Growing up in Brooklyn with two Holocaust survivor parents who almost never discussed the war, Allen Hershkowitz is now devoted to sounding the alarm over antisemitism sweeping the country.
It’s why the 69-year-old author of the memoir, “Finding My Father’s Auschwitz File” — which he wrote upon learning of his late father’s hidden Holocaust hell — plans a reading in Nashville “in response to the recent Nazi parade there,” said Hershkowitz.
In the book, Hershkowitz writes about being in the dark about the incomprehensible horrors his parents experienced in concentration camps – “stealing” dog food and enduring possible medical experimentation – while losing their former spouses, children and parents to the Nazis’ death machine. The incalculable pain of his parents’ quiet sorrow is what drives the Ridgefield, Conn., father of three to promote a hate-free world where “antisemitism is eradicated.”
In response to the surges of Jewish hate, Hershkowitz’s mandate is clear: “My purpose in life is to help alleviate Jewish suffering.” Citing a recent survey revealing some 20% of Americans under the age of 30 believe the Holocaust was a myth, the environmental scientist lamented that “hate is a result of ignorance.”
“As a boy, I didn’t understand evil,” said Hershkowitz, noting that his Polish-born parents took pains to shield him and his sister from their own personal horrors. But no one has the luxury to ignore today’s unchecked hatred. “What happened to my parents, the murder of their spouses, their children, their incarceration in concentration camps … people need to understand what Nazis do. Nazism is the logical outcome of antisemitism.” Today’s disturbing rhetoric must be a wakeup call: “Saying you want to get rid of Jews, that’s what the Nazis do.”
Hershkowitz says he was particularly incensed by the recent flap at an anti-Israel march in London, where police appeared to minimize the potency of swastikas, allegedly saying that the symbol synonymous with Nazi hate “was not necessarily antisemitic.” No, the author insists, “this is like walking around with a noose to hang black people from trees – it’s an unacceptable symbol.”
Despite the clearly tough road ahead, Hershkowitz says “I always have hope – optimism is a different story.”
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