Baylis Court School Newsletter Friday 4 February 2022

Lessons from Auschwitz

Lessons from Auschwitz Project: Have we learnt?

In this Article we hope to raise awareness about Jewish lives pre-Holocaust and post-Holocaust. We hope to make you re-evaluate your knowledge, stance, and opinions on the people who endured the Holocaust and have more of an understanding of Antisemitism. Whilst it is incredibly important to understand the suffering of Jewish people, it is also important to educate on Jewish culture throughout the Diaspora.

Originally, the Jews migrated from and around the Middle East until the Israelite Tribes settled in what was then called Judah (eventually the name evolved to Judea), and is now Palestine. On the 9th of Av (begins on Saturday, 6 August 2022 and ends at nightfall on Sunday, 7 August 2022) Babylonian invaders set the first temple on fire as well as taking hundreds of Jewish lives. When Jewish exiles returned, they rebuilt the temple but it was destroyed again when the Romans put down a revolt in 70 CE. However, this time many fled into exile resulting in new Jewish communities scattered all around the world fleeing persecution over 1,000 years. This event created the Jewish Diaspora which refers to the settlement of Jews after their exile from Judea.

The Jewish diaspora is vast, diverse, and ever-lasting, with over 15 million Jews worldwide. Although not every Jew follows Judaism-as it is an Ethnic identity- the religion has deep connections with the culture. Through the diaspora, Jewish culture from Judea has been adapted into its own segments depending on where settled. For example, its obligatory for Jewish women once married to cover their hair, for orthodox Jews a Sheitel (wig) or tichel (headscarf) may be worn. Headscarves may be decorated or made from different fabrics depending on the region. Jewish culture is just as marvellous and resilient as its people, withstanding over a thousand years of persecution.

The diaspora was unfortunately aided by the Holocaust as thousands had to flee from the Nazi regime in Europe. It was also heightened when Jews were liberated from concentration camps and placed into displacement camps.

The most well-known antisemitic event begun in 1941 (the holocaust). Antisemitism is a term that refers to the prejudice or hostility towards Jewish people This hatred started many years before that with Christians Blaming Jews for supposedly “Killing” Jesus. This myth was used to justify the prejudice and persecution of Jews, eventually sparking other myths. Here are some of the instances Jews have been blamed for:

The black death (the plague)

Killing Christian children

The Wall Street Crash

Attempting to take over the world

These claims are false with no evidence besides the attacker's hatred. However, Jews have been targeted with these claims for centuries. Most commonly-in the 21st century- through conspiracy theories which are underlined in antisemitic views but have switched out the word Jew and replaced it with another being or entity. Many are unaware of this and contribute heavily to spreading Antisemitism. This hidden antisemitism tricks people into believing its ideas and slowly reverts the substituted entity back to the word Jew. This contributes to the far-right extremism so feared today.

Jews all around Europe were put in danger by this antisemitism an estimated 6 million were slaughtered during the Holocaust. Within this 6 million was a young Jewish couple called Ota and Katerina Margolius from Czechoslovakia. Ota was an international hockey player for Czechoslovakia, and a leader of a Jewish sports club in Prague. Katerina had trained at art school and then became a milliner (hat-maker). Both Ota and Katerina had aspirations, dreams, visions of the life that they could have together. This was torn apart when the Nazis invaded the Czech lands in March 1939 and immediately introduced anti-Jewish laws. By September 1939, all Jews over the age of six were forced to wear a yellow Star of David badge in public. From late 1941 onwards, Czech Jews were sent to the Terezín Ghetto, near Prague, from where most were eventually transported to killing sites in eastern Europe, including extermination camps such as Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Almost all of them were killed in gas chambers as soon as they arrived at the camps. By the end of the war nearly 90% of the Jews in Czechoslovakia (almost 315,000 people) had been murdered, including Ota Margolius. This is only one case. There are millions of horrific stories and accounts from Holocaust survivors. Thousands of entire Jewish families had been mercilessly murdered at hands of the Nazis.

Countless stories have been shared in the hope of preventing another organised genocide. These stories are given to us to learn from with the hope that we would fight against hate.

On the 27th of January 2020, the Prime Minister did not attend the anniversary of Auschwitz liberation event and it was also not on the news or in the media, only a few scattered articles. This suggests that perhaps, as a society, we need to be more aware of this important event. We need to learn, but not at the expense of causing further trauma. Our society is guilty of not doing enough to ensure that the next generation learn and help protect persecuted groups. When we as a country have had a 320% increase in antisemitism within a week, have we learnt?

written by Alanna Watts and Amarah Yaseen