By Robert R. Singer
This op-ed was originally published in Swedish in the Göteborgs-Posten
Earlier this week, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven met in New York. At this meeting, President Lauder emphasized that a Nazi march on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement – the holiest day of the Jewish calendar – in front of a synagogue in Gothenburg is utterly unacceptable.
The Swedish neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement originally asked to march on September 30 along the city’s main street during the Gothenburg Book Fair – the largest book fair in Scandinavia, attended by 100,000 people. After that request was denied, the police offered an alternative route that would take the demonstrators in close proximity of the local synagogue on the most important of holidays, Yom Kippur. The police also did not prevent the same Nazi organisation from marching without permit in central Gothenburg.
Due to a remarkable level of ignorance about one of Sweden's recognized minorities and its history, the police have enabled and enhanced one of the most atrocious practices of the Nazis. During the Holocaust, the Nazis routinely scheduled major deportations of Jews to concentration and death camps on Jewish holidays, including on Yom Kippur. It is abhorrent that this practice should be emulated today in Gothenburg, of all places, the Nazi's very stronghold in Sweden during the 1930s.
The decision to march on Yom Kippur cannot be viewed as merely symbolic, as suggested by the police. It is a question of stark realities. Today’s neo-Nazis are clearly imitating the Holocaust-era Nazis and are hoping for the same results. Six million Jews were ruthlessly murdered during the Holocaust at least in part because national and local authorities would not take the Nazi threat seriously early on.
We cannot allow Swedish authorities today to repeat the same mistake.
Only seven decades after the end of World War II, the world is slowly but surely forgetting its promise of “Never Again”. About one-quarter of the world's population today harbor anti-Semitic views, and two-thirds have never heard about the Holocaust – or worse, deny it. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Sweden and across the globe, and Jewish communities in many parts of the world are feeling increasingly threatened.
Over the last few months alone, the Jewish community in Sweden has faced numerous blows including the closure of the Jewish Association in Umeå due to neo-Nazi threats, and virulently anti-Semitic slogans calling Jews,” the descendants of monkeys and pigs” and inciting rhetoric calling for “blood to be spilled” being chanted at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Helsingborg.
Sweden prides itself on the protection of its minorities, and on ensuring the rights of all Swedes to practice their religion without threat. This scheduled march is a sharp failure on both counts. Swedish Jews often hide their Jewish identity due to direct or indirect threats. This demonstration will only exacerbate an existing climate of anxiety.
As CEO of the World Jewish Congress - an organization that was founded in 1936 to mobilize the Jewish people and the democratic forces against the Nazi onslaught, and today represents some 100 Jewish communities worldwide - I strongly urge the Swedish authorities to respect its Jewish minority and to move the neo-Nazi march far away from the Jewish community and its institutions. Holocaust survivors and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Gothenburg must not be subjected to Nazi chants while praying on our holiest day, or feel threatened by these Nazis.
The World Jewish Congress, together with other Jewish organizations worldwide, will continue to protest the Swedish authorities' ill-advised decision to move the march within earshot of the synagogue in Gothenburg and do everything in its power to ensure that this decision will either be reversed or condemned worldwide. For this reason, I have also written to the Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, strongly requesting corrective action.
The mistakes of the past must not be allowed to be repeated. We know the devastating consequences all too well - not just for the Jewish people, but for society as a whole. Never Again has to mean Never Again.
Robert R. Singer is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President of the World Jewish Congres
