Echoes of the Past: Recognizing the Signs of Rising Hatred

March 11, 2025

by: Walter Bingham, Holocaust Survivor

I have seen everything that’s happening today before. I have lived through these times before. And I know where they lead.

I was born in 1924 in Karlsruhe, Germany. As a child, I witnessed Hitler’s rise to power, which began around the time I was nine years old. For the first three years of school, everything was normal. I played ball with the other boys in the schoolyard, studied alongside them and was accepted without any difficulties.

Then, everything changed.

Once the Nazis came to power, the changes happened almost instantly. Indoctrinated at home by Nazi parents and now part of the Hitler Jugend (Youth), my classmates—once my friends—began to bully me. When I reported it to the teacher, he ignored it, which encouraged the bullies to continue. Although I was eager to learn and would raise my hand to participate in class, I was never called on again. I remember the Aryan (northern European, non-Jewish) boy who shared my desk once copying from me in a test. When the results came, he received high marks, while I fared terribly. Soon, I wasn’t allowed to share a seat with an Aryan anymore and was moved to the back of the class. And then, officials decided that the Aryan boys should not have to breathe the same air as the filthy, stinking Jews, and Jewish pupils were forbidden from attending school altogether.

Outside the classroom, life for German Jews deteriorated too. Signs went up everywhere prohibiting Jews from entering stores, cinemas, restaurants, swimming pools and so forth, excluding us from public life. We lived our Jewish life at home and the synagogues, and avoided going out, leaving only when needed. What we experienced was a slow strangulation of Jewish life—much like what I’m seeing today in many parts of the world.

Ignoring Evil at Our Own Peril

When Hitler first came to power, some dismissed him as nothing but a temporary fanatic. They argued, “We can always vote him out again.” Yet democracy didn’t last.

One of the first things Hitler did was to burn down the Reichstag building, the national parliament of Germany. The Nazis blamed a Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, warning that his actions were part of a larger Communist conspiracy. Hitler’s dictatorship officially began the day after the fire when he enacted a decree “for the Protection of the People and the State,” which abolished all constitutional protection of political, personal and property rights. He dismantled democracy, eliminated democratic rights and paved the way for his expansion policy to the East.

Meanwhile, the Jews became the ultimate scapegoats. Every crisis, every failure, every problem—blamed on us. World War I? The Jews’ fault. Inflation? The Jews’ doing. Unemployment, unrest, you name it. All ascribed to the Jews.

History on Repeat

The period after the Holocaust gave the Jewish people a transient reprieve from open antisemitism. It is almost like the world developed a temporary conscience after witnessing the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. Yet antisemitism didn’t disappear. It has always been there, simmering below the surface, ready to erupt at the slightest excuse.

The war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon proved to be just that—an excuse for that ancient hatred to rise up in full force.

These days, the hatred goes by a different name though. Nobody wants to admit to antisemitism. Instead, they claim to be against Zionism. But Zionism is nothing more than the belief that Israel is home to the Jewish people and that we have a right to self-determination in our ancient homeland. That makes anti-Zionism merely an excuse, a new, modern way of being antisemitic.

Regardless of the name they choose, what is happening today on the city streets of Europe and around the world is exactly the same as the events that took place in Nazi Germany in the run-up to the Holocaust. Thugs lie in wait for Jews, attacking them on the streets of Amsterdam. Jewish people in Paris and London hide their Jewish identity for fear of being accosted. Synagogues in Montreal and Melbourne are targeted and almost burned to the ground. Healthcare workers bragging about murdering Jewish patients. Demonstrations and rallies calling for our annihilation. Antisemitic incidents and attacks at record highs.

And once again, the Jews are the scapegoats, blamed for our own persecution.

I’ve seen all this before, and if left unchecked, I know what happens next, what the next stage looks like.

All Is Not Lost

There’s a difference between today and Nazi Germany in the 1930s: we have the State of Israel. Because the Jewish people have a homeland of their own with a strong defense force, a final solution or another Holocaust will not happen.

As a Holocaust survivor, there’s a tremendous sense of safety for me in that fact. After fleeing Germany, Ilived in England for more than 60 years. But here, now, in Jerusalem, I finally—finally—feel that I’ve come home.

This is where we belong. As Christians, you understand the deep connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. And maybe if the rioters and demonstrators who chant “From the river to the sea” without any idea where that river or sea is located do a bit of research and educate themselves about this region and its people, they would come to that same understanding.

To you as Christians, I want to say thank you. Your steadfast support during this time means the world to us.

Walter Bingham is a Holocaust survivor, World War II veteran, recipient of the Legion d’honneur, holder of two Guinness Book of Records distinctions, one for the oldest working journalist alive and the other for the oldest active radio show host, and Bridges for Peace friend. At 101, he continues to write for the Jerusalem Report and hosts his own radio show, Walter’s World.

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