‘I am constantly amazed by man’s inhumanity to man,” Primo Levi wrote, just two years after his release from Auschwitz on January 27th, 1945. Like many others, the Jewish Italian writer struggled for the rest of his life with the vast existential questions raised by the moral void of the Holocaust.
As the world prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, the few remaining survivors of the concentration camps are approaching the end of their own lives. With the Shoah passing entirely from lived experience into the historical record, this is a moment to be especially conscious of the importance of keeping its memory relevant for succeeding generations. That will not be easy.
Jews were not the only victims of the programme of industrialised mass extermination carried out during the second World War. But in scale and malevolent intent, the genocide of six million European Jews is the single grimmest proof of the human capacity to do great evil. While it was driven by the perverted ideology of national socialism, it would be profoundly wrong to ignore its roots in centuries-old prejudices which were commonplace across society. That hatred and suspicion was fanned by political, cultural and religious leaders long before Adolf Hitler ascended to power. As a result, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust have come to challenge basic assumptions about civilisation and progress.
After eight decades of reckoning, anti-Semitism has not gone away. The xenophobia, irrationality and wilful cruelty that characterised the fascist eruption of a century ago are on the march again. Cemeteries have been desecrated and synagogues attacked.
The Government has committed to giving effect to the working definition of anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. That definition is contested by some who believe its effect is to suppress legitimate criticism of the actions of the state of Israel.
If accusations of anti-Semitism are wrongly levelled in this way, they should of course be challenged. However, critics of Israel also have a duty to be aware that some rhetoric during the current war in Gaza has been dangerously inflammatory. While Zionism, the movement to establish a Jewish state, is by definition a political project, there are many examples of how anti-Zionism has been used as a cloak for anti-Semitism.
Strained relations between Ireland and Israel, culminating in the recent closure of the Israeli embassy in Dublin, have contributed to tensions and concern among Ireland’s small Jewish community. Those concerns should be acknowledged and addressed, not in a defensive way but in a spirit of openness, respect and goodwill. Our shared humanity is the best defence against the forces of intolerance and division.
