The Deputy Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Inbar Lipman Garden, has highlighted why hate in all its forms, must always be halted anytime before it becomes strong enough to cause human carnage.
The Deputy Ambassador who spoke on behalf of the Israeli embassy in Nigeria at the weekend, said the extermination of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime began with the spread of hate that was not halted at the right time.
“Yet the Holocaust did not begin with Auschwitz & the other Nazi death camps – It began with words, it began with hate speech, with the singling out and dehumanizing of the Jewish people, while so many others looked other way,” she told gathering of diplomats, journalists, Culture enthusiasts who gathered for the select viewing of a film, The Devil’s Confession: The Eicheman’s Lost Tape which held in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The event was organized as memoriam to the liberation of what she called the “most infamous of all the Nazi camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau” 78 years ago.
She reminded the gathering that more than a million Jews, as well as Romani, homosexuals, communists, people with disabilities and others were murdered in Auschwitz.
“While we cannot understand what it was like to live through the Holocaust, the horrors and the experiences were worse than anything we can imagine, we can embrace the lessons the Holocaust has taught us,” Garden advised
The Israeli diplomat demanded for tolerance just as she advised humans to look out for the other and help those in need.
She added, “Fight injustice and help our fellow human. And when people speak – to take them seriously.”
She expressed regrets that today, antisemitism is rising across the world.
“We cannot afford to be complacent. While the Holocaust was unique, in recent decades we have allowed mass murder and genocide to take place – right here in Africa, in Asia and in Europe itself.”
She said education is very critical if the world must reverse what she called “these trends.”
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Commending the Director of the film, Yariv Mozer, she said his aim for the production of the Devil’s Confession is to limit the trend of hate.
She said Auschwitz Birkenau was just one part of the Nazi death machines adding “When it was liberated, 7,000 Jews were saved, but 6 million Jewish men, women and children had already perished.”
She said it was impossible to fully understand the meaning of the number.
“How do you put it into context? We can talk about cities, or countries with similar populations, we can talk about numbers of packed football stadiums, or so many other comparisons – but it still remains an unimaginable number.
“The only way to really understand is through the experiences of the individual. We can only understand the Holocaust one story at a time.”