THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

clear one day how similar Israel is to those early years in Germany, when the Germanpeople were deceived, misled. Certain moments in the Israeli experience are verysimilar to what happened in Germany between the insult of defeat in the Great Warand the Nazi’s rise to power in 1933. In the early days after World War I, in the newGerman democracy, respectable, decent people did not take Hitler and his menseriously. They were loud and provocative, but transparent. They were not reallyseen and not much listened to.Ian Kershaw, one of the most authoritative voices on modern German history,presented new details about Hitler and Germany in a new biography of Hitler, addingpieces to this puzzle and hence to our own. He argues early in the book:The twentieth century is “Hitler’s Century” . . . no one left a deepermark in it than Adolf Hitler. Other dictators—especially Mussolini,Stalin, and Mao—conducted wars of occupation, enslaved otherpeoples, supervised immeasurable atrocities and left an indelible stampon the twentieth century’s character. But their rule was not etched inpeople’s consciousness . . . t he way t hat Adolf Hit ler’s rule wasetched ...Hitler’s dictatorship was like the implosion of moderncivilization—like a nuclear blast in a modern society. It showed whatwe are capable of . . . 6He includes us all, the whole of humanity, among those responsible. In order toprevent this from recurring, he states:No effort to fully understand Nazism will succeed without an adequatereference to the “Hitler Factor,” but such explanation must not only take into account Hit ler’s ideologica l goa ls, his deeds, and personalcontribution to the forming of the events; it must reveal the socialforces and the political structures that enabled, designed, andpromoted the growth of the system . . . Hitler was the focus . . . Hewas its head and spokesman, not its major factor.Hitler came from the fringes of right-wing circles. Even though he was considered alunatic, he went on to become the epicenter of the world’s nightmares. In extremistcircles, people dip into pools of hatred, and pass this onto their companions.Inflammatory language arouses passions but creates false warmth. They allow