Irony of Ironies

Gaza - returning to devastated homes

Auschwitz Death Wall

It was 27 January, the 80th anniversary of the closure of Auschwitz Concentration Camp where over 1 million Jews, mainly from Poland had been killed in the gas chambers. World leaders gathered at Auschwitz to commemorate the anniversary. Similar events took place around the world. At the United Nations building in New York, the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, spoke to the assembled nations about the Holocaust and the continuation of antisemitic genocide.

In 1933 there were 560,000 Jews in Germany and following the Nurenberg Laws in 1935 and 1500 other local laws, they were to become non-citizens. 250,000 Jews left Germany between 1933 and 1938 and by 1940 there were 100,000 Jews who had migrated to the USA, 50,000 to the UK and 50,000 to Mandatory Palestine, the protectorate that had been established in 1917. Most had paid substantial taxes to the German authorities to obtain permission to leave. The vast majority of the six million Jews killed by the Nazi German regime were of Polish or Russian background.

Meanwhile, on the same day, tens of thousands of Palestinians were marching back to their bombed homes on the first day of the Gaza ceasefire. 47,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombing and troop operations including 25,000 women and children.  90% of the population of Gaza's 2.3 million people have lost their homes. The country has been devastated by 16 months of war during which the Israeli Government has denied any access to Gaza by foreign journalists and medical and food aid has been heavily restricted.  It is the irony of ironies that these two events occurred on the same day.

This is Gaza in 2025