Israeli general's Holocaust speech strikes a nerve

A girl places a plaque on the rail tracks at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau during the yearly March of the Living on Thursday in Brzezinka, Poland.
A girl places a plaque on the rail tracks at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau during the yearly March of the Living on Thursday in Brzezinka, Poland.

JERUSALEM -- A Holocaust Remembrance Day speech late Wednesday by the Israeli army's deputy chief of staff incensed some nationalist ministers, who said Thursday that he appeared to liken the atmosphere in Israel today to that of Nazi-era Germany.

Their reaction to his comments underscores a growing rift between hard-liners in the government and the country's security chiefs over the Palestinian question.

Speaking Wednesday evening at a ceremony in central Israel, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan said, "If there is something that frightens me in Holocaust remembrance, it is ghastly trends that took place in Europe in general, and in Germany specifically, 70, 80 and 90 years ago and finding a sign of them here among us today in 2016."

He said Israelis on Holocaust Remembrance Day should "discuss our ability to uproot from among us buds of intolerance, buds of violence, buds of self-destruction on the path to ethical deterioration."

He made reference to a case in March in which a soldier was charged with manslaughter for shooting a Palestinian attacker as the attacker lay wounded on the ground in the West Bank, saying "not everything we do is right" but Israel's army does not cover up "problematic activity."

"There is nothing simpler and easier than hating the foreigner," Golan said. "There is nothing easier and simpler than arousing fears and intimidating."

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Golan was "a little confused" and that his statement reflected "a lack of understanding, if not a disrespect of the Holocaust."

On the other hand, center-left opposition leader Isaac Herzog called Golan brave. "This is what ethics and responsibility sound like," he said.

The Haaretz daily said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, late Wednesday to express displeasure. That report could not immediately be confirmed.

Yaalon, a former army chief, said Thursday that he had "full faith" in Golan and condemned "the worrying and bothersome campaign to politically damage the army and its officers."

The military issued a clarification Thursday, saying Golan did not intend to compare Israel and its army to "the horrors" of Nazi Germany.

"This is an absurd and baseless comparison that he never would have made, and it was never his intention to criticize the Israeli government," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. It said it "holds the value of human life as a guiding value."

Poland joined Israel on Thursday in marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day in memory of the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

Organizers of the annual March of the Living said about 10,000 participated in the event in southern Poland, which was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Participants march from the barracks of the Auschwitz concentration camp to the nearby subcamp of Birkenau.

Among them were about 150 Holocaust survivors, Israel's justice minister, Knesset members and people from 42 countries who expressed a range of emotions: deep grief at the loss of 6 million Jews, joy at the continued existence of the Jewish people and hope that the many young people taking part in the march means that the world will continue to remember.

"My grandparents of blessed memory died in the Holocaust along with five of their seven children, and I am here to say memorial prayers for them, out of respect and out of hope they are resting in peace," said Michael Berks, 77, of Chapel Hill, N.C.

The marchers gathered under the infamous gate at Auschwitz bearing the Nazi motto "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Will Set You Free). The chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Yisrael Meir Lau, an Auschwitz survivor from Poland, marched at the head of the group holding Torah scrolls.

The long line of people then proceeded -- some in silence, some singing Hebrew songs -- about 2 miles to Birkenau, where most of the 1.1 million victims of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex were killed in gas chambers.

In a group from the United States were two people who had not met before, but realized that they were both Holocaust survivors. They chatted and exchanged information about their wartime experiences.

The two elderly survivors caught the attention of people nearby, who surrounded them to hear their stories. One of the survivors, Salomon Birenbaum, wore a cap with stripes similar to the prisoner uniforms at the camp. People wept as they watched and listened, with some uttering "God bless you."

The other survivor, Anneliese Nossbaum, who was in a wheelchair, caught sight of the camp's railroad tracks -- her first sight of them since she was an inmate there.

"Why didn't they bomb those tracks? Why didn't the outside world help? The world failed us," she said.

"That's why there is Israel now," interjected a woman from the United States.

Information for this article was contributed by Josef Federman and Vanessa Gera of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/06/2016

Upcoming Events