(Photo: CST)
By Brenda Katten - February 17, 2022
February 14 marked 126 years since the publication of Theodor Herzl’s book Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). Herzl firmly believed the creation of a Jewish homeland would eliminate antisemitism; it was his solution to the Jewish question. He wrote, “I think Jews will always have sufficient enemies, such as every nation but, once in their own land, it will no longer be possible for them to scatter all over the world.”
While Herzl was right in recognizing the need for a Jewish state, he was wrong in his assumption that it would end antisemitism or that Jews would no longer be scattered all over the world.
Antisemitism has never halted either before or after the rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948. There appeared a hiatus on antisemitism for a period following World War II primarily due to a sense of, justifiable, guilt felt by many countries which had closed their gates to Jews seeking refuge from Hitler’s Germany.
John, my late husband, and his family were living in Bamberg, Germany in the 1930s when Hitler rose to power. His father was the rabbi of the community; all, except for his grandmother, received visas to enter the US (it is suspected that she was refused a visa because of her age). There was one problem with the visas: the date of entry to the US was November 1940.
The family was fortunate because John’s grandfather, an eminent rabbi in Hungary, was a friend of then-British Chief Rabbi Dr. Joseph Hertz, who was able to arrange temporary visas for the family to enter the UK and take up residence until November 1940. War broke out shortly after their arrival, which meant they finally made Britain their home.
Tragically, there were far too many unable to find refuge, since numerous countries upheld quota systems. Their lives ended horrifically in the gas chambers. Grandma Katten’s days ended in Theresienstadt.
The Holocaust, a genocide not to be compared to any other in its death toll and ferocity, was responsible for the virtual annihilation of European Jewry. In 1933, just prior to the rise of Hitler, European Jewry numbered approximately 9.4 million, virtually 60% of the world’s Jewish population. In 2021, European Jewry numbered 1.4 million.
Read More: Jerusalem Post