Holocaust denial in a Jordanian newspaper (bonus: a famous pre-Holocaust essay) ~ EoZ

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Holocaust denial in a Jordanian newspaper (bonus: a famous pre-Holocaust essay)

Al Majd is a Jordanian opposition online news site which espouses a Nasserist philosophy.

On Wednesday it published a Holocaust denial article.

Former PLO official Ghazi Hussein first claims that Zionist Jews were happy with Hitler's rise to power, One of his "proofs" is a claim that Robert Weltsch, who was the editor of Germany's Jüdische Rundschau, said nice things about Hitler in an April 1933 editorial.

The truth is quite the opposite, as we will see below. Hussein twists Weltsch's words that even the most assimilated Jews who turned their backs on everything Jewish in an attempt to avoid antisemitism are still persecuted, so being ashamed of their Jewishness holds no advantage over pride.

Hussein then goes on to claim that the Wannsee Conference, where the Final Solution of the genocide of European Jewry was decided, was really only about deporting Jews to Palestine and elsewhere, and not about killing them:

He then says that Jews have been the ones behind real genocides, like when Joshua Bin Nun exterminated the "Arab Palestinian people."

Finally, he claims that the Mufti begged Hitler to stop sending Jews to Palestine but Hitler refused and kept sending them, because he opposed the Mufti and didn't want to upset Britain and the Zionists.

I don't know what drugs Ghazi Hussein is on, but they are pretty potent.

Jordan is the source of the most virulent antisemitism in the world today. Algeria and Egypt are close behind, but the reach of the Jordanian media that spreads these lies is orders of magnitude higher than that of the far-Right in the Western world.

In the Arab world, there is no visible pushback or controversy when the most disgusting lies about Jews are published in the media. Google News does not publish any caveats when it indexes articles like these. It is just the way things are and the daily hate is swept under the rug and brushed off as valid anti-Zionist opinion.

Because this article smeared Robert Weltsch, I thought it would be appropriate to reproduce Weltsch's editorial in the wake of the first Nazi boycott of Jewish stores on April 1, 1933. This is one of his most famous essays.

Wear it with pride, the Yellow badge!

The first of April, 1933, will remain an important date in the history of German Jewry – indeed, in the history of the entire Jewish people. The events of that day have aspects that are not only political and economic, but moral and spiritual as well. The political and economic implications have been widely discussed in the press, though of course the need for agitation has frequently obscured objective understanding. To speak of the moral aspect, that is our task. For however much the Jewish question is now debated, nobody except ourselves can express what is to be said on these events from the Jewish point of view, what is happening in the soul of the German Jew. Today the Jews cannot speak except as Jews. Anything else is utterly senseless... Gone is the fatal misapprehension of many Jews that Jewish interests can be pressed under some other cover. On April 1 the German Jews learned a lesson which penetrates far more deeply than even their embittered and now triumphant opponents could assume….

We live in a new period, the national revolution of the German people is a signal that is visible from afar, indicating that the world of our previous concepts has collapsed. That may be painful for many, but in this world only those will be able to survive who are able to look reality in the eye. We stand in the midst of tremendous changes in intellectual, political, social and economic life. It is for us to see how the Jews will react.

April 1, 1933, can become the day of Jewish awakening and Jewish rebirth.

If the Jews will it. If the Jews are mature and have greatness in them. If the Jews are not as they are represented to be by their opponents. The Jews, under attack, must learn to acknowledge themselves. Even in these days of most profound disturbance, when the stormiest of emotions have visited our hearts in face of the unprecedented display of the universal slander of the entire Jewish population of a great and cultural country, we must first of all maintain composure. Even if we stand shattered by the events of these days we must not lose heart and must examine the situation without any attempt to deceive ourselves. One would like to recommend in these days that the document that stood at the cradle of Zionism, Theodor Herzl's "Jewish State," be distributed in hundreds of thousands of copies among Jews and non-Jews….

They accuse us today of treason against the German people: The National-Socialist Press calls us the "enemy of the Nation," and leaves us defenseless.

It is not true that the Jews betrayed Germany. If they betrayed anyone, it was themselves, the Jews. Because the Jew did not display his Judaism with pride, because he tried to avoid the Jewish issue, he must bear part of the blame for the degradation of the Jews.

Despite all the bitterness that we must feel in full measure when we read the National Socialist boycott proclamations and unjust accusations, there is one point for which we may be grateful to the boycott Committee. Para. 3 of the directives reads: "The reference is...of course to businesses owned by members of the Jewish race. Religion plays no part here. Businessmen who were baptized Catholic or Protestant, or Jews who left their Community remain Jews for the purpose of this Order." This is a [painful] reminder for all those who betrayed their Judaism. Those who steal away from the Community in order to benefit their personal position should not collect the wages of their betrayal. In taking up this position against the renegades there is the beginning of a clarification. The Jew who denies his Judaism is no better a citizen than his fellow who avows it openly. It is shameful to be a renegade, but as long as the world around us rewarded it, it appeared an advantage. Now even that is no longer an advantage. The Jew is marked as a Jew. He gets the yellow badge.

A powerful symbol is to be found in the fact that the boycott leadership gave orders that a sign "with a yellow badge on a black background" was to be pasted on the boycotted shops. This regulation is intended as a brand, a sign of contempt. We will take it up and make of it a badge of honor.

Many Jews suffered a crushing experience on Saturday. Suddenly they were revealed as Jews, not as a matter of inner avowal, not in loyalty to their own community, not in pride in a great past and great achievements, but by the impress of a red placard with a yellow patch. The patrols moved from house to house, stuck their placards on shops and signboards, daubed the windows, and for 24 hours the German Jews were exhibited in the stocks, so to speak. In addition to other signs and inscriptions one often saw windows bearing a large Magen David, the Shield of David the King. It was intended as dishonor. Jews, take it up, the Shield of David, and wear it with pride …!