This week marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. And while Jews the world over stopped to think about the worst racial liquidation in human history, Iran continued its preparations to create a nuclear device and pledged to help spread that technology to others; the Russian government, which has fostered and encouraged the Iranian nuclear program, refused to consider sanctions against the Iranian government; Palestinian Arab terrorist group and leading parliamentary party Hamas maintained its defiant posture as Saudi Arabia pledged $90 million to support Hamas; Jordan accused Hamas' Syrian leadership of ordering attacks within Jordan; Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Saudi Arabia and signed a "security cooperation agreement," while pledging to step into the Arab/Israeli conflict; Osama bin Laden released another audio tape, renewing his call for jihad against Israel and the United States; Islamists likely linked to bin Laden set off three bombs at Egyptian resorts, killing at least 22 people and wounding another 150.
"Never again"? Unfortunately, the prospect of a second Holocaust, this time targeting Jews and Christians on a massive scale, is all too possible. While millions remember the victims of Hitler's evil, millions more around the world blind themselves to today's evils, conveniently forgetting that even a leader the magnitude of a Hitler could not and did not act alone. Hitler's destruction required allies and partners, spoken or silent -- and it required the passivity of the West.
Russia, then as now, played both sides of the table. In 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, pledging nonaggression between the Soviets and Nazis, brokered a secret alliance regarding the invasion of Poland and much of Central and Eastern Europe. The Soviets were quite willing to give Hitler a free hand against France and Britain, and were quite willing to revel in the spoils they would surely gain from Nazi conquest. "Fascism is a matter of taste," Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov remarked after signing the pact.