From its inception, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has regarded itself — and been regarded by others — as a high priority target, and for good reason. Though not a Jewish institution, but a government institution, it is one of the most visible institutions that reflect the prominence of American Jewry — its creators — and the most central American institution dealing with the Holocaust.
For the past 15 years, the museum has spent significant resources on security and held itself to the highest standards. Its security staff is very professional, very well trained and armed. Such professionalism and training showed itself today in the swiftness of their response. Lives were saved. There may have been as many as 2,000 people in the museum when the gunman entered. We deeply mourn the death of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, a six-year veteran of the museum’s security staff, and salute his colleagues for their immediate and effective response.
The alleged shooter, an 88-year-old white supremacist — let us not give him the dignity of a name — reminds us that danger lurks in many places and that hatred takes many forms. It will be clear over the next several days that he hated Jews, but not only Jews. Racists seem to be unable to confine their hatred to only one group, and this often generates solidarity among the subjects of their hatred, for the safety of one group is inextricably lined to the safety of another and to the effectiveness of law enforcement groups and the rule of law. He proclaimed his hatred on the Web. His heinous act is the loudest proclamation of that hatred.
We should genuinely fear a copycat killer, and other institutions must take appropriate precautions. A lone gunman who is willing to risk his own death can seldom be stopped. Homegrown terrorists are dangerous, as we saw in a Kansas church on the Sunday before last. Venom is also dangerous.
The attack also reminds us of the sheer power of the events now known as the Holocaust; the power to plead for dignity and decency, for tolerance and pluralism, and for an effective response to other genocide and to the condemnation of antisemitism, past and present.
The killer may have been on Holocaust overload.
Pope Benedict recently visited Yad Vashem and forcibly condemned Holocaust denial and antisemitism. And while most Jews regarded his words somewhat disappointedly — they were overly intellectual, somewhat cold and devoid of autobiographic detail, especially when contrasted with his predecessor Pope John Paul II — such subtlety was likely lost on the killer.
President Barack Obama may also have been on his mind. An African-American man, who is clearly brilliant and articulate, accepted by the American people as their president may have been too much for a white supremacist to handle. It shatters his perception of the world, the certainty of his own twisted vision.
The president’s forceful condemnation of Holocaust denial in Cairo was unambiguous and authoritative. So welcome to many of us, it may have been raw meat for such a man of hate. And the president’s visit to Buchenwald in the presence of the president of Germany and the chancellor of Germany, with Elie Wiesel, the most prominent survivor of Buchenwald, as their guide, was a direct refutation of his worldview. New leaders had arisen in Germany — they do not deny the past, they condemn it. The skeleton-like figure who once slept in the barracks of Birkenau had become a world spokesman for human dignity and for embracing the diversity of God’s creations. This too must shatter the worldview of a man filled with hatred.
The president’s visit was America at its best. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is also America at its best — open, diverse, pluralistic, fighting for human dignity and decency, confronting the hatreds that resulted in the Holocaust, the hatreds that would invite its repetition.
Those who visit the museum in the aftermath of this horrendous attack should view their visit as an act of defiance, denying white supremacists and other haters their victory. The death of officer Stephen Tyrone Johns should renew our determination to advance the causes of the museum, for which he gave his life.
Michael Berenbaum was project director of the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and is a professor of Jewish studies and director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.
Forgive me for not speaking mainly of yesterday's tragedy, which filled me with great sadness. One line in particular struck me, and I feel it worth commenting on, though clearly, much can be and needs to be said about the content of this article as a whole.
Yes, John Paul II's words at the Memorial in Israel were poignant and person, deep with emotion. But I cannot understand the designation of Benedict's as "somewhat cold," even as much as I recognize that many people interpret them in this way. He spoke of the tragedy of the Shoah in deeply personal terms, evoking the image of a child developing in the womb. Each person killed in the Shoah, he said, had been at some point the embodiment of deep hope, dreams, limitless possibilities: What will become of this child? What will he or she become? Each person killed had a name, had an inestimable worth; each person had been loved and his or her birth had been eagerly anticipated by his or her parents. What parents among us cannot hear these words, and, imagining the horror of our own children suffering such a terrible fate, not shudder in anguish? This was the point of the pope's words, and I just cannot see what is overly "intellectual" about them. The speak to a profound experience that all people listening--not just academics--can relate to, to a basic human experience.
I want to strongly agree with Michael Berenbaum in his comment that the USHMM is America at its best. That is what touches off crazies like Von Brunn, who want to protect an imagined America that never existed against the liberal humane America embodied by the museum.
These crazies are moved by their real fantasies and hatreds, which continue to thrive and find supporters in America. They are also moved by the degradation of political discourse in the land, the sense provided by right wing radio demagogues that Washington DC is occupied territory, and the conceit they perform that we are at another Valley Forge where liberty stands in the balance.
Because of all this, the museum needs trained and armed security officers to greet Americans when they visit. And it will need to rethink its security, as Von Brunn's car was abandoned just outside where, had it been packed with explosives, the damage would have been gigantic.
The museum stands for liberal humanity. It stands for inclusive democracy, haven for refugees and immigrants, opposition to genocide and violence. It stands for recovery of and facing the past. It is an American institution and was attacked for that very reason.
Democracy, in order to survive and prosper, must place certain limits on the expression of free speech. Germany under the Weimar constitution allowed the Nazi party to grow and expand to the point that it swallowed the organ that allowed it to exist and expand. The Nazi party, that had a platform of hatred toward democratic values, should have been outlawed in its birthpang stages. Similarly, the UN, should exclude from membership a country whose head calls for the elimination of another member state. As for the perpetrator of yesterday's attack on the Holocaust museum, his venomous and threaening website should have been enough cause for the man's arrest and imprisonment -- instead of allowing him to roam freely, and armed with a deadly weapon. People like him are bound sooner or later to act out their anti-humanitarian rage. They should be apprehended before it's too late.
I have to disagree with America. This was the second attack on Jews in three weeks, and not a peep from the president condemning the attacks, or more importantly the attackers. This is an incredibly dangerous precedent and we may see more. It is clear that our security is not what it used to be. It is clear that the Holocaust museum is a great tribute to suffering world wide. But let's not take the unique aspect of it as being the war against the Jews. These attacks are not on any other group, and I haven't heard anything from other communities decrying these attacks, even as Jews would if the shoe was on the other foot.
Re: Israel's last dayze.
It was thought that the genocidal murders at Sabra & Shatilla 1982 were the worst Jewish involvement in murder and genocide. Then came Lebanon, summer of 2006 and again the Jew excelled in the monsterous acts of murder and mayhem, the tearing apart of helpless little children trying to escape the fighting in fleeing ambulances, under the order of the IDF killers, only to be strafed and bombed with white phosphorus chemical weapons and cluster bombs making them just bloodied torn flesh, ashes and crushed bones.
Now the Jew out does himself in the annihlation on innocents in Gaza, where women holding infants and waving the white flag of surrender were gunned down by the bible 'demons' in cold blood. Some 7,400 Palestinians were murdered or maimed (85% of them innocent civilians) and now the Jews are asking themselves 'Why the Holocaust museum in NYC and the world says, 'Why not!'
Mumbai is but a memory away and the annihilation of the Aztec bloody racist Zionist state of Israel is coming, coming, coming. :)
TheAZCowBoy Tombstone, AZ.
Anti-semitic rant? Naw, after all what is more anti-semitic that the murder, maiming and displacing of Palestinians that, in many cases, are more 'Semitic' than the 'Spawn of Iblis' could ever hope to be!
fortunately, az is our holocaust museum, for he is an orthodoxy. az is a very young jewish person in need of his own self.
Beautiful essay - and I appreciate the important mention of the terrorist murder of Dr Tiller in Kansas. One thing few people seem to be asking: How could a know racist/white supremacist/anti-Semite with violent inclinations, have such easy access to guns? Why does anyone?
Michael--
I have just seen this essay after the Tennessee Holocaust Commission sent a link out to board members. I'm not surprised to see you weigh in with the most thoughtful response in letters that I have seen to the sad event last week.
Thanks for your knowledgeable and perceptive take on the situation. We are all the wiser for it.
All best, Tom Wood
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