INTRODUCTION
Hamas carried out the October 7 massacre with the intention of evoking memories of the Holocaust. While the October 7 onslaught was obviously nowhere near as large in scale as the Holocaust, the more we learn, the more the intention becomes crystal clear. Beyond physical terrorism, Hamas carried out — and continues to carry out — psychological terrorism.
Since the October 7 massacre, the Israeli Defense Forces have found a plethora of Nazi literature in Gaza and with the terrorists, including Arabic copies of Hitler’s vile manifesto, Mein Kampf, with notes on the margins.
As Chris Cuomo noted after watching the uncensored 47-minute film of the Hamas carnage, “This was absolute genocide…Even more important to the terrorists, apparently, was what they left behind: charred reminders of a Holocaust…They wanted the Jews to know that they want them to burn again.”
Holocaust survivors who went on to survive October 7 have made similar assessments, though some do stop short of equating the two.
Haim Raanan, who survived the Budapest Ghetto, called October 7 “a second Holocaust…I never thought that as a Holocaust survivor, I would need to hide for my life again.”
About 2500 Holocaust survivors experienced October 7. Of them, 2000 had to be evacuated from their homes and at least 86 have died since the beginning of the war.
MOSHE RIDLER Z"L
Moshe Ridler (z"l) was killed at 91 years old when Hamas terrorists launched a grenade into his home on October 7.
Ridler was born in 1931, in Romania, and was deported to the Romanka concentration camp in Ukraine when he was in the third grade. At only 11 years old, he managed, along with other prisoners, to run away from the camp. A Ukrainian family found him and hid him as a “Ukrainian” boy until liberation. His sister, Mina, was killed at Romanka, while his father survived the war.
Post-Holocaust, Ridler could not bear to remain in Europe and thus immigrated to Israel in 1951.
“[He survived] that Holocaust. He did not survive this Holocaust,” the volunteer who recovered his body said.
YAFFA ADAR
Yaffa Adar, 85, made headlines on October 7 when footage of her kidnapping was posted on social media. Though surrounded by heavily armed terrorists dragging her to the Gaza Strip in a golf cart, she remained composed, and even smiled, prompting some to question whether she was suffering from dementia.
But she wasn’t suffering from dementia. After her release in November following 49 days in captivity, she told the press, “I did this for my kids. I wanted them to be proud of me. Also, I didn’t want to give the abductors the satisfaction of seeing me scared or crying.”
In addition to surviving Hamas captivity, Adar is also a Holocaust survivor.
SHLOMO MANSOUR
Shlomo Mansour, 86, who was taken hostage on October 7 and still remains hostage, survived the Holocaust — in Iraq.
Mansour survived the Farhud in 1941, a Nazi-inspired pogrom (massacre) in Baghdad that Holocaust scholars now consider to be a part of the Holocaust. He was three at the time. After his family escaped with their lives, they migrated to Israel.
Mansour is still in Hamas captivity and his family has received no signs of life.
"I was as scared on October 7 as when I was a child during the Holocaust." - Raisa Matato, 88
NAZI INFLUENCE ON HAMAS IDEOLOGY
October 7 was not the Holocaust — even though for many Holocaust survivors it felt like it, and for many of us, it triggered an ancestral intergenerational trauma — and Hamas, though no less evil than the Nazis, are not the Nazis. But Hamas’s ideological roots are very closely linked to Nazism, and if we want to understand how we got here, it’s important to know this.
Hamas emerged as a branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, worshipped Adolf Hitler, so much so that he translated Mein Kampf to Arabic, changing its name to “My Jihad.” Like Hitler, al-Banna sought to exterminate all Jews…in his case, from the Middle East.
According to German documents from the period, in the 1940s, the Nazis trained some 700 members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Nazi Germany heavily funded the Brotherhood, which contributed to its massive growth. In 1938, the Brotherhood had some 800 members. By the end of World War II, it had grown to a million members.
Naturally, Nazism deeply influenced the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology. The father of Palestinian nationalism, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Which brings us to Hamas. Hamas’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and was responsible for establishing the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch. In 1987, he founded Hamas.
It’s no surprise that Israel said it found Mein Kampf at an apartment Hamas was using as a base of operations in Gaza, complete with notes along the margins.
You cannot claim to oppose Nazism while also supporting Hamas, neglecting the hostages, or celebrating, supporting, excusing, or in any way justifying October 7.
You cannot claim to care about the Holocaust or oppose Nazism while also supporting Hamas, justifying 10/7, and forgetting about the hostages.
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