It was shocking because it was undeniable.
There had, of course, been countless massacres before throughout history, genocidal rampages from ancient times through to the modern age. From Genghis Khan’s destruction to the mass murder of Armenians in the early 20th century. But the Jewish Holocaust was different. Why?
Well, first it occurred in the context of World War. It wasn’t one government, or one marauding warlord killing hundreds or thousands in a faraway land where no journalist or intrepid explorer would see it and then report upon it to the World.
No, the Shoa, as the Jewish community refers to it, occurred in the midst of a global conflict with millions of combatants deployed from countries as diverse at Japan and Poland.
At the same time, it is a genocide that occurred after the modern media was well and truly established. From the technology of the telegraphic wire to live radio reporting and the movie theater newsreel. And once the Allies won, and the Third Reich was in rubble, those journalists and photographers were invited by the victors to document all the horrors of the death camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Birkenau, and on, and on, in large part thanks to the foresight of Supreme Allied Commander, and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who ordered:
“Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses, because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”
Additionally, this industrial-scale murder of more than 6 million human, men, women, and children, wasn’t simply a consequence of a local conflict, innocents slaughtered because they happened to be on the “wrong side” of a war. The extermination of the Jewish people was a core strategic goal of the National Socialist German Workers, or Nazi Party. The murder of millions, because of their religious and ethnic identity, was Hitler’s “Final Solution” for an Aryan Europe.
But the good guys, America and the Allies, won. Hitler, the pathetic little Austrian corporal with the risible mustache took the coward’s route, committed suicide himself and had his corpse and his poisoned newlywed bride’s body burnt by his lackies in a shell-scrape. And then all the horrors of the camps were documented on Eisenhower’s orders, and then the details of how innocent naked families were killed in Zyklon-B gas chambers disguised as shower blocks were detailed at the Nuremberg Trials of surviving Nazi leaders.
By the time that was over there was no question about what happened at Hitler’s death camps. Millions murdered in the name of National Socialism and ethnic purity, and soon a new motto was born: “Never Again!”
In the decades since the war, as a new Israeli state was established, proud Jews vowed “Never Again.” As did all of their allies, friends, and all decent people of the civilized world. But then October 7th happened.
In the 50 plus days since more than 1,400 men, women and children were massacred, babies roasted alive, rave attendees kidnapped, raped, and murdered, what did the “decent” world do? Some of us told the truth. Others, many others, ripped down the posters of the kidnapped children, saying none of it ever happened. Others, included elected politicians, rallied on behalf of Hamas and screamed “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” Meaning, from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, there will be no Jews. Genocide chanted on the streets of Western capitals by 100,000’s of free people on the side of savage terrorists. Some, even chanting the chilling “Gas the Jews!”
So, what happened to “never again”?
Why did Eisenhower do what he did at the end of the war? Let’s listen to his words:
“I visited every nook and cranny of the camp because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at firsthand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that `the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda.’”
It seems that was not enough.
How many will have to be killed for “Near Again!” to actually mean “NEVER again?”
Sebastian Gorka Ph.D. is host of SALEM Radio’s AMERICA First and The Gorka Reality Check on NEWSMAX TV. A former Strategist to President Donald Trump, he is a member of the National Security Education Board of the Pentagon. His latest book is The War for America’s Soul. Follow him on his SubStack page and website.