Ragionando sull'Olocausto - Raised on the Holocaust di Yossi Sarid
Israeli students at Auschwitz in May.
Photo by AP
You must frighten them when they are still young –
“starting with first grade, even kindergarten.” Ironically, the
champions of privatization are also the champions of nationalization; to
paraphrase Isaiah, “Woe unto them that join the national flag to the
prayer shawl.”
She
was 17 at the time and had just returned from the March of the Living
at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I had come to give her a lift home.
“Do you know someone named Bibi?” she asked me.
“Of course, he is Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations,” I replied.
“I
am really angry with him. He just stood there and exploited the podium
in order to say, ‘Just like the Nazis, the Palestinians want to kill us,
and Arafat is the new Hitler.’ I hope that in the future we don’t hear
too much about Bibi.”
Since
then, to borrow from “The Partisans’ Song,” “Our marches of the living
will thunder, ‘We are here.’” Bibi is here and the Holocaust becomes a
gallows that can be used for various purposes. He uses the Holocaust
theme endlessly: If he personally will not protect the State of Israel,
all its citizens will become martyrs, victims of the gallows. When is
the last time Israel elected a prime minister whose scepter of hope is
inside its scabbard?
Netanyahu
is a master of the art of Shoah business, a true disciple of Menachem
Begin, who was the first to release the genie of the Holocaust from the
bottle. David Ben-Gurion tried to keep that bottle sealed so that
Israel’s Jews would not go mad: They have already been so wounded by the
Holocaust, why pour fear on their wounds? But Begin remained in Polish
exile, haunted and persecuted. Brisk is here, and the memory is still
alive, still terrifying. In death, he left us the legacy to live in the
shadow of death. Netanyahu is fulfilling that legacy as a true one-man
Shoah.
But
now he is not alone; imitators have arisen. Seeing that fear is good
and that it pays to frighten, they have decided to become partners in
selling it to the public, in capitalizing on the Holocaust’s memory. The
so-called new politicians who have now been elected to the Knesset have
joined the ranks of the fear-mongers. The half-million Israelis who
cast their ballots for Yesh Atid (There is a Future) in the last
parliamentary elections could not have imagined at the time that the
past is actually the new future.
In
a recent visit to Hungary, Yair Lapid delivered a typical
Netanyahu-style speech, talking not about what the Jewish state has
learned in the classes on the Third Temple in Jerusalem, but rather what
it can teach others in extension courses.
To
mark the 25th anniversary of the March of the Living, which faces
backward instead of forward, Education MInister Shay Piron traveled with
Israeli high school students and local celebrities to Poland. On his
return to Israel, Piron smuggled through Israeli customs an electrifying
idea: From now on, not only will all Israeli youths from age 17 and up
absorb the Holocaust’s deadly radiation, very young children will also
be exposed to it; a young tender soul, after all, absorbs everything
deeply.
Children who have not yet fully formed their way of thinking will now face the prospect of being driven mad.
“What did you learn today in kindergarten, my sweet child?”
“We learned that if we don’t eat everything on our plate, a German police officer will come and grab us.”
If
any of you readers have children or grandchildren, I strongly advise
you to refrain from sending them to a seemingly free-and-easy
kindergarten that is more like a maximum-security prison.
Perhaps
Israeli children are not tough enough; what is this, Athens? Perhaps
Israel should be more like Sparta. Perhaps they should be trained with
Spartan-like rough-texture diapers, instead of being wrapped with cotton
wool like the etrog. Every Hebrew toddler must know the truth, so he
won't leave the country in the end.
Seven
years ago I wrote a book published by Yad Vashem and Yedioth Ahronoth:
“Pepiczek: He Didn’t Know His Name” – the story of Petr Grunfeld, my
friend, who was born the same year I was born, and who was four when he
entered Auschwitz and five when he emerged. The book describes his
journey in search of his identity, a journey that lasted more than 45
years, and it is not a book recommended for children.
I
ask you, indulgent parents: If our Pepi survived the injections in the
back Dr. Mengele gave him, and the drops he dripped into his eyes, and
the needle he injected into his brain, aren't your children capable of
surviving the account of his story? And if a 4-year-old managed to
survive Auschwitz's Barracks No. 10, then 5-year-olds can surely survive
yet another educational reform.
Raised on the Holocaust - Opinion
www.haaretz.com
Seeing
that fear is good and that it pays to frighten, Yair Lapid's so-called
new politicians are also capitalizing on the Holocaust’s memory.
Sintesi personale in Italiano
Per Bibi l'Olocausto può essere utilizzato per vari scopi all'infinito: se egli personalmente non protegge lo stato di Israele, tutti i suoi cittadini diventeranno martiri e vittime .Netanyahu è un maestro dell'arte della Shoah business, un vero discepolo di Menachem Begin, che fu il primo a liberare il genio dell'Olocausto dalla bottiglia. David Ben-Gurion ha cercato di mantenere quella bottiglia sigillata in modo che gli ebrei di Israele non diventassero pazzi: già feriti dall'Olocausto, perché infondere paura sulle loro ferite? La memoria è ancora viva, ancora terrificante, ci ha lasciato l'eredità di vivere nell'ombra della morte. Netanyahu è appagato da quell'eredità come un vero One-Man Shoah,ma non è il solo: sono sorti imitatori decisi di diventare anche loro partner di vendita capitalizzando sulla memoria dell' Olocausto. I cosiddetti nuovi politici ,eletti alla Knesset, sono entrati nei ranghi della paura-mercanti e con loro il passato è in realtà il nuovo futuro. Per celebrare il 25 ° anniversario della Marcia della Vita il ministro dell'Istruzione, Shay Piron ,ha accompagnato gli studenti delle scuole superiori israeliane e celebrità locali in Polonia. Al suo ritorno in Israele, Piron ha deciso : da ora in poi, non solo tutti i giovani israeliani da 17 anni in su assorbiranno le radiazioni mortali della Shoah, ma anche i bambini molto piccoli potranno essere esposti ad esse. UN'anima tenera , dopo tutto, assorbe tutto profondamente.I bambini che non hanno ancora completamente formate loro modo di pensare si trovano ora ad affrontare la prospettiva di impazzire.
Forse i bambini israeliani non sono abbastanza resistenti ? Forse Israele dovrebbe essere più simile a Sparta ? Ogni bambino ebreo deve sapere la verità, così lui non lascerà il Paese alla fine. Sette anni fa ho scritto un libro pubblicato da Yad Vashem e da Yedioth Ahronoth: 'Pepiczek: non sapeva che il Suo Nome' - la storia di Petr Grunfeld detenuto ad Auschwitz . Il libro descrive il suo viaggio alla ricerca della sua identità, un viaggio che è durato più di 45 anni e non è un libro consigliato per i bambini. Chiedo a voi, genitori indulgenti: Se il nostro Pepi all'età di 4 anni è sopravvissuto alle iniezioni alla schiena del dottor Mengele ,alle gocce che gli colava negli occhi,all' ago nel suo cervello, un bambino di 5 anni di età può sicuramente sopravvivere all' ennesima riforma scolastica.
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