Cultural Genocide

While going through the holocaust museum in Amsterdam I stumbled across the words "Cultural Genocide". Listening in on the audio guide and the words of other smart people, I felt like a new puzzle piece has fallen into place in my little brain. The idea that Nazis not only wanted to get rid of us Jews but also everything we are seems so obvious, but sometimes someone needs to state the obvious for one to see it. Now the question is: Did the Nazis win?

Short answer: in my opinion, yes, they did in a way. For Jews outside the US and Israel, jewish life is hidden and hard. You barely see any loud jewish things on the street, like it used to be. Vienna, in Austria was full of Synagogues and jewish things, like butchers, Mikvot and Jews. It even used to be a Jewish center for the smart and famous. Now, we are such a small community, most people never even met a Jew, and even less have any idea of how we live. The Netherlands lost around 90% of their Jews due to the Nazis (compare the statistics from DEMOS Oktober / november 2001 - Joden in Nederland , link visited in August, 2025) and walking around, it feels like, besides the milking of Anne Frank, there are no Jews left. One would really have to look for it, simmilar to other big cities, that lost most their Jews. I watched to many Videos from the pre-Nazi-era. It surely wasn't easy either, but being jewish was more then just a lonely experience. You knew your jewish neighbours, you knew the Butcher, the Rabbi, the person who made the best shoes, the one who knew the best gossip. It was a network. And some Non-Jews knew what a Jew was. A few weeks ago a guy asked me what kind of "cute hat" I was wearing. He ment well, it was a funny question, but it hit me: There are people who just know of Jews through books. Actually, most people only know us through stories and ideas, fabricated from Non-Jews, usually. On the other side, I met so many Jews who didn't want to be "too jewish". Some even went so far as making fun of me or other more religious people. For a long time I wondered why, and I think I found the answer, to some of the cases: Internalized Trauma and the destruction of the jewish culture. That sounds super dramatic at first, but stay with me here. The Nazis wanted to get rid of everything jewish. The less jewish you were, the better the chances of survival. Sometimes one had the best chances by selling out other Jews, I will not focus on this today though, but there are still people doing it. By getting rid of everything jewish, one might be able to survive the Nazis, after all that also worked before when Church and other people hunted Jews. So it was necessary for survival. And when it was time to rebuild? After everything our ancestors had to go through, maybe they were too scared. Maybe their focus was on something else. Maybe there weren't enough people with enough energy to rebuild what was lost. But until this day, it is not the way it used to be. And I start to doubt it ever will be. I met so many young Jews who were looking for a place where they belong. I thought: building something might help. Build a net, for those who need it. Make meet ups. Try and try again. But no. It's not the lack of options, why we can't rebuild. It's the fear of being "Too jewish" and "Not being jewish enough". Young Jews are so stuck in their heads and how they think things should be (I wanna add the side note that there are always the some people, sitting on the sidelines, complaining about something I do wrong on every project I work on, but wanting to help. Building community is not a single persons job, get your ass up and help or stfu.) instead of just participating. Everything should be picture perfect for insta or tiktok without any debth and while at it, some complaining needs to be done, how they would do it better, and how cringe everythin is, just to follow it along a "Oh being jewish in the diaspora is SO hard! I feel like there is NOONE around and there is NOTHING to dooooooo,".

The Nazis really tried to kill our culture, our togetherness and our light. Some people are working hard on bringing it back. All you gotta do, is share the light, instead of dimming it. You don't need to build anything, if that is not your thing, but you do need to show up. Communities didn't build up from nothing. People in the Shtetl (and equivalents in Non-Ashky places) didn't have an easy life. But they had community and cared deeply for each other. They gave what the could. Some were teachers, others were singers, others made many, many babies, other sold fresh fish. All of them were important. While we are still healing from the holocaus and the 7th of October, it is time to build a new Jewish community. All you gotta do is show up.