“Never Again?”
Dr. Linda Petrou
The street I grew up on in Penn Hills (part of Pittsburgh, PA) had a Jewish synagogue at one end and a Lutheran Church at the other end. In between were families of Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Orthodox, and even a family of Hindus (complete with sacrifice altar in the back yard). The majority of the people on the street were Jewish. We had Germans, English, Serbians, Croatians and others from Europe. It was mix of just about everybody. I learned about different cultures and different foods. We accepted each other and respected each other’s heritage. Was it perfect? Of course not, but as children we thought it was. There were a number of older people with numbers tattooed on their wrists. Most of us did not know why or what those numbers signified. We didn’t question, we accepted.
As I grew older and learned about WWII and the holocaust in school, I began to understand the meaning of those numbers. But it wasn’t until I was in Poland several years ago and visited Auschwitz that I began to really understand what happened and the evil it represented. It is the only tour I have ever been on where no one talked. We had a guide that explained to us what we were seeing – the crutches, the shoes, the eyeglasses, the clothing. The ovens. It might have just been in my mind, but I swear I could smell burning flesh. The smell is so deeply rooted in the ground that it will never dissipate.
On that tour we saw the starvation room/cell. For the first time I heard about a Catholic Priest that had been arrested and sent to Auschwitz. When a prisoner escaped ten prisoners were rounded up and put to death. During one of these roundups, one started to shout “My wife! My children! The Priest, Father Kolbe, volunteered to change places with that man and was ushered into the starvation cell. It was a small room with no windows and cinderblock walls. The door was thick wood and heavy. They were locked in that room with no water or food and very little air. Two weeks later the guards opened the door and found Father Kolbe and a couple others still alive. They were quickly put to death by injections of carbolic acid. That story always stuck with me. Would I be courageous as Fr. Kolbe? Could I do that or would I look away. As a side note, the gentleman who was “saved” by Fr.r Kolbe survived the camps and lived to 94.
Why do I tell this story. For two reasons. One, as I write this on December 1st it is All Saints Day and a Holy Day of Obligation. It is a day we remember all the Saints. The story of Fr. Kolbe has been on my mind due do to what is happening in the world today.
The second reason is that after the war ended the rallying cry NEVER AGAIN rang out across the world. The state of Israel was established so that we would never forget. I often wondered how the holocaust happened. In my mind I was convinced that nothing like that would ever happen again. I was wrong. We have seen over the last month the hatred of Jews openly spreading all over the world. We have heard the calls to kill all the Jews. We have seen huge demonstrations protesting Israel and demanding it cease to exist. We see the world on the brink of WWIII. We see a weak President who publicly supports Israel while behind the scenes pressures them to go slow, to provide aid to the very people that attacked them and to agree to a cease fire.
We are seeing the face of evil which has been nurtured by weak liberal politicians, college professors, a United Nations structure that has been anti-Israel and turning a blind eye to the actions of rogue nations that financially support this evil.
Two weeks ago, I was at an event and the last presentation was a nine-minute film of some of the horrors perpetuated by the terrorists on October 7th. They wore go-pros and filmed what they did. They were proud. One of them (later killed) used a cell phone from someone he had just slaughtered to call his parents; he bragged about killing 10 Jews and hoped his parents were proud of him. Those nine minutes were horrible; I doubt I could sit through the 45 minute version being shown to the media and politicians.. Just as I find it hard to put into words the visit to Auschwitz, I also find it hard to put into words what I saw in those nine minutes.
So how did the holocaust begin? By looking away. We have been doing a lot of looking away these last many years and it is time we stopped. We have to look and remember and remind ourselves that evil does exist and it cannot be ignored. I don’t have proof, but common sense would say that a large number of the 7 million people that have crossed our borders since Biden has been president would include a percentage of terrorists who don’t want to assimilate but rather to destroy us. When the brutal slaughter occurs here, who will we blame?
Dr. Linda Petrou is a retired college professor specializing in International Relations and Political Science. She has been active in the Republican Party since handing out campaign literature in High School. Petrou has been vice chair of Forsyth County and of the 6th Congressional District. In addition, she has been active in Republican Women at the local, state, and national level. Currently she is chair of the of the National Federation of Republican Women’s Resolution Committee and chair of the Bylaws Committee of the Forsyth County Republican Women and the North Carolina Federation of Republican Women.