Has the world gone mad? No, it has always been like this (antisemitic and stupid), at least for the last 3,500 years. I read every day about the Holocaust, the biggest disruption in history, a turning point in the history of humankind, philosophy and theology. So, nothing surprises me.  

I read every day about the six German extermination camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau (1 million Jewish men, women, children, and babies murdered in gas chambers –with Zyklon B); Treblinka II (925,000 Jewish men, women, and children, and babies murdered in gas chambers –with carbon monoxide); Bełżec (600,000 Jewish men, women, children, and babies murdered in gas chambers –with carbon monoxide); Sobibór (250,000 Jewish men, women, children, and babies murdered in gas chambers –with carbon monoxide); Chełmno (200,000 Jewish men, women, children, and babies murdered in gas vans –with carbon monoxide and exhaust gas); and Majdanek (60,000 Jewish men, women, and children shot and murdered in gas chambers –with carbon monoxide and Zyklon B). So, nothing surprises me. 

I read every day about the massacres of the Einsatzgruppen (with the effective help of the Orpo, the Wehrmacht and the Schuma –mostly Ukrainian, Latvian and Lithuanian) who shot and killed 2,000,000 Jewish men, women, children, and babies. So, nothing surprises me. 

I read every day about the ghettos, the deportations, the transports, discrimination and antisemitism in Germany in the 1930s and in the world in the 1940s. So, nothing surprises me. 

Nothing compares the Holocaust. NOTHING. For understanding the unicity of the Holocaust, please read Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (CT: Martino Fine Books, 2019), Saul Friedländer, The Years of Extermination. Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939–1945 (London: Phoenix, 2008), Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (USA: Yale University Press, 2002). Nevertheless, what is COMPARABLE to the Holocaust is the attitude of the world: the silence and the indifference, the excuse for discrimination and killing, and the ever lasting antisemitism. It doesn't surprise me, but it's shameful, revolting, and unforgivable.   

After the massacres of October 7, 2023, we can all smell again that repulsive putrid odour. Do you know what it is? It's called antisemitism. It's truly disgusting, but it doesn't surprise me one bit.  

1,400 victims (mostly Jewish and Israelis: men, women, children, and babies) were (in one sole day) brutally killed, mutilated, raped, and burnt. The massacres took place on October 7, 2023, at the Nova Music Festival near the kibbutz Re'im, at the kibbutzim Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Holit, Ein HaShlosha, Nahal Oz, Kissufim, and Nirim, at the moshavim Yakhini and Netiv HaAsara, and in the town of Sderot. All these acts of terror and savagery were perpetrated by Palestinian Arabs members of Hamas (a Palestinian Islamist terrorist group democratically elected by the Palestinian Arabs in 2006 and who completely rules Gaza since then -for 17 years already, plays the victims, vowed to annihilate Israel and exterminate the Jewish people, and uses all European and USA money for guns, hatred, antisemitism and terror).

[Note: As a Holocaust researcher, I don't buy the incoherent narrative of "Hamas is bad"; "Palestinians or Gazans are good". Sorry, but no. In the same way that the vast majority of common Germans supported Nazism in the 1930s and 1940s, the vast majority of Gazans (who democratically elected Hamas in 2006) supports Hamas. Who actually is Hamas? Hamas is a Palestinian Arab Islamist terrorist group. It's true that, as in Germany in the 1930s, antisemitism and indoctrination in Gaza -at school (where mandatory history textbooks don't show the State of Israel) and at the camps for children and youth –a means for indoctrination in Jihad and martyrdom, with anti-Zionist songs and military training– reaches every child in Gaza. Indeed, children in Gaza are taught to glorify terrorism. In this shocking video (a kindergarten graduation in Gaza), we can see the "violent indoctrination of young kids –their aspirations are to become martyrs and kill Jews and make Palestine free of Jews 'from the river to the sea'"–writes Melissa Chapman; and adds: "When you support 'Free Palestine' you support this kind of child abuse". So, you can't blame those poor children who are taught to hate and kill, but you can blame the adults. Wake up]. 

Coming back to the massacres: even Holocaust survivors were killed in the massacres of October 7: 91-year-old Romanian-born Holocaust survivor Moshe Ridler and 90-year-old Czech-born Holocaust survivor Gina Semiatich were shot (Gina in the head) by Palestinian Arabs members of Hamas. 

Furthermore, 240 hostages (men, women, children, and one 9-month-old baby) have been kidnapped by Hamas; hostages which, as I'm writing this, are suffering a complete violation of human rights, fear, torture, or death. And does (some part of) the world care? Not at all. We have seen how rotten people tolerate and even support these abominable acts of terror, chanting putrid slogans in the streets (even in university campus): "Free Palestine"; "Free Gaza"; "Kill the Jews". Incredible. Unthinkable. Repulsive. And even worse: some "people" (actually, animals) are ripping the posters of the hostages. After the Holocaust, humanity can't fall lower than that, can it? The world hasn't really changed since the Holocaust, has it?

But, the funny thing is that the world HAS CHANGED since the Holocaust: we now have hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, and many feminist and LGTBIQ+ movements who care for the rights of all, right? WRONG. I didn't see a single Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Feminist, LGTBIQ+ or Muslim organization publicly and openly condemning the terrorist attacks of Hamas of October 7 (which included raping –where are the voices of the so-called "feminists"?– kidnapping, mutilating, burning, and massacring), supporting Israel and caring for the suffering of the Jewish people. Not a single one. And that's actually funny, because women rights in Gaza are actually non-existent, LGTBIQ+ people are beaten and murdered in Gaza only for being who they are, and when George Floyd was murdered, all the world was appalled and condemned (unequivocally) that act of racism.   

For all the (ignorant, antisemite, stupid) Westerners who "protest" about something they know NOTHING about, holding flags that are now stained with blood, here's a message from Mosab Hassan Yousef (indoctrinated by Hamas, now working for Israel) –somebody who really knows what he's talking about.

[Here, 5 things you need to know about Hamas, and 5 more things you need to know about Hamas (by Yoseph Haddad)].  

So, Black Lives Matter, Women Lives Matter, LGTBIQ+ Lives Matter, but Jewish Lives Don't Matter? Shame on you. You hypocrites. You antisemites. 

Antisemitism doesn't surprise me. Hypocrisy doesn't surprise me. Stupidity doesn't surprise me. Ignorance doesn't surprise me. Cruelty doesn't surprise me. But what really has surprised me has been the brave, courageous, wise and humanitarian voices of some wonderful people who have given a voice to the Jewish victims and who openly have condemned terror, antisemitism and anti-Zionism (which is now the new antisemitism –modern antisemitism falls now under the three famous D's that makes you antisemite: Delegitimization, Demonization, Double Standards -check them if you don't know them yet). They have used social media (mostly Instagram, but also Youtube and Twitter-X) to denounce terrorism, antisemitism, and brutality. 

These courageous intelligent people (many of them celebrities, and mostly women) who have denounced Hamas' atrocities are Gal Gadot, Debra Messing, Noa Tishby, Amy Schumer, Mayim Bialik (listen to her amazing speech/thoughts), J.K. Rowling, the brilliant Deborah Lipstadt, Elizabeth Savetsky, Gina Gershon, Mandaya Dayani, Eli Roth, LeBron James, Amar'e Stoudemire, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rosie O’Donnell, Dwayne Johnson, Mark Hamill, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Noah Abrahams, Eric Adams (Mayor of New York), Oren Cahanovitc, Mia Talias, Hillel Fuld, Ben Gleib, Brett Gelman, Joan Collins, Sarah Silverman, Diane Kruger, Sharon Stone, Noah Schnapp, Jacques Lichtenstein, Melissa Chapman, Kim Smiley, Jack Black, Pink, and Madonna, among others. And, of course, the brave organizations who always fight against antisemitism: World Jewish Congress, ADL, and Combat Antisemitism Movement. So, to all of them: thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Here, a bit about the "conflict" (simply explained, in 10 facts). 

I'll leave you with this heartbreaking testimony of Holocaust survivor Eliahu Rosenberg about the process of extermination of Jewish men, women, and children in Treblinka II, only 80 years ago, in the heart of Europe. As I said, NOTHING compares the Holocaust, but the attitude of (a big part of) the world is, sadly, very similar. 

Wake up.  

Antonia Tejeda Barros, Madrid, October 29, 2023