On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, it is dispiriting to learn that nearly one in five young people think the Holocaust has been exaggerated.
As the Sun reported, “A panel survey commissioned by the Association of Canadian Studies and conducted by the polling firm Leger last spring found 18% of Canadians between 18 and 24 years old agreed with the statement ‘I think the Holocaust was exaggerated.’”
It is dispiriting, but not surprising to me.
Ever since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel – during a ceasefire – we have seen hate parading in our streets and I see text messages to my Newstalk1010 radio show from racist haters.
It happens every day.
While they are presumably local Canadians listening to my show, they remind me of the racists I encountered when I did a talk show in Raleigh, North Carolina and a conversation I had on air with Glenn Miller, founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and later the White Patriot Party.
Contrary to the ranting, foaming-at-the-mouth person we might encounter in a movie, Miller calmly expressed his disappointment at my inability — in his mind — to see how, as a white Christian, I was letting down the team.
He wondered what sort of misinformation I was dealing with that allowed me to fail my white, Christian brothers and sisters.
I hear echoes of Miller in the texts that implore me to stop supporting the Jews and cease condemning Hamas and many of the protesters here in Canada calling for the destruction of Jews “from the river to the sea.”
“Do your research,” they implore. If only I would read up on how evil the Jews are, I would earn a sheet and a pointy mask.
The Holocaust is not something we have arrived at by consensus or because the Jews control the media, Hollywood and the banks.
The Holocaust is a historical fact. A horrible real-life warning, if we heed it, about the capability of humans to descend to inhumanity; to a base evil that is difficult to comprehend.
That warning is not heeded or comprehended by young people and some not so young, in part due to the casual attitude our leaders, our community and our police are taking to the hatred overcoming us.
An imam in Montreal prays for the destruction of all Jews. No penalty.
Protesters on the street scream that the second Holocaust is coming and death to Canada. Bullets are shot at a Jewish school on multiple occasions.
All that seems to result is the occasional lip service from leaders that hate has no place in Canada.
But it is given a place in Canada — on our streets, on our campuses and in statements from at least one prominent union leader who still enjoys his position of supposed responsibility and respect.
How do young people see the horror of the Holocaust when the beliefs that led to it are treated so casually in Canada by society?
By the way, years after I encountered Glenn Miller, he went hunting for Jews in Overland Park, Kansas. He shot three people dead.
He was mistaken. They were Christians.
It was never really about Jews. It was hate.
Why does it have a place in Canada?