By Amy Zewe—
As we start 2022, the division in America, and much of the Modern World, over various pandemic-managing policies is still raging, nearly 2 years after its onset. What was 2 weeks to flatten the curve is now 21 months of freedom-stifling governmental policies, neighbors snarling at each other over mask wearing (either way) and controversies over vaccine mandates to work or travel versus personal health choices.
My goal is not to dwell on this current happening as a topic, but to reveal to you all a timeline that may startle you. Years can slip with evil intentions eroding our good senses and undermining morality, ethics, and even our humanity.
It was 80 years ago this month that The Wannsee Conference in January 1942 was called to coordinate the German plan to undertake “The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.” One may think of this as a turning point in the history of Europe. Which it was, but it was not a complete about-face in mentality and cultural atmosphere. This conference put the seal on the first coordinated, organized, industrial plan to eliminate completely an entire nation from the face of the earth.
Do you realize this is a very short time ago, historically? We have many people still alive as of today who can remember these days in Europe—many suffered through these days. Children they may have been, the miracle is that they lived through it and can tell us about it today. The photographic, documented, and personal testimony of this period of history is indisputable.
Now, I am not directly comparing the legal and political battle ongoing today over the known science and unknown factors of Covid 19 or its vaccines. However, a political power grab during a crisis is the constant here.
Keep in mind this conference in 1942 that organized and set into motion the system—government sanctioned, funded, and accepted by the populace—to eliminate a certain people from, society, and even the face of the earth. And its objective did not come about during the conference itself: It was long in the making.
Tangible proof of the persecution and isolation of Jews in Germany by the Nazi party commenced in 1933 (only 9 years prior to the conference). The political Nazi Party, along with the German state, adopted measures which “increasingly limited the freedom of action of Jews, turning them into individuals bereft of any legal rights. Jews were persecuted, attacked and expelled” (Tenembaum).
Now, the 1933 power that the German government took and used for this persecution was centuries in the making. It too was not an isolated event. Antisemitism in the whole of Europe and Russia was being preached from pulpits, manifested by local jurisdictions, and carried out by so-called civic groups, community groups, chambers of commerce, and more.
To read a great synopsis of this very recent history, and to learn a lesson from it, check out The article by Yoav Tenembaum in the Jerusalem Post, “80 years later: the conference that led to The Final Solution”: The Wannsee Conference translated Hitler’s words into action in the most detailed, coherent and efficient manner possible.
To quote from Tenembaum’s article:
Europe, which had witnessed 2,000 years of antisemitic persecution, reached a peak unequaled in the history of humankind. The Final Solution was put into effect by one of the most cultured nations the world had ever known. The Jewish people were to disappear from the face of the earth in a few years. Nothing would remain of the Jewish nation, no Jew would prevail, nothing but the ashes of the corpses gassed to death would survive.
Many people in Europe collaborated with Nazi Germany in persecuting and murdering Jews. Indeed, some proved to be even more enthusiastic in their anti-Jewish fervor than the Nazis. Whether they were Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Poles, Latvians, Hungarians, Romanians, French, Dutch, or anyone else, they displayed a sense of sadism that on occasion surprised the Germans themselves.
As we see antisemitism continue to grow in our most elite institutes of higher learning, among our social media and celebrity influencers, and even among our first world political bodies and economic institutions, my goal is for you all to be vigilant to recognize this continued cancer and be confident to combat it in whatever way you can by sharing information and educating friends, neighbors, and your fellow church or synagogue congregants. Vet the folks on your ballots and find out where they stand on issues surrounding critical race theory, anti-BDS legislation, and policies concerning Israel. Hold to account your local public and private universities that your tax dollars fund and perhaps your own family or network attend (or maybe even your own alma mater). And, of course, your prayers that truth and justice surrounding the Jewish people and the modern state of Israel prevail. And finally, your continued support of organizations such as ours to inform, educate, activate, and serve in the capacity to “comfort ye my people” as God commands us.
Remember, as Derek Prince, a fierce Zionist whose insights derived directly from scripture, has said: “Two invisible spiritual kings are at war with one another; the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan”
We know who wins, but we fight the daily battles nonetheless because those battles can be life or death, persecution, or freedom, for many individuals and current communities in this very day.
“For Zion’s sake we will not keep Silent.”
Isaiah. 62:1
Shavua Tov; have a great week.