Denials of anti-Semitism and the Anne Frank test

 What if?  Nazis are not likely to come to power in the United States, and any rational assessment should recognize that, yet moral questions and social dynamics are clarified by questions formed in terms of "what if?"  What if it did happen here, paraphrasing Sinclair Lewis, or what if we did live in those times?  What if?  The question is centrally salient to all Jews given that it did not just happen once.  From the pogroms to the Inquisition to every historical attempt at genocide that you never studied-- and "genocide" has a real definition, for those of us who believe in objective truth and the use of language to communicate rather than manipulate/lie-- it has happened a lot.  So we ask, what if?  Among the more interesting questions contemplated by many Jews over the last nearly century is as follows.  What if I found myself in Anne Frank's position?  Who, if anyone, would help?  Consider the risks to all involved.  One reads her diary decades later, seeing the world through her eyes, and the looming threat through her eyes, yet consider too the heroism of the family that risked all to hide her and her family.  In contrast, consider everyone who either turned a blind eye, or actively worked to hand over every Jew for the concentration camps.  If you aren't Jewish, what would you do?  Given the courage required, that's a hard question.  It's a high bar.

From the Jewish perspective, a question many of us ask, when thinking of others, is as follows.  What would you do?  There are similar dynamics at play in matters of race, and attitudes of African-Americans towards white people, with lingering distrust, understandably, but this is a question that doesn't go away.  If you aren't Jewish, and you have Jewish associates, we ask ourselves how you would act in those circumstances.  We just do.  Would you hand us over if you saw us slinking around through an alley, trying to evade some patrol?  Would you offer a hiding place disingenuously?  Would you offer a hiding place, and then lose your nerve?  Or would you be the real deal?

We cannot be friends unless we think you would be the real deal.  The Anne Frank test.  It is highly unlikely to happen here, but consider it an assessment of character and values.  If you wouldn't pass the Anne Frank test, you cannot be a true friend of a Jew.

And yet, we all "know" that anti-Semitism is wrong, and very, very bad.  Notice the snark-quotes.  I put, "know," in snark-quotes because it is more of a catechism than a widespread belief.  Behold, the world.  Behold, college campuses, worse yet.  Festering shitholes of anti-Semitism that they are.

Imagine if the Cooper Union incident had happened with black students.  Cities would be burning down in this country.  Actual, literal flames.  2020 times 20.  There would be a body count for the riots.  When it happens to Jews?  Most people don't even know that anything happened.

A regular feature of life on a university campus is a set of protests by those who make sure to tell us that they really are not anti-Semitic.  Amid their support for a movement whose charter demands the killing of all Jews (Hamas), and whose October 7 attack consisted of the rape of civilian women, the dismemberment of children, torture and mass murder, all of civilians, because they were Jews.

But these protesters assure us, they assure us, they hate anti-Semitism, because they hate hate!  Love is love, love wins, and they reject anti-Semitism in all its forms.  They say so!

Ask the Anne Frank question.  Consider.  You are a Jew.  Gestapo are coming.  Actual, true Gestapo.  Not a metaphor.  What will any of these people do?  Will they point to you, and call for the Gestapo?  Will they turn a blind eye?  Will they offer shelter, and then cave under questioning?  Offer shelter as a trick?

Or will they actually have the courage to provide sanctuary?

Does anyone believe that a single one of these people would truly provide sanctuary?

Not a single one.  Not a single one.  Not one.  Some would point, and call for the Gestapo.  Most, I think.

Some would turn a blind eye.  A few would claim to offer shelter.  All would turn you in, either that having been the plan all along, or having lost their nerve.

Would any really hide you?

No.  Not one.

If I'm running from the Gestapo, I hide from these people too.  If I'm a Dutch Jew and the Gestapo are coming, these people are every bit as much a threat to me as the Gestapo themselves.  Not one would help, and every one would turn on me.  If they don't call for the storm troopers, they certainly won't provide any real assistance.

Anyone who asserts that a single one of these people would pass the Anne Frank test is either lying, or engaged in self-delusion.

"I'm not racist, but..." That's such a joke at this point that nobody even says it anymore.  Let's add, "I'm not anti-Semitic, but..."  If anyone says anything of the sort, that person will fail the Anne Frank test, and that's all I need to know of you.

If you cannot pass that test, then you are of no use to anyone except the enemy.  To them, you are very useful indeed.  You are very useful to Hamas.  The phrase, "useful ___."  Consider.  We shall examine that phrase soon.