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From Auschwitz to October 7: The World Is Looking Away — Again
People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
What good are the lessons of the past if we fail to act when the same dangerous patterns reemerge?
Walking through Auschwitz this spring for the March of the Living — commemorating 80 years since the end of World War II — and flanked by Holocaust survivors and recently released Israeli hostages, I felt history folding in on itself. The patterns are too familiar.
The question that haunted me there still echoes today: What becomes of our vows to remember, to protect, and to prevent, when the warning signs are back and the world looks away?
Jews around the world are facing a profoundly dangerous and painful moment — one marked by rising violence, radicalized rhetoric, and the reemergence of propaganda tactics that eerily echo Europe in the 1930s. Dehumanization. Disinformation. Denial. These tools are not relics of the past. They are alive and active in today’s discourse — and they are working.
Propaganda feeds disinformation and breeds dehumanization. It conditions people to look away. It turns murder into “resistance,” hostages into “bargaining chips,” and raped women into “unconfirmed reports.” It silences the world’s conscience. It doesn’t just obscure the truth — it erases it.
Despite the photos, the videos, the eyewitness accounts, and the physical evidence, denial of the sexual violence of October 7 continues to spread.
Survivors have not only been doubted but actively dismissed — by academics, media institutions, international bodies, and political figures. This collective refusal to confront violence against Jewish women and men is not simply a blind spot. It is a form of complicity.
But perhaps the most chilling of all is the silence. The refusal to speak, to confront, to believe — even in the face of overwhelming evidence. That silence is not neutral. It is the final stage of a propaganda campaign designed to dehumanize its victims so thoroughly that their suffering becomes inconvenient — or worse, invisible.
That silence, that erasure, is what drove me to act.
One year ago, together with Jewish Women International, I led a delegation of women — lawyers, judges, physicians, activists, and journalists — to Israel to say clearly and unequivocally: We believe you. That trip launched I Believe Israeli Women (IBIW), a global movement to affirm and amplify the truth of the sexual violence that occurred on October 7, and to defend the dignity and humanity of those who experienced it.
Because when we deny or ignore the use of rape as a weapon of war, we don’t just fail Israeli women and men — we fail all survivors everywhere. We fail Yazidi women. We fail Ukrainian women. We fail Rohingya women. We fail Sudanese women. We fail survivors of sexual violence in every war zone, whose trauma is met with silence.
Denial doesn’t only erase the truth — it endangers the next victims.
Since October 7, I have met many survivors. What galvanized me was not just their pain — it was the reaction to their pain. Their trauma was not only doubted, but often dismissed, ignored, or even justified. That dismissal felt chillingly familiar. It reminded me of what my parents endured before, during, and after the Holocaust — when neighbors turned away, when cries for help were ignored, and even after liberation, when stories were met with denial and disbelief. The world did not want to see the Jewish people then. And many don’t want to see us now.
On our most recent visit to Israel, my mother — a Holocaust survivor — met with and embraced a young survivor of the Nova music festival massacre. My mother told her: “I’m a survivor. You’re a survivor. Keep telling your story –it’s so important for the world to hear.”
That moment stays with me. It is the unbroken thread between generations of survivors. From Auschwitz to Be’eri. From the Holocaust to October 7.
The message is the same: Choose life. Live it fully. Speak the truth.
At a time when our pain is erased, our trauma denied, and disinformation spreads faster than truth, we must raise our voices — fiercely and publicly. We cannot afford to look away.
We must refuse silence and denial. We must confront disinformation and the propaganda that fuels it.
We must stand with all survivors of gender-based violence — without exception or excuse.
And we must reject every attempt to justify, erase, or minimize atrocity.
Above all, we must remember that “Never Again” is not a guarantee — it’s a responsibility we all share.
Dr. Marcy Gringlas is president of Seed the Dream Foundation and co-founder of the I Believe Israeli Women Initiative.
The post From Auschwitz to October 7: The World Is Looking Away — Again first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.