The 1930s and 1940s are here, and we know what’s next! I have warned Christians that history will eventually repeat itself and here we are. The question is: “What side of history do we want to be on as it pertains to Israel and the Jews?” In fact, the more important question really is:”Do we want to be on God’s side or not?” I see six signs that we have reached that dangerous point of a repeat of the 1930s and 1940s.
1. Boycott
Then: During the tragic night between the 9th and 10th of November 1938, known as Kristallnacht, Jews in Berlin saw their storefronts painted with large stars of David and the word Jude, meaning Jew, to identify them and initiate a major boycott of Jewish businesses. That was even before Jews were not allowed to do business anywhere or anytime. The first step was to identify the Jews, and then they could be kept out of business to cripple them economically. This was a follow-up to the national boycott of Jewish businesses that Hitler had implemented as early as April 1933. It would progressively get worse.
Now: Since 2005, proponents of the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) have pushed people to stop investing in Israeli companies, as well as stop buying Israeli or Jewish products and also boycott Israeli and Jewish celebrities. While the BDS movement has seen some success, many people see the hypocrisy in trying to boycott a country and people group while ignoring some major culprits like China, Russia, Syria, Sudan and quite a few other countries. It is a blatant case of double standard. It even went as far as recently painting blue stars of David on buildings in the Greater Paris region to identify where the Jews lived. It will get worse!
2. Pogroms
Then: The government-sponsored riots against the Jews of Eastern Europe, known as pogroms, started in the late 1880s and continued through the Holocaust era. The pogroms were almost always against the Jews and were responsible for the death of thousands. The police either looked the other way or worse, helped organize them AND participated in them. There was almost nothing the Jewish people could do when they were caught in a pogrom. Fighting back was nearly impossible. Fleeing the scene to save one’s life was the only option, and this is precisely what my ancestors did, taking only a few family items with them. My great-grandmother, on my mother’s side, escaped the Russian pogroms and came with her family to settle in France. It would progressively get worse.
Now: We are starting to see riots against Jewish people develop around the world for no other reason than these people being Jewish. There was a pogrom in an airport in Dagestan, Russia at the end of October 2023, where mostly Muslim people were running after Jews who had just landed from a Tel Aviv flight. Then, there was the recent pogrom in Los Angeles last June when the police did nothing to help the Jewish victims being attacked in front of their synagogue. It will get worse!
3. Academic Pressure:
Then: In 1938, the same year that Kristallnacht took place, an article titled “The goal is achieved! No more Jews at German Universities,” was published in the student paper Die Bewegung. The title described a goal more than a complete achievement at the time, but the pressure continued to mount from university faculty and students. Eventually, the Aryanization of Germany demanded that no Jews would be allowed anywhere, and that included all universities, either as faculty members or students. It would progressively get worse.
Now: Since the carnage of October 7, 2023, instead of the global community showing compassion for Israel, within days of the terrorist attack from Hamas, the world turned on Israel and pointed the finger at the victim, accusing Israel of genocide. Pretty soon, students in America united in their new motto, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Shall be Free!” Jewish students became very concerned for their safety, especially after prominent US University presidents seemed to defend the real oppressors (pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas.) Young Jewish people are now at a place where they have to consider how antisemitic a school is before they apply. It will get worse!
4. Killing Jews:
Then: A simple survey of history will suffice to determine that a large number of Jews were murdered in the 1930s and 40s. It indeed culminated in the Holocaust, but it started before. Many Jewish people died inside the ghettos because of the terrible living conditions between starvation and various diseases running rampant. Additionally, Jewish people were put in gas vans starting in 1941, and even though many thousands died in those sealed-up vans filled with carbon monoxide, it was deemed too complicated and too slow for the Nazis. That method was first utilized by German groups known as Einsatzgruppen (deployment groups), who also had Jews dig mass graves for themselves before being shot. It would progressively get worse.
Now: We can go back to 2012 in Toulouse, France, to monitor the return to the killing of Jewish people. It was followed by the I am Charlie massacres in Paris and the Pittsburgh Synagogue, among others, but the Hamas invasion of Israel and killing of 1,200 people was the highest Jewish death toll in one day since the Holocaust. Globally, Jewish people are now scared for their lives. They are making arrangements to immigrate to Israel (a country currently at war on at least three fronts) as soon as possible. It will get worse.
5. The Jewish Denial:
Then: My parents and their parents refused to believe that one of the most educated and cultured countries in Europe could fall into such barbarism during the Holocaust era. To be sure, not every German was a Nazi, and there were even some people within the Nazi party who chose to help Jews whenever they could, like in the case of the Nazi officer who helped rescue the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
My paternal grandfather, who fought the Great War of 1914-1918 as a French citizen, never thought of anything when in the late 30s and early 40s, Jews were asked to bring their bicycles to the nearest police station and then to bring their radio sets. He didn’t believe that Jews were being set up for the next step in nazi control: The ghettoization of the Jewish communities, which eventually led to the transport of millions of Jews to the death camps. By the time the Jewish people understood the Nazi agenda, it was too late to do anything. It would progressively get worse.
Now: The vast majority of Jewish people are still in denial about all this. I recently spoke with an orthodox rabbi about the current danger, and his answer was, “when the time comes, our people will take care of themselves.” When the reality of the death factories of Nazi Germany hit the Jewish communities of Europe, they couldn’t respond anymore. It was way too late. How much more of a tragedy needs to take place, for our Jewish people to believe that when people tell us, “we want you dead!” they mean “we want you dead?” Our enemies are not even hiding behind social justice, political correctness or multiculturalism anymore. It is open season on the Jews again!
6. The World’s Indifference:
Then: Had the world been a little more proactive during the 1930s and 40s, many lives could have been saved. Too many people outside of the Nazi perpetrators became co-perpetrators and even bystanders, allowing for Hitler’s death factories to run at full speed and capacity. When the Gestapo took my maternal grandfather out of his own home in Paris, 100% of the people in his building were observers who did NOTHING.
Now: in 2024, where is the outrage after Hamas murdered 1,200 innocent Israelis? Where are the Christian Zionists when pro-Palestine people march on the streets of America?
The new 1930s and 1940s era is no longer upon us, it has arrived and is becoming a greater threat by the day. Ignoring it won’t make it go away, just like changing the narrative won’t stop the killing of Jews. We must be as vocal as we can, as actively involved in peaceful protests as we can, and we must continue to prepare our homes to rescue Jewish people as the time comes.
If a Nazi officer could find the compassion to rescue a well-known orthodox rabbi out of Poland in 1939, who are we to think we cannot do anything? None of us can do it all, but we can all do something.
*This article and the picture used above was originally posted on the New Antisemitism website of Shalom in Messiah Ministries on August 15, 2024. Link to the original – https://www.shalominmessiah.com/2024/08/15/6-signs-we-have-arrived-at-a-repeat-of-the-1930s-and-40s/
Reposted with permission of the author.