German Holocaust Remembrance Culture Is Dead Inside

Published on Jun 29, 2025, filed under misc, activism (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

With the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians, in which Israel’s killing of up to 330,000 people (and counting) ^* is only the tip of the crimes-against-humanity iceberg ^†, and with Israel’s attacks against four additional countries (Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran), the German remembrance culture of the Holocaust was also killed. It may still look alive, but inside, it’s dead.

To understand why, let’s use an analogy: You’re a burglar, you sneak into someone’s house, and you cause incredible damage. The next day you realize the impact of your crime, and how you ruined the person’s life. You feel deep regret.

Now imagine the same situation, but some time later you learn that person is a burglar, too. How do you feel now, after it turned out you were both criminals?

You cannot empathize with the victims of your crimes once it’s clear that these victims are criminals themselves.

For Germany and Israel, the analogy is a little different, but worse so: It’s hard and becoming impossible to empathize with the victims of your grandparents, if the grandchildren of your grandparents’ victims have turned into the same criminals.

This doesn’t change even if those criminals portray themselves as the victims their grandparents were. ^‡

Those Who Fought the Nazis Are Heroes

The difference about Germany’s genocide and Israel’s genocide—and here, don’t fall into the trap of “different degrees of genocide” ^§—is that Germany’s genocide lies in the past, whereas Israel’s genocide still happens today.

That is, if you’ve been against Nazis killing Jews, you should absolutely be up in arms about Israelis killing Palestinians. You can’t go back to the 30s and 40s to start an Inglourious Basterds style vendetta, but now again is the time to stop a genocide.

But because there is this genocide, linked with Germany’s past genocide, Germany’s remembrance culture is morally and spiritually dead.

Historians may still dissect the past and look into when exactly this culture turned contradictory, hollow, lifeless. It seems to have started early—very early, perhaps, with the Nakba, or earlier still.

Germany’s remembrance culture does not explain, does not justify, does not survive remembering one genocide just to effectively celebrate the other, committed a few thousand kilometers away.

How do you weep the past’s victims of Auschwitz, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, if every day, there are more of today’s victims in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Palestine? Do you regret the crime—or do you favor one group of people over another?

This just isn’t Germany’s lesson from the Holocaust.

That lesson is to understand that it’s a crime, against everyone, to kill tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of a people.

Of any people.

Today, Germany’s failure to embrace and act on this lesson, exacerbated by ongoing arms deliveries, may still serve Israel to keep perpetrating their genocide on the Palestinians and their attacks on other Islamic countries. And yet the German remembrance culture, Israel has ultimately killed as well. It’s dead inside. The only way to save any of it is by stopping Israel’s genocide and wars; by establishing a new culture that remembers the victims of all genocides; and by living this culture through empathy, truth, and zero tolerance against any genocide.

In memory of all people murdered by the Nazis, of all people murdered by the Israelis, and of all people murdered in any genocide.

^* As mentioned on Mastodon, in a genocide, look at the higher count, not the lower. A genocide is the greatest crime, one in need of urgent action, and propagating lower counts delays action.

^† Consider the Palestinians now to die because of hunger; the many sick and injured; the ones not even found yet; the destruction of public and private infrastructure; the inhumane forms of attack, with tanks firing into people who seek aid; the fact that Palestine can’t even defend themselves because they have no army; the situation in the West Bank, with land also being annexed there; settler violence; countless small and large human and civil rights violations; and if you still think you want to say “but,” no, because the time to zionize people is over, and these crimes need to stop, now (before we bring every single criminal behind them to justice).

^‡ It’s getting so boring. It’s always others who “make” Israel destroy someone or something. Others chose the wrong homeland, the wrong religion, the wrong gender, the wrong age, or the wrong aid distribution point. That this isn’t cunning but evil, that this isn’t strong but pathetic, that this isn’t defense but the greatest offense—especially when your country has one of the most modern armies and owns nuclear weapons—, seems to escape Israelis most of all. Yet it still fools others, so it’s important to call out.

^§ …because what you’re really saying then is that one genocide was better than the other, which is a misanthropic statement itself that does nothing to help us prevent genocides.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)