Ten Holocaust Survivors Who Opposed Zionism
A free post
“To be a Jew means always being with the oppressed, and never the oppressors” ~ Marek Edelman, a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Zionists often talk as though the Holocaust excuses almost anything they do, but some of their fiercest critics are Holocaust survivors. Chris Knight collected examples in Nine Holocaust survivors compare Zionist policies to those of the Nazis. I’ve selected snippets for people who want to share the pithiest bits and added a tenth survivor.
1 Marika Sherwood, survivor of the Budapest ghetto
From ‘How I became an anti-Israel Jew’, Middle East Monitor, 7/3/18:
“I will not remain silent in the face of the attempted annihilation of the Palestinians; the sale of arms to repressive regimes around the world; the attempt to stifle criticism of Israel in the media worldwide; or the twisting of the knife labelled ‘guilt’ in order to gain economic concessions from Western countries.
…I will not allow the confounding of the terms ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘anti-Zionist’ to go unchallenged.” — Marika Sherwood, Holocaust survivor
2 Israel Shahak, survivor of the Warsaw ghetto and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
From Middle East Policy Journal, Summer 1989, no.29:
“When Germany and Japan renounced the wish for domination, they became much nicer societies for the Japanese and Germans themselves. …I would like to see Israel, by renouncing the desire for domination, including domination of the Palestinians, become a much nicer place for Israelis to live.” — Israel Shahak, Holocaust survivor
3 Hajo Meyer, Auschwitz survivor
From ‘An Ethical Tradition Betrayed’, Huffington Post, 27/1/10:
“I am pained by the parallels I observe between my experiences in Germany prior to 1939 and those suffered by Palestinians today. I cannot help but hear echoes of the Nazi mythos of ‘blood and soil’ in the rhetoric of settler fundamentalism which claims a sacred right to all the lands of biblical Judea and Samaria. The various forms of collective punishment visited upon the Palestinian people — coerced ghettoization behind a ‘security wall’; the bulldozing of homes and destruction of fields; the bombing of schools, mosques, and government buildings; an economic blockade that deprives people of the water, food, medicine, education and the basic necessities for dignified survival — force me to recall the deprivations and humiliations that I experienced in my youth.” — Hajo Meyer, Holocaust survivor
4 Gabor Mate, survivor of the Budapest ghetto
From ‘Beautiful Dream of Israel has become a Nightmare’, Toronto Star, 22/7/14:
“Whether in Vietnam or Rwanda or Syria, humanity stands by either complicitly or unconsciously or helplessly, as it always does. In Gaza today we find ways of justifying the bombing of hospitals, the annihilation of families at dinner, the killing of pre-adolescents playing soccer on a beach. …
There is no understanding Gaza out of context — Hamas rockets or unjustifiable terrorist attacks on civilians — and that context is the longest ongoing ethnic cleansing operation in the recent and present centuries, the ongoing attempt to destroy Palestinian nationhood.
The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto. Unlike Israel, Palestinians lack Apache helicopters, guided drones, jet fighters with bombs, laser-guided artillery. Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm. With such a gross imbalance of power, there is no equivalence of culpability. …
…I pray we can listen to our hearts. My heart tells me that ‘never again’ is not a tribal slogan, that the murder of my grandparents in Auschwitz does not justify the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians, that justice, truth, peace are not tribal prerogatives. That Israel’s ‘right to defend itself,’ unarguable in principle, does not validate mass killing.” — Gabor Mate, Holocaust survivor
5 Zeev Sternhell, survivor of the Przemysl ghetto in Poland
From ‘Opinion in Israel, Growing Fascism and a Racism Akin to Early Nazism’, Haaretz, 19/1/18:
“…we see not just a growing Israeli fascism but racism akin to Nazism in its early stages.” — Zeev Sternhell, Holocaust survivor
6 Rudolph Vrba, survivor of Majdanek and Auschwitz
From ‘Oral history interview with Rudolf Vrba’ , World at War TV Series, 1972:
“Nazism and Zionism had something in common: they both preached that Jews don’t belong to Europe but to Palestine.” — Rudolph Vrba, Holocaust survivor
7 Marek Edelman, survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and a commander of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising
From Being On the Right Side: Everyone in the Ghetto Was a Hero:
“Ben Gurion washed his hands of the Diaspora… As early as a Mapai party conference in December 1942, he said that the tragedy of the European Jews did not ‘directly concern’ them. Those were the words of a leader who was willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of Jews to the idea of a Jewish state.” — Marek Edelman, Holocaust survivor
8 Primo Levi, Auschwitz survivor
From The Voice of Memory: Primo Levi Interviews, 1961–1987:
“[As for Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin] ‘Fascist’ is a definition I can accept. I think even Begin would not deny it. He was a student of Jabotinsky, who represented the right wing of Zionism, who called himself a Fascist and was one of Mussolini’s interlocutors. …. [The Holocaust] is Begin’s favourite defence. And I deny any validity to that defence.” — Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor
9 Reuben Moscovitz, survivor of the Holocaust in Romania
From ‘Jewish Gaza-bound Activists: IDF Used Excessive Force in Naval Raid’, Haaretz, 28/9/10:
“I as a Holocaust survivor cannot live with the fact that the State of Israel is imprisoning an entire people behind fences. … [I compare] what I went through during the Holocaust to what the besieged Palestinian children are going through.” — Reuben Moscovitz, Holocaust survivor
Bonus #1 Rene Lichtman
“Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza. We’ve got to fight back.” — Rene Lichtman, Holocaust survivor
Bonus quote:
“For Zionism to succeed you need to have a Jewish state, with a Jewish flag and a Jewish language. The person who really understands that is your fascist, Jabotinsky.” — Benito Mussolini, 1935
