Shiloh Musings: Hitler

Showing posts with label Hitler. Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2026

War Musings #73 The Con of Ceasefire or The Calm Before The Storm

In most of Israel, there has been quiet since the U.S. brokered "ceasefire" with the terror state Iran. Schools and stores have reopened, public transportation has returned to its previous schedules, neighborhood shelters are getting cleared and cleaned... but behind the scenes there's a different conversation.

Remember that a ceasefire leaves both sides viable. The weaker or "evil" one may be "damaged," but it's not dead. It can and usually will rise up again, sometimes much stronger than ever. It's not a victory/defeat. It's a postponement of the inevitable, especially when one of the parties swears/promises/aims to destroy the other one, politicians, military and innocent civilians.

In conversations between friends, I keep hearing:

"We just have a few days, since the war will resume..."

The following is what I written in my nightly "Gnite" post on Facebook. What do you think? Please reply in the comments, and share if you agree, thanks.

Gnite... confusing, frightening times. The Bibi government is trying to fool the people, saying "back to regular life, schools as usual, public transportation on regular schedule... no war..." But there isn't peace. Israelis in the north of the country are being attacked. Our enemies are obviously re-arming and planning their next attacks... but in Israel people have been told to take their mattresses out of the shelters, so activities can return. My mosaics class takes place in a neighborhood shelter, which is officially the senior citizen club house, or moadon as it's called in Hebrew. Today we discovered that some of our tables are missing, and luckily we lock up the equipment we use...
Iran doesn't want peace, and no "deal" will change its mind. Did the Allies make a "deal" with Hitler? Trump doesn't understand the mentality of war and terrorism. He's a businessman, not a historian-military man. The only American politicians worse are the Democrats. And here in Israel... we have we have weak bombastic Bibi. Similar to the situation in the states, the only politicians who are worse are in the opposition. It's time for some brave intelligent people to stand up and tell the truth. We've had almost annual wars since Bibi became Prime Minister. Each time, they quiet down and Bibi says: "They'll never try that again. We showed them... " but they do attack again and again and again... That last major attack on October 7, 2023 was a doozy for sure. Pictures and the terrorists' own selfies showed that they are civilians, the same faux "innocent civilians" that Bibi warns to leave their houses, so he can waste our bullets. Bibi calls them "innocent civilians," but they're the ones who raped and murdered our people, our truly innocent people two and a half years ago.
OK, I had to vent... Bedtime, so Gd willing a better tomorrow.

Monday, April 17, 2023

Holocaust, "HaShoah" Thoughts after a Visit to Yad Veshem

I wasn't raised with any awareness of the Holocaust, the Nazi murder of six million 6,000,000 Jews during World War Two. It's not that they were hiding any past, not at all. My parents were born in the USA, born in Brooklyn, New York, the same place I was born. Their parents all immigrated to the United States early in the 20th century. After the war, no surviving relatives joined them in New York. From what we can surmise, close to eighty 80 years later, none of the family which had stayed in Europe survived the war.

Until very recently I felt rather shut out of Holocaust memorials. You had to be a survivor, pre-death camps escapee or descended from them to have a story. Since those who had actually experienced the Holocaust are quickly reaching the end of their lives and their children are grandparents and great-grandparents, their stories of survival and revenge over the Nazis have become legendary and inspiration for the growing genre of Holocaust literature.

Ever since I first began learning about the Holocaust, as a child when The Diary of Anna Frank became popular and a short time later when Adolf Eichmann was captured then tried in Israel, the Holocaust seemed no more connected to me than Judah Maccabee of the Chanukah story.

My parents did have relatives who had been living in Europe, mostly Belarus, which was then part of the Soviet Union. After World War Two, nothing was heard from them; they weren't found. In recent years, when I tried to join the Holocaust talk, I was told that my family story didn't count. I'm not in the club, since none of my relatives survived.

Last week I met a visiting cousin and his wife in Yad Vashem. Yad Veshem isn't my favorite place. That's because during my last visit, quite a while ago, I found myself very upset by their use of words about which I blogged Words, They Were All People and Praying to a Non-god. Please read them and tell me what you think in the comments, thanks.

We were taken around by one of their guides and given a very good history lesson. We passed a map of Belarus, and I managed to find Rogachev the city where both of my grandmothers had lived before moving to the United States.

My paternal grandmother, Anna Brynien, was the second of six daughters. The four eldest and their parents immigrated to New York early in the 20th century, but my grandmother's two youngest sisters had been enthusiastic communists so they stayed in the Soviet Union. My maternal grandmother, Ida Vishnefsky, was from a large, relatively wealthy family. Her father was what was known as a barber-doctor. Everyone stayed in Belarus except my grandmother and one brother, who had immigrated to London. My grandmother followed her first husband to New York with their eldest daughter after visiting her brother in London. When the war ended, no survivors from my grandmothers' families were found.

My maternal great-grandfather
Vishnefsky

my maternal great-grandmother
Vishnefsky

One of the exhibits we toured was the Hall of Names dedicated to the dead. I'm not sure that any of my missing family members are included in the names, but our guide told us that there are still boxes waiting for more names.

Doesn't that make me and my cousins and children and grandchildren part of the Holocaust story?

The greatest tragedy of the Holocaust is that so many Jews may have no descendants; they didn't survive. That's what happened to my parents' aunts, uncles and cousins. The survivors in my family left Europe before the Nazis were a power. That's how my family survived.

Hitler's plan was to kill all Jews, not just European ones. He had envisioned conquering the world; thank Gd he failed.

The Jewish People have survived and thrived. Despite the murder of Six Million Jews by Hitler, the State of Israel was established with the Help of Gd just a very few short years after the Nazi defeat.

The Jewish People survived and that makes ALL JEWS SURVIVORS!

Thank Gd, because Gd is our secret weapon.

Thursday, April 22, 2021

"Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge," Book Review

Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge by Ann Bausum is from National Geographic and written for older children, but I really enjoyed reading it. It is one of those books that can be appreciated by readers of all ages. It's slightly larger than standard print made reading very pleasant.

Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair tells what happened to the families, especially the children, of those who were involved in the 1944 attempt to kill Hitler.

On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The name Operation Valkyrie—originally referring to part of the conspiracy—has become associated with the entire event.^[1]^[2]
Wikipedia

To be perfectly honest, even though I had a vague idea that such a failed attack had happened, I certainly never thought about this had effected the families of the conspirators.

No one should be surprised that the children suffered greatly, separated from home, family and identity. They were only saved by the fact that the war ended not long after the assassination attempt.

We get to know some of the children well through their diaries and excellent research. I highly recommend Ensnared in the Wolf's Lair: Inside the 1944 Plot to Kill Hitler and the Ghost Children of His Revenge for readers of all ages.

Product details

Publisher : National Geographic Kids (January 12, 2021)
Language : English
Library Binding : 144 pages
ISBN-10 : 1426338554
ISBN-13 : 978-1426338557
Reading age : 10 - 14 years
Grade level : 5 - 9

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Arab Terrorism versus "Two State Solution"

There can never be a "Two State Solution" here in the Middle East, unless you're in favor of Hitler's "Final Solution." It's that simple. Both "solutions" are deadly for Jews.

Yes, it's that simple.

We Jews and the State of Israel do not have "peace partners." The aim of the Arabs and their enablers is the destruction of the State of Israel, Gd forbid, and the death of us, too.

Our cemeteries are full of innocent Jewish victims murdered by local Arabs. And our history is full of invaders and attempts at our annihilation and holocausts.

Deja vu, been there, done that. We've cried for our victims of terrorism and fought for our independence over and over. Each generation has its enemies. The Jewish People are a small people, but we've outlasted them all. And today's enemies will join all of those others in history books.

We will overcome in ways that no other people have survived, Gd willing.

Gd willing we will soon have brave visionary leaders and we'll build our Holy Temple on the The Temple Mount, Har Habayit. Like when Nachshon stepped into the water causing it to part so the Jewish People could safely escape slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt, once we begin to build the Third Temple, it will miraculously be completed by Gd.

May it be speedily in our days, bimhaira biyameinu... Gd willing...

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Antisemitism, Not Ignorance, Fuels the World's Policies

Sorry, but I'm rather pessimistic about educating "the world" about Jewish History, rights and connections to the Land of Israel. I think it's antisemitism that is behind most policy, not ignorance.

Most people all over aren't interested in the truth. They just don't want Jews around. That's how Hitler had such an easy job in discriminating against and later murdering Jews. Not only did the ordinary citizens of the various countries invaded by Nazi Germany cooperate with Hitler's plan, but the USA, which found itself being forced to try to "rescue" Great Britain and other countries, didn't have stopping the anti-Jewish Holocaust in its battle plans.

Here we are almost a hundred years later, yes, I'm rounding off the 80+ to a century, and our Jewish and Israeli leaders still expect justice and truth.

DEFENSE MINISTER: EUROPEANS PUTTING HEADS IN THE SAND

“The Europeans continue to put their heads in the sand, exactly like they did before World War II,” Liberman told Channel 2. “The leaders of Europe prefer to run away from reality.”

I'm a pragmatist, which makes me a pessimist.

Unfortunately, we're the ones who are putting our heads in the sand by not recognizing the antisemitism so prevalent in the world, including the international bodies which claim to support justice and human rights.

I'm glad that our Prime Minister Netanyahu has followed US President Trump in announcing that we're leaving UNESCO, but I'm embarrassed that Bibi didn't take the initiative first. The problems with UNESCO aren't new. And I wonder how long it will take for both countries to rejoin...

You know what they say about paranoids having enemies...

Thursday, September 15, 2016

GUEST POST: Jews in year 1933 CE by Mr. Cohen

Jews in year 1933 CE
a guest post by Mr. Cohen

Many people, especially young people, are in danger of forgetting why Jews need their own land and their own sovereign government and their own army.

I hope that these two short paragraphs will be a sufficient reminder:

“The first official action of the Catholic Church toward the new Nazi regime was to recognize it. On July 8, 1933, the Vatican signed the Concordat with Hitler.

This agreement was Hitler’s first bilateral treaty with a foreign power, and it was for him a significant diplomatic victory. Under the agreement, the Vatican recognized Hitler’s regime and agreed to remove the Catholic Church and the political parties affiliated with it from the political opposition. German bishops were obligated to swear an oath of allegiance to the Nazi state. Throughout the war, even as news of atrocities and genocide made their way into the common knowledge, the Vatican never repudiated the Concordat.”

“The Catholic Church in Germany complied obediently with the role assigned it under the Concordat. Although the church condemned other aspects of Nazi policy, such as the euthanasia of the mentally ill, it never officially protested any of the Nazi policies toward the Jews. On the contrary, Catholic churches actually helped the Nazis to identify Jews by providing them access to church genealogical records. Throughout the war years, even after the fate of deported Jews was common knowledge, these churches continued to share these vital records.”

SOURCE: Standing With Israel (chapter 1, page 30) by David Brog, year 2006, FrontLine Publishers, Lake Mary, Florida, ISBN: 9781599790503

___________________________________________________________

UNFAIR DOUBLE STANDARD:

Have you ever noticed that:
people who want a Jew-free Palestine are called peace-lovers;
but people who want an Arab-free Israel are called racists?_________________________________________________________
OTHER BLOG POSTS BY MR. COHEN:

Quick Bible Quotes from Joshua and Jeremiah:
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-joshua-chapter-23-verse-12.html
https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/12/guest-post-jeremiah-chapter-17.html

Ancient Roman historians connected Jews with the Land of Israel and Jerusalem: