The Holocaust as fiction rather than fact. It’s a preposterous notion that Anti-Defamation League leader Abraham Foxman struggles with acknowledging, much less debating.
Hours before the 67-year-old Holocaust survivor spoke before a thousand people Tuesday for the ADL’s 26th annual Governor’s Holocaust Remembrance Program in Denver, he had difficulty deciding whether to make mention of it in his keynote address.
“Holocaust denial, this is such an idiotic lie that by confronting it, we’re almost giving it credibility,” Foxman said prior to the event. “The Jews living in the midst of that hell, why did they keep manuscripts and why did they keep diaries?
“Because they feared the world would not know they lived and how they perished,” he said.
Tuesday’s program was about remembrance and his talk was titled “Challenging Those Who Would Dare Deny.” However, Foxman focused less on Holocaust denial and talked more about teaching future generations about Jewish history and celebrating those non-Jews who stood in the way of genocide.
Gov. Bill Ritter also spoke and urged those in attendance to teach their children about the Holocaust, as the generation that survived the Nazi horror begins to fade away.
“We cannot allow ourselves to forget what we are capable of,” Ritter said. “We must continue to fight for their memory.”
Roberta Glaser, a Denver resident whose father is a survivor, agreed with Foxman that anti-Semitism is alive and growing globally.
“Growing up, I was called names because I was Jewish,” Glaser said. “The word that is spreading that the Holocaust was just this made-up thing, I hate when I hear it. How can anyone believe it did not happen, when you have survivors and their stories and remnants of that sad time.”
It was his Polish Catholic nanny who hid Foxman from the Nazis when he was a boy.
He was given a Christian name and baptized in an effort to help him avoid capture.
For 20 years, Foxman has led the organization founded to fight anti-Semitism and stand for fairness and equality for all.
His tenure has been controversial at times. He has tangled with fellow Orthodox Jewish leaders for his support of gay rights.
And his repeated use of the term “anti-Semite” has led some to call for his firing.
“I’m here because a woman who could barely read or write found the decency and courage and saved my life during the Holocaust,” Foxman said in his pre-event interview. “When I step down, I want to be known for helping spread not the lesson that mankind is capable of evil, but rather that mankind is capable of good.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-954-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
