‘Germans will always be Germans’

I read “Europeans still need Holocaust lessons” (May 22) with interest. I believe that the American Jew still needs Holocaust lessons.

My parents fled the Holocaust. Unfortunately, their relatives did not survive, so I never claimed to be a Holocaust survivor. I became a total atheist because I believe that religion only serves to isolate humans.

Yet I honor the Holocaust by never, ever contributing economically to either Germany or France by making sure I do not purchase any product produced by them. Last week, while I was drinking water from a glass, I noticed the glass was marked “Made in France.” That glass was destroyed and thrown in the garbage, where it belongs. It does not even deserve recycling. Nevertheless, synagogue parking lots are full of German and French-made vehicles; it makes me want to vomit.

Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

While the rabbi inside is sermonizing about honoring the Holocaust dead, the living Jew is symbolically spitting on them by economically enhancing the Germans and French.

When I discuss this issue with others I am told that today’s Germans or French are not the same as those who lived during World War II. I say, please give me a break: Germans will always be Germans and the French will always be the French. Nothing has changed. A wolf in sheep’s clothing still remains a wolf. Don’t be deceived by German or French overtures on penance about the Holocaust.

So, in my humble opinion, the American Jew needs lessons on the Holocaust.