When I was in 10th grade, we had the novel The Diary of a Young Girl in our syllabus. Most people know the story. At that time, I did not fully understand what was happening in the world. I had only a basic idea about Palestine and about what Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany did to the Jews.
I remember feeling deep sympathy for the innocent people who were killed in such large numbers. And today, I feel the same pain when I see innocent people suffering again.
Later, as I started learning more about politics and history, I came across the fact that many Jewish survivors after World War II eventually moved to Palestine. That made me think about things differently.
Think about it with a simple example. If someone’s daughter is raped, the natural reaction would be to spend the rest of his life making sure such a crime never happens to anyone else’s daughter. But imagine instead if he went on to rape other people’s daughters himself. That would be unthinkable.
If the Jewish people suffered killings and persecution on such a massive scale, they should have become a moral example for the world against violence and genocide. Instead, they went on to orchestrate one themselves, and against the very people who had once given them shelter.
The difference between the past and today is also striking. At that time, the hatred was openly admitted, they said why they were killing them. Today, power hides behind institutions, narratives, and organized systems that allow people to commit crimes and still escape accountability.
It is difficult not to feel amazed, and troubled, by how the world keeps repeating cycles of suffering instead of learning from them.
