As History Repeats Itself, Have The Tireless Education Efforts From Holocaust Survivors Been In Vain?

This past Sunday, my wife and I had the privilege of attending an evening with Holocaust survivor Marie (Mariette) Doduck at Beth Jacob Synagogue in Canada. Her impactful testimony was a deeply personal reminder of the dangers of antisemitism and the hatred that has long targeted the Jewish people—hatred that is once again growing at home and abroad. Mariette’s urgent plea to all of us was clear.

Mariette was only 5 years old when the Nazis invaded her hometown of Brussels, Belgium, in 1940. Her family was soon torn apart, and from that moment, she and her siblings found themselves scattered across the city and countryside, hiding with non-Jews in convents and orphanages.

Her childhood was robbed from her as she fled from the Nazis for five years, learning how to pick locks, throw a knife, jump from moving vehicles, and hide in a sewer filled with rats to escape from the clutches of the Gestapo. Throughout these harrowing years, she never cried. She recounted becoming a child of silence, focused solely on survival.

Mariette arrived in Canada in 1947, around the age of 12, with her three siblings. As an adult, she has been active with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center, telling her story, and has written the book, “A Childhood Unspoken.” She also co-chaired the 2019 conference of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust. Like so many other Holocaust survivors, she has worked tirelessly to educate the world on the horrors the Nazis committed, the systematic murder of 6 million Jewish people, so that this never ever happens again.

It was heartbreaking to hear her story, but the question Mariette would ask at the event was even more heartbreaking: “Are all the stories we’ve shared from that time and the Holocaust education been for nothing?”

The antisemitic rise in Canada and around the world has been horrific and alarming. For her, it is almost like reliving her childhood all over again, as Jew-hatred and false characterizations about the Jewish people continue to flood our society with little to nothing being done about it.

In cities like Toronto and Montreal especially, contempt and disinformation are directed at Israel and the Jewish people, and it seems to surface almost weekly. Pro-Palestinian protesters brazenly chant, “There is only one solution… Intifada revolution!” These words have meaning, and they directly reference the killing of Jews. During the first and second intifadas that took place in Israel from 1987 to 2005, the goal of Palestinians was to kill Jews—and now they are openly calling for it to return on Canadian streets.

Around the world, the Palestinians and their supporters make their allegiance clear, regularly brandishing the Nazi salute, praising their “final solution to the Jewish question,” and voicing their disappointment that Hitler did not succeed in eradicating all Jews—men, women, and children. This is far from an isolated incident; this vocal Nazi-aligned rhetoric has become disturbingly widespread. History seems to be repeating itself.

When somebody asked Mariette on Sunday night, “What can we do about this growing antisemitism here in our country?” Her response was simple: “Stand up and be counted.”

Her words reminded me of a story that Erwin Lutzer retells of a Christian man during the time of the Holocaust:

“I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. I attended church since I was a small boy. We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but like most people today in this country, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop it?

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track. We became disturbed when, one Sunday, we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews. They were like cattle in those cars!

Week after week, that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed our church. It was so terribly disturbing! We could do nothing to help these poor, miserable people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns. By the time that train came rumbling past the church yard, we were singing at the top of our voices. If some of the screams reached our ears, we’d just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. Years have passed, and no one talks about it much anymore, but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying out for help. God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene.”

Don’t remain silent. Get involved. Speak out against the hateful, demonic rallies taking place. Be a comfort to the Jewish people as God commands us in Isaiah chapter 40:1. Tell the Jewish people that you care. Go to a synagogue and tell them you’re a Bible-believing Christian who cares about them, loves them, and stands with them.

Listen to the plea from Mariette: “Stand up and be counted.”