By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban
With the antisemitic cries and chants of the anti-Israel and pro-Hamas gangs filling the air of Montreal, The Suburban reached out to local Holocaust survivors to gain their perspective as many Montrealers are calling this era the Canadian version of the “1930s climate”.
The survivors unanimously agreed that the smokescreens of demonstrations under the guise of pro-Palestinian sentiment are a stark reminder of Nazi ideology that plagued Europe in the years leading up to the Holocaust. The attacks on Jewish institutions terrifies them as they remember how thresholds of acceptance of hate were pushed to the point of embracing hate, leading to the death of 6 million Jews.
The conversations and the public and political response — or lack thereof — is familiar to those who remember and who have survived the horrific outcome that ensued when they last experienced this momentum in their surroundings.
“I am an old man now, I am afraid for the future,” 88-year old Andrew “Andy” Fuchs, who was taken by Nazis and saw both of his parents murdered at the age 8, said to The Suburban. “It is devastating to see how quickly everyone forgot about us and what happened to us. We are human, we are all the same family of humans, why do they hate us?” Andy said while stoically trying to hold back his tears. “On October 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and took hostages, Andy was rushed to the emergency room as his blood pressure “went through the roof” as one of his social workers described. “After all the devastation that the Holocaust has caused, why don’t they see how dangerous this is? Why is no one speaking out to defend us? To speak up, they need knowledge of history and courage. A small group of antisemites is enough to blow up and create fear in other people which allows them to do terrible things and allow terrible things to happen,” According to Andy, October 7 was a perfect example of his greatest concerns. “Leaders don’t like to speak out against how some people feel, but these people are being misled by hate. We need to stop the propaganda. Zero tolerance is the only way. Those using what they call democracy to incite hate are misusing democracy and we need to talk about that. It was not only the Nazis that killed our families, it was the indifference to antisemitism like we are seeing today.”
Ted Bolgar, who will be 100 years old this September, has spent a lifetime educating people in various institutions about the Holocaust to ensure that there would be no repeat. He retired at the age of 95, at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. According to Ted, ignorance is at the core of antisemitism and both Ted and Andy believed that if they dedicated the rest of their lives following their liberation from the Nazis to educating others that they would help to change the world’s perspective about Jews. “It is very disappointing because I thought people learned from the Holocaust and understood that it was wrong. I am still here and I will keep trying,” Ted explained to The Suburban.
According to Andy and Ted, “Never Again” depends greatly on education and the support of leaders who apply zero tolerance policies on racism, without exceptions, towards Jews.