QUESTION ASKED: Why Are Holocaust Museums Cowering in Silence?
On Oct. 7, Hamas executed a well-planned attack explicitly seeking to annihilate the Jewish nation. Since then, the group has explained that it will continue to do so until the Jews have been wiped out. The tactics were so monstrous they immediately called to mind the worst atrocities that have been visited on the Jewish people, including the Holocaust. Oct. 7 was the deadliest day for Jews since—yes—the Holocaust. Massive, organized gatherings to support Hamas’s final solution have featured Nazi signage and openly genocidal chants, echoed by a member of Congress. Jewish students chased in a university were told they could hide in the attic. Speaking of which, this week a German day care center named after Anne Frank decided to change its name at the behest of “migrant” families, who claimed to struggle in explaining who Anne Frank was to their children.
If that’s not the Bat Signal for an entire vocation built around One Big Thing, I don’t know what is.
Yet as Daniel Greenfield notes in a column at World Israel News, our caped crusaders are stepping a bit lightly: “Most Holocaust museums surveyed did issue some sort of statement about the attacks, even if it was only to retweet a message from the local Jewish federation, and sometimes only on social media, where they are less widely visible. Some issued stronger press statements on their own sites but virtually none then followed up with further updates beyond one press release… Holocaust museums have generally continued with their pre-existing programs.”
Holocaust museums are not shy, and they are not unconcerned with the news.
“The Museum continues to have grave concern about the global refugee crisis and our response to it,” declared the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the highest profile of all institutions, in February 2017 after the Trump administration’s announcement of a refugee pause. “During the 1930s and 1940s, the United States, along with the rest of the world, generally refused to admit Jewish refugees from Nazism due to antisemitic and xenophobic attitudes, harsh economic conditions, and national security fears.”
Exit questions: “Do the people running them actually care about the moment, or are they fearful their ‘outreach’ to everyone else will be compromised? Or…do some of them have some philosophical uneasiness about siding with Israel at this moment?”
Very likely yes in many cases, sad to say, regarding the second question.