Creeping intolerance not just in U.S.

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/11/2016 (3219 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

My name is Belle Jarniewski: I am the last person to carry my family surname.

On Nov. 22, 1942, my grandfather and the rest of the members of my father’s large and extended family were murdered at Treblinka. My grandfather was a rabbi and a Torah scribe. He made his living painstakingly writing Torah scrolls, the tiny parchments that are inserted into the mezzuzot which are found on the doorposts of Jewish homes. When I was born, my parents asked a rabbi what to name me and he chose the name Belle (Beila), as the reverse of Leib — my grandfather’s first name. I carry my names proudly and with a sense of deep responsibility.

My father’s family included several siblings, many aunts, uncles, cousins and his wife and toddler son. Deported from Zelwa (today’s Belarus), all went to the gas chamber that day. The racist ideology of the Nazis imagined Jews as less than human and sought to annihilate every last one from the globe. The Shoah remains at once a very personal tragedy for my family, a catastrophe for the Jewish people, and the darkest chapter perhaps to befall humanity. Every limit — moral as well as religious — was transgressed.

Moments of humanity and courage during that period remind us that human beings are not only capable of resistance against evil, they are willing to move to action. My father survived the war because he was conscripted into the Polish army. He was taken prisoner in September of 1939 and suffered imprisonment in six concentration camps. He refused to give up and he refused to hate.

In his early days as a POW he had written to his Christian neighbour, in a plea to hide and protect his wife and child. Tragically, his wife left her refuge, unable to cope with the idea of meeting a different fate than her family and perhaps not comprehending what that fate would be. Who could have imagined it?

We are seeing today the resurgence of hateful ideology, not just against Jews but against Muslims and other minorities, as well as an ongoing refusal by Americans and Canadians to recognize the damage, injustice and racism suffered by indigenous people.

In the space of just one week, five incidents of anti-Semitism and racist graffiti appeared in Ottawa alone on Jewish and Muslim places of worship and gathering and on a United Church with a largely black congregation. In the United States, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported more than 300 incidents of hate or intimidation since the U.S. election.

On Nov. 19, Richard Spencer addressed more than 200 attendees at a conference in Washington, D.C., blocks away from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Spencer, the leader of the National Policy Institute — a white-nationalist think tank that describes itself as “an independent organization dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world” — saluted the new U.S. president-elect with “hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory.” A video clearly reveals several members of the crowd responding with the Nazi salute. However, even more chilling are Spencer’s words that day implying that the media was protecting Jewish interests: “One wonders if these people are people at all?” He added, “America belongs to white people” and that white people face a choice of “conquer or die.”

Make no mistake: these words echo Nazi racist ideology that referred to Slavs Roma and most non-whites, as well as Jews, by the term “untermenschen”, or “subhumans.” There is no doubt the white nationalist and alt-right movements in the U.S. have gained ground and support, emboldening those around the globe who harbour these dangerous ideologies.

The Shoah did not begin with murder; it began with hateful rhetoric. In the 1930s, the world did not imagine that six million Jewish men, women and children would be murdered. No one believed the rhetoric.

Today, we know better: we know to believe someone when they use words such as “conquer or die,” or to speak of deporting people or setting up registries according to religion. We cannot be complacent in Canada — whether it is the vandalism in Ottawa or elsewhere — or simply looking at the hateful comments spewed on social media in the many discussions around refugee or indigenous issues; the problem is not one we can smugly dismiss as American.

It is incumbent on each and every one of us to be vigilant, to speak up and to reject the creeping intolerance that threatens to infect this country.

The late Pierre Elliott Trudeau, some 45 years ago, wisely warned of the dangerous American ideal of conformity: “A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate. What the world should be seeking and what in Canada we must continue to cherish are not concepts of uniformity but human values: compassion, love, and understanding.”

While his words are as relevant today as they were then, we are going to have to ensure we actively uphold these values as well as human rights, freedoms and inclusion for every one.

Belle Jarniewski is chairwoman of the Freeman Family Holocaust Education Centre and president of the Manitoba Multifaith Council.