At 83 years old, my going viral on the internet is the last thing I would have expected, but a video of me confronting the UK home secretary, Suella Braverman, at an event on Friday has so far been viewed more than 5m times. For a long time, I have listened in horror to the language used by many politicians to demonise certain groups in this country. As a child survivor of the Holocaust, I had to speak out.
Let me tell you why. Next week, on 27 January, we commemorate one of the worst atrocities committed in human history. The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is “ordinary people”. This might seem a strange choice; after all, most of us would assume that it would require a population of inhuman monsters to enact a genocide. But in reality, these horrific acts were carried out by one group of ordinary people against another.
The Holocaust began in a country where Jews and non-Jews had lived together in peace for generations. The small Jewish population – less than 1% – was so integrated into German culture that the majority looked upon themselves as Germans, with a variety of degrees of adherence to Jewish culture and traditions. So how did this relative harmony turn to hatred in such a short period of time? Through the use of language. The language of hate and division.
This was the method used by the Nazis to turn ordinary people, who went home each night to their wives and children, into the monsters capable of marching millions of Jews and other minorities – people just like them – into the gas chambers. It is what enabled ordinary soldiers to return to their wives and children, satisfied that they were protecting their country from social problems caused by people whom their government had convinced them were less than human.
BREAKING: a Holocaust survivor just confronted Suella Braverman to say: your hateful language has consequences pic.twitter.com/o8EjIkrLRA
— Freedom from Torture🧡 (@FreefromTorture) January 14, 2023
I am an educator, not a political activist. I speak about my family’s experiences during the Holocaust to remind the world how easily propaganda and words of division can create such hatred that ordinary people can then turn on their neighbours.
So when I hear the kind of rhetoric being used by our politicians against desperate refugees trying to make their way to safety here because they see the UK as a welcoming place for them to settle and bring up their children, I am concerned by how quickly we have forgotten the lessons of the past.
During the event on Friday in Braverman’s constituency, she spoke eloquently about the role of the Home Office in keeping this country safe. Her audience listened attentively as she told them that so many problems facing our country, from housing shortages to NHS waiting times, were caused by illegal migrants. It was up to her government, she claimed, to resolve this by deporting the problem.
Whether Braverman believes this to be the only solution, I cannot say, but it was obvious from questions asked by those listening that this was the message they had absorbed. Comments criticising the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for saving these desperate boat people, instead of leaving them to drown, were shared openly and to applause from others in the audience. Is it really less than a year since hundreds of thousands of Britons opened their homes to those fleeing the violence in Ukraine? Such is the power of words; such is the fragility of civilisation.
This is why I challenged Braverman about her use of language. I am not naive enough to think there are simple answers to the social and financial problems we are experiencing, and I can understand why the ordinary people of this country – often having to face a choice between food and heat – hope for a simple solution.
But I feel strongly that there are alternative reasons for the difficulties being endured beyond the 100,000 or so refugees waiting to be processed before they can rebuild their lives. I also believe that it is important to remind the government of the wise words commonly attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool some people all the time and you can fool all people some of the time, but you cannot fool all people all the time.”
So, Ms Braverman, stop your dangerous rhetoric and find other solutions, or history will not forgive you – and the ordinary people who have swallowed your words will eventually regret it.
Joan Salter is an educator and Holocaust survivor
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