Even as over seven decades have passed since the horrific events of the Second World War, which led to the mass extermination of the Jews (6 million- never forget), there constantly occur instances that incite one of the world’s oldest cultures and most gifted communities.
How’s that? Bring the topic of Adolf Hitler or anything even remotely close to the term Nazi- when there’s no need- and you’d see reviled faces and raised eyebrows.
Understandably so, isn’t it? Not a rocket science theory. Hardly has humankind acted in such a gruesome way as to put up a question whether there’s anything kind about the phrase Humankind?
In fact, to this day, where Germany is seeing the rise of the Far Right, neo-Nazis being as common today as is the arrival of fever following throat infection or nasal blockage, the world still needs to learn the lesson. The lesson that one should never reach a situation as despicable or calamitous as to have Nazis or that sort of brutality around us.
Yet, the Jews bear consequences of situations that still go unchecked, and resultantly, incite fresh wounds when one would expect the world to learn its lesson and move on.
Take what happened in Munich, the beating heart of Bavaria in Germany recently, where the decision of a company to auction Hitler’s speeches generated controversy.
In earning the wrath of the European Jewish Association, the decision by the Munich firm to auction Hitler’s speeches tells us about critical elements around us that pose a threat to the liberty and dignity of the Jews.
In an age where studying Hitler’s speeches can no longer give The Mossad any clues to capture Nazi war criminals, and at the most, only serve the purpose for visitors in museums to note how evil can the human mind get, what an auction house did in Munich is bewildering.
So much so that Rabbi Menachim Margolin, the gentleman who serves as the head of the European Jewish Organization, has offered his piece of mind on a news that brings disconsolation to his community and serves little purpose.
Here’s what the head of the Brussels-bound European Jewish Organization had to say:
“I cannot get my head around the sheer irresponsibility and insensitivity, in such a febrile climate, of selling items such as the ramblings of the worlds biggest killer of Jews to the highest bidder!”
Not that the Munich auction house Hermann Historica took remedial action or expressed any kind of remorse. On the contrary, here’s what a report published in the Hindustan Times had to say on the burning issue:
If we destroy these things and they do not go into a museum for experts to work on them, you will leave the interpretation of what was happening to the right-wing Nazi apologists, who will say Hitler never said that. The man was preparing the Germans that there would be a war and those who didn’t want to see that must have been totally blind it’s in there.
The auction house has come under fire in the past for its sale of Nazi-era items, and maintains it goes to great lengths to ensure that they are not being sold to neo-Nazis, and are usually bought by museums and research facilities.
Also Read: 11 Facts You Didn’t Know About Hitler
But who’s at fault here? Guess, there are math quizzes easier than this one to solve, right? It’s a call the world has to take and choose wisely from:
To learn lessons from the past so that gory horror doesn’t recur or that one disbands completely from episodes that still cause emotional tremors at so many levels