The Malta Independent 14 February 2025, Friday
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Evil is absolute – it cannot be watered down by comparisons

Noel Grima Sunday, 2 February 2025, 07:08 Last update: about 13 days ago

On Monday at Auschwitz in Poland 53 top delegations led by the kings of Britain, Spain, Holland, and Denmark, the presidents of France, Italy and Malta, and both the President and the Chancellor of Germany gathered in a huge tent to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Ironically the liberation was made by Soviet troops but there were no Russians present on Monday.

Facing the audience was a bare railway wagon, one of those that carried hundreds of thousands of people crammed together destined to be killed by gas after having made them travel over a long distance till they reached the final destination.

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Sometimes the prisoners were taken straight to the crematoria from the trains.

One can still see the railway lines that bisect the tent and lead to the wagon.

The distinguished guests, kings, presidents and the dwindling number of former inmates later formed a sort of procession with simple lit candles and deposited them in front of the wagon.

Before that there were three short addresses by the inmates, one in English, in which the former inmates described what they had seen and experienced before they were rescued.

The English-speaking former inmate described how she,  a small girl of five and a half years, found herself facing ferocious dogs just as tall as herself while she wondered why she and all the others had been stripped naked in the extreme cold.

The whole ceremony was broadcast live on Sky News but I have yet to find out what coverage was given on the Maltese television stations. I know that later on there was a sort of reportage on Net and some sort of discussion.

But as I am going to say in this article, what Net should have been discussing had yet to happen at that time. I doubt however if Net would have tackled this issue.

As for the other stations they continued with their sales pitches and their quizzes etc.

After all, their owners could argue, Malta had been affected by the war but was not a belligerent - did not Gensna the musical sing "Mitna ghall-barrani" (We died for the foreigner)?

At Auschwitz itself there are huge walls of marble inscribed with the names of all the dead while we have only some sporadic monuments in some parishes.

We have a War Memorial at Floriana but that refers to the First World War. We also have a Great Siege Monument that was, without authorisation, turned into a shrine for Daphne Caruana Galizia which incredibly has remained despite all efforts by Owen Bonnici and his government to shut it down.

But in itself - correct me if I'm wrong - we do not have a national monument for all those who were killed by enemy action ie by the Italians and the Germans in World War II.

All we have is Gensna's sacrilegious words which make us seem like accidental victims.

The event on Monday was a show of unity by the European countries with no negative voices heard.

But here in Malta one member of the Opposition, Albert Buttigieg, declared he would not attend at the special session of the Maltese parliament to be held the next day dedicated to the Holocaust because no one was remembering the thousands of Palestinian children killed in Gaza.

Now why didn't all those kings, presidents et al. think of that?

Those who were killed in the concentration camps included not just Jews but also Poles, Jehovah Witnesses, gypsies and gays. The total number of persons killed at Auschwitz is estimated at 1.1 million of which the Jews number one million.

The Jews were the canary in the mine as what happened later was to show. What happened to them was intended to happen to all those people who did not satisfy the racial purity standards of the Aryans.

It all began stealthily - the Jews had to wear a yellow star, they could not do this and that, get this employment opportunity or that, study or not.

Then their shops were attacked and burned down on Kristallnacht.

Then they were packed in special ghettos 'for their own safety'.

Then the pogrom began and those who knew what was going on stayed silent and cowered in fear. Including the Pope. The evil that is Auschwitz happened because those who were not affected did not react.

On this 80th anniversary we can see all over the world but especially in Europe a renewed wave of anti-Semitism. We all risk seeing history repeat itself.

Many of those who were present at the Auschwitz ceremony gave comments to their media back home with their reflections on the event.

It is to be hoped that our President was not there just for the ride but has things to say to her fellow citizens on the danger of anti-Semitism.

It is unacceptable that the Maltese media in general did not see fit to cover the President's meetings with President Mattarella, the Pope and the Grand Master when there were videos available for all three meetings.

I am sure it is not for want of trying but the President has become a silent presence in the country. Instead, she should speak and teach.

This is where MP Buttigieg went wrong: evil cannot be watered down by comparing a tragedy to another tragedy. What was done to the Jews up till Auschwitz cannot be watered down by comparing it to other evils.  

Let us discuss and condemn the bombings at Gaza but not at the expense of whittling down what happened at Auschwitz. Or on 7 October.

That was the meaning of that meeting at Auschwitz last Monday.

To get it all so wrong speaks volumes of the man but also of his party and also of his leader's light touch.

 

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