I think I’m ready. I’m 70. (Though possibly only 60 according to the Times today). All my life I’ve heard about ‘the concentration camps’ and about Auschwitz. And so tomorrow, that’s where we’re headed. To Poland. To Krakow. To… Auschwitz. To see the site of the worst GEN-O-CIDE the world has ever seen. This was not some: “Oh, 3 people died in a car crash; ITS GENOCIDE!!!”, this was the real deal. Hitler’s masterplan to enhance the master race by exterminating the Jews of Europe. All of them. He ‘only’ managed to murder 6 million of them. A vast number at Auschwitz/Birkenau. So we’re doing a… pilgrimage?

2 weeks ago we visited the Nova exhibition. Which showed how, when and where 378 people were murdered at the music festival on October 7, by Hamas. Arguably another act of genocide as Hamas’s stated intention is to rid Israel and then the world of Jews.

And thus is life for the Jew. Visiting sites of death, destruction, murder, annihilation, eviction, persecution or slavery. Our most sacred world site is the Western Wall in Jerusalem. All that’s left after the Romans left the city, having probably run out of wine to drink or sheep to shag. So they destroyed the Second Temple (don’t even ASK about the first, oyyyyyy) and left us a wall. Ok we have some lovely synagogues; in Florence, in Budapest, even Buenos Aries, truly magnificent places. The one in Rome is spectacular. But we love our wall. I think there’s a degree of self pity involved in this. You have St Paul’s Cathedral; the Dome of the Rock; the Vatican. We have three quarters of a broken down wall. It also fits into the more Catholic narrative of deprivation and poverty. Less is more where religions compete for devotion through suffering.

Basically; Jews are like Millwall. Everyone hates us and we don’t care. Well, we do care, but seem powerless to stop the hatred. But my question really is deeper. More profound. More philosophical. More theological.

What the fuck was God doing over the last 2000 years and more, whilst all this shit was going on? Had he gone to the World Cup? Was he watching Netflix? I mean, why bother praying to a God for ‘protection’ and ‘salvation’ when he can’t look away from ‘Married at First Sight; Australia’ for long enough to save any of the above?

And for those who pray regularly to ‘commune’ with their maker. Why the fuck would you bother? Because when the shit hits the fan, God’s apparently on a tea break. So what’s the point of praying to God? When He clearly doesn’t give a shit about you? That whole ‘omnipotence and omniscience’ thing is all well and good but if it’s not used for good purposes, then what’s is the point? It’s pretty well proven that since the parting of the Red Sea (yeah, but bear with me) God has done nothing for the Jews. The Holocaust was his ‘cup final moment’. When he could ‘so easily’ have done something purposeful. Yet didn’t. So what’s he likely to do when Aunt Kitty breaks her leg?

And yet the history of ‘my people’ intrigues me so much that I’ve always felt the need to visit ‘the camps’.

Go figure.

Happy Saturday

A xxxx