuss the significance of Yom Hashoah, hoping to reach a broader South African audience. Regrettably yet predictably, the interview veered off course within three and a half minutes, with the interviewer posing a question that sought to draw a false equivalence between the Holocaust and the ongoing war in Gaza.

The question posed was, “Professor I have to ask, what would you say to those who believe that right now, Israel is committing genocide, something very similar to what happened?”

The following is a transcript of my reply, “It’s really important to understand the difference between a war and a genocide. I’ve just returned from Auschwitz, where I witnessed firsthand the industrial-level killing that occurred which murdered six million Jews across Europe. And I just want to share one story I heard a few years ago about the Nazis’ pursuit of Jews in Europe, and that is there was a small group of Jews who managed to hide on a small island off the coast of one of the Scandinavian countries. In the midst of a war, the Nazis sent a group of soldiers to hunt down and murder six Jews who were hiding there. A genocide is about an irrational hatred that has no cause, it has no reason to exist. It’s not about protection of one’s rights. The war in Gaza is an absolute tragedy, and I’m heartbroken for the innocent victims on both sides, but if you take any time to study what happened in the Holocaust and to understand what happened, it’s simply an inappropriate analogy. If we really want to see an end to the war, we need to find a solution for why the war happened and to find peace in a way that will allow lasting peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis. So, anybody who studies the Holocaust, anybody who knows anything about the Holocaust, will understand that there’s no comparison to be made.”

I share this exchange to highlight the urgent need to confront the dangerous cheapening of the Holocaust’s memory. The trope of Holocaust inversion – casting Israel as the “new Nazis” – isn’t merely a rhetorical misstep, it’s a modern, pernicious antisemitic canard that distorts history and fuels hatred. The Holocaust was an industrial-scale genocide driven by an ideology of annihilation, not a conflict born of competing claims or territorial disputes. To equate it with the complexities of the Middle East is to betray the memory of the six million and to undermine our moral clarity.

Attendance at events like Yom Hashoah isn’t merely symbolic, it’s a vital act of witness, ensuring that the stories of survivors and victims endure. We owe it to those who perished, to those who survived, and to ourselves to educate and challenge distortions. For as South African Union of Jewish Students Chairperson Sasha Said so movingly stated at the commemoration, “We are the generation that remembers because they tried to bury us with their silence, but our voices will echo through history.”