Remember…and Do Much More
Reflections on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Today, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In commemoration, among other activities, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum livestreamed (recording here) a discussion among historians and three survivors of the Holocaust. Also today, career diplomat Ambassador Dorothy Shea, who is the interim Chargé d'Affaires of the United States Mission to the United Nations, said the following in her commemorative remarks:
We are continually and painfully reminded that hate doesn’t go away, it only hides. And it falls to each of us to speak out against the resurgence of antisemitism and ensure that bigotry and hate receive no safe harbor. At home and around the world, we must promote dignity and human rights in the face of the continuing scourge of antisemitism.
Unfortunately, despite these efforts, today we see the rise of antisemitism and other forms of hatred globally.
Holocaust denial and distortion are also on the rise. They are a form of antisemitism and are often coupled with xenophobia. History shows, as hatred directed at Jews rises, violence and attacks on the foundations of democracy are not far behind.
Hate does not always hide. It did not do so in the run-up to the Holocaust and it is not doing so now. Further, attacks on the foundations of American democracy have been and continue to be occurring in tandem with the rise of loud and proud hatred.
One week ago, the 47th president of the United States granted clemency to all who attacked the U.S. Capitol on his behalf on January 6, 2021. As he and those who have been paying attention understand full well, these include a slew of antisemites and other virulent bigots. Consider:
Robert Keith Packer, who mocked the Holocaust with a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt that also featured a skull and crossbones and the phrase “Work Brings Freedom” (“Arbeit macht frei” in the original German inscription on the gates of Auschwitz and other camps). As USA Today reported:
Prosecutors later determined that Packer’s hoodie had the word “STAFF” emblazoned on the back – and that he wore an "SS" or "Schutzstaffel" shirt underneath it — a reference to the Nazi Party paramilitary organization founded by Hitler, according to court testimony.
Packer "wanted to support the subversion of our republic and keep a dictatorial ruler in place by force and violence," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst told the judge, NPR said.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, about whom USA Today reported:
Federal prosecutors had described Hale-Cusanelli as a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.” He has been pictured sporting a Hitler-style moustache that he reportedly wore to work as a contractor at a U.S. Navy base.
According to The Washington Post, 34 of Hale-Cusanelli's colleagues told naval investigators that he held “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women.” One officer said Hale-Cusanelli had remarked that “Hitler should have finished the job,” in killing six million Jews during the Holocaust from 1933 to 1945.
It is important to note, as NPR among others reported, that Hale-Cusanelli was a popular figure in the 45th/47th president’s pro-insurrectionist movement last year:
Twice [in the summer of 2024], Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. has featured speeches from a rioter convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, who has a well-documented history of extreme antisemitic and racist rants.
One of those events — a fundraiser for a controversial nonprofit group that supports Capitol riot defendants — was personally endorsed by Trump himself in a video message that was played for the room.
“All of the people there, you’re amazing patriots,” Trump said in the video. “Have a great time at Bedminster.”
As part of his criminal case over Jan. 6, federal prosecutors described the rioter, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, as a “white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer,” who told his coworkers at a naval weapons station that “Hitler should have finished the job” and “babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.”
Hale-Cusanelli also flaunted his invitation to the January 20 inauguration of his excuser:
Hatchet Speed, whom the Associated Press reported expressed “admiration for Adolf Hitler and discussed a plan to ‘wipe out’ the nation’s Jewish population”:
The FBI recorded Speed’s conversations with the undercover agent more than a year after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. The agent posed as “a like-minded individual” while meeting with Speed at least three times in 2022.
Speed, 41, was “deeply worried” about Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency and believed false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. He told the undercover agent that he believes Jewish people control Biden.
Speed expressed his admiration for Hitler during the recorded conversation, calling him “one of the best people that’s ever been on this earth.” He also “outlined a plan to enlist Christians to wipe out the country’s entire Jewish population,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
[...]
Speed was a member of the Proud Boys, joining the far-right extremist group in 2020, according to prosecutors.
Speed was far from the only member of the Proud Boys who received clemency for January 6 crimes. Chapter 8 of the final report of the January 6 Committee – Analysis of the Attack – details the tactical steps that some 200-300 Proud Boys and other extremists undertook in breaching the Capitol in support of the 45th president’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. This chapter mentions both Packer and Hale-Cusanelli, who were minor players. It also, of course, highlights the activity of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders such as Enrique Tarrio, Kelly Meggs, and Stewart Rhodes, whom juries convicted not merely of rioting at the Capitol but of a seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
In the run-up to the Capitol attack, in December 2020, a Proud Boy trumpeted this Holocaust-affirming message on his shirt: Six Million Wasn’t Enough (6MWE).
There is much, much more one can say about the 45th/47th president’s courting of and support from vicious, violent bigots and his other acrid echoes of the world’s fascist past. Suffice to leave off here with the observation that the violent thugs whom he pardoned on his first day in office are as never before his very own brown shirts, with all that portends. History is rhyming.
This. Must read.