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My childhood echoes in newly-released Shoah recordings
In the New York of my childhood, each year’s change in seasons, from winter to spring, meant renewed memories of the Holocaust as the adults in my neighborhood swapped long sleeves for short, and the numbers burned into the flesh of more than a few of their arms were laid bare for all to see. Observing the awful evidence of the Nazi program to exterminate the Jews, in hushed tones, my friends and I would trade stories we’d heard about first wives, first husbands, and first sets of children that our classmates’ parents and grandparents lost in mass executions and concentration camps in Europe during World War II.
Awful as the Holocaust was to us and humbled as we were by the courage and defiance of the survivors who made no effort to cover up their arms while sunbathing at our local swimming pool, as children often do, we indulged in gallows humor about the terrible events that brought these refugees to our neighborhood.
A favorite of ours was imitating a question we’d been told many former Nazis asked after the Nazi defeat, responding to accusations of collaboration in the Holocaust. “There vas a var?” we’d ask one another, giggling, in our best reproduction of German-accented English, trying to sound the way we imagined culpable Germans might sound while screwing up our faces in exaggerated disbelief, just as we’d heard many former Nazis did to prove how they, personally, had nothing to do with the genocide.
These childhood moments came back to me as I listened to the tapes Claude Lanzmann recorded while doing research for his epic film, Shoah. The tapes have been made available to the public for the very first time, in two Shoah anniversary exhibitions, at the Jewish Museum Berlin and at The New York Historical in New York.
The tapes capture perpetrators and bystanders getting all bolloxed up in justifications, self-serving claims, deflections of guilt — including blaming the Jew victims — and efforts to extract themselves from culpability. On one of the tapes, a former SS man responds to a request for comment on the killing of Jews: “No, that’s over for me!” I thought of the jokey question of my youth – “There vas a var?” – which made pretty much the same point.
Perhaps because of my experience growing up in a New York that gave refuge to those whose scars went well beyond the numbers on their arms, branding them like cattle, it was obvious to me why Lanzmann’s tapes belonged in an exhibition in New York. It was New York’s hospitality to refugees that allowed the Holocaust survivors I knew to build new lives and new families.
But many who learned of The New York Historical’s decision to offer this unique audible Holocaust history coincidentally with the Jewish Museum Berlin, which owns the tapes, were perplexed, asking me why an institution focused on New York and American history would mount an exhibition of Lanzmann’s recordings.
In spite of the connection I felt to the history Lanzmann’s tapes told, my response was not personal. Listening to the tapes illustrates a universal point: the ease with which hatred of a people based on their religion can sink its roots in any society, and the dangers of underestimating this power.
Set against the backdrop of the rise of antisemitism today, the tapes, which record the voices of victims like the parents and grandparents I knew, provide a vital history lesson to a new generation, showing how quickly the belief that Jewish people and their faith are the problem can find its way into a nation’s political consciousness, and how that mindset can ultimately fuel violence on the world stage.
There are, as well, the moral questions raised by the rise of the Nazis in Germany, which transcend geographical boundaries and fall squarely on the permanent agenda of institutions like The New York Historical, which look to the lessons of history as a way of encouraging contemporary audiences to reflect on their own roles and responsibilities, as well as those of institutions like The New York Historical when confronted with injustice.
There is also a direct connection between the antisemitism in Europe that promoted the extermination of Jews, and the history of New York. Who could fail to recognize the enormous impact of those who fled Europe in the wake of Nazism on the city’s cultural institutions, its colleges and universities, its scientific institutions and organizations?
A whole “University in Exile” was founded in New York with some of Europe’s most notable Jewish scholars as faculty; Jewish artists and musicians formed the bedrock of our city’s modern art museums, institutes, conservatories and concert halls in the 1930s and 40s.
Finally, and above all, the tapes underscore the old adage about the importance of history: how it is impossible to understand who we are without knowing from where we came. The tapes offer an incomparable opportunity to convey, especially to young people, how a significant part of our city’s demographic came to be in New York; how this demographic, like so many others in our city right now, sought the basic right to live without fear or threat of violence because of ethnicity or religious belief.
Listening to the Lanzmann tapes in both the context of today’s debates about whether people displaced by violence around the world should be offered refuge in the United States, and as we prepare to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial in 2026, reminds us not only of the importance of testimony and of preserving voices from the past, but of who we are as Americans and what responsibilities our democracy gave us 250 years ago. Let this extraordinary audible history be a guide.
The post My childhood echoes in newly-released Shoah recordings appeared first on The Forward.
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Downed Planes Raise New Perils for Trump as Tehran Hunts for Missing US Pilot
Traces of an Iranian missile attack in Tehran’s sky, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, April 3, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Two US warplanes were downed over Iran and the Gulf, Iranian and US officials said on Friday, with two pilots rescued and a third still missing and being hunted by Tehran’s forces.
The incidents show the risks still faced by US and Israeli aircraft over Iran despite assertions from US President Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that their forces had total control of the skies.
The first plane, a two-seat US F-15E jet, was shot down by Iranian fire, officials in both countries said.
The second plane, an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft, was hit by Iranian fire and crashed over Kuwait, with the pilot ejecting, two US officials said.
Two Blackhawk helicopters involved in the search effort for the missing pilot were hit by Iranian fire but made it out of Iranian airspace, the two US officials told Reuters.
The degree of injuries among the crew of the aircraft remained unclear. The status and whereabouts of the missing F-15E crew member was not publicly known.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was combing an area near where the pilot’s plane came down in southwestern Iran and the regional governor promised a commendation for anyone who captured or killed “forces of the hostile enemy.”
Iranians, who have been pummeled by American air power for weeks, posted gleeful messages celebrating the plane downings. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X that the U.S. and Israel’s war had been “downgraded from regime change” to a hunt for their pilots.
Trump has been in the White House receiving updates on the search-and-rescue operation, a senior administration official told Reuters. The Pentagon and US Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
NO SIGN OF END TO WAR
The prospect of a US service person being alive and on the run inside Iran raises the stakes for Washington in a conflict with low public support and no sign of an imminent end.
Iran has officially told mediators it is not prepared to meet with US officials in Islamabad in coming days and that efforts to produce a ceasefire, led by Pakistan, have reached a dead end, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The US and Israel opened the campaign with a wave of strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28. The war has killed thousands and threatened lasting damage to the global economy.
So far, 13 US military service members have been killed in the conflict and more than 300 have been wounded, according to the US Central Command.
Iran has rained down drones and missiles on Israel. It has also taken aim at Gulf countries allied to the US, which have so far held back from joining the war directly for fear of further escalation.
In a security alert on Friday, the US embassy in Beirut said Iran and its aligned armed groups may target universities in Lebanon and urged US citizens in the country to leave while commercial flights are still available.
Israel has been waging a parallel campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon after the militant group fired at Israel in support of Iran.
TRUMP THREAT TO STRIKE BRIDGES, POWER PLANTS
On Friday, as Trump threatened to hit its bridges and power plants, Iran struck a power and water plant in Kuwait, underlining the vulnerability of Gulf states that rely heavily on desalination plants for drinking water.
On Thursday, Trump posted footage on social media showing dust and smoke billowing up as US strikes hit the newly constructed B1 bridge between Tehran and nearby Karaj, which was due to open this year, and said more attacks would follow.
“Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!” he wrote in a subsequent post.
On Friday, a drone hit a Red Crescent relief warehouse in the Choghadak area of Iran’s southern Bushehr province.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said its Mina al-Ahmadi refinery had been hit by drones. Other attacks were also reported to have been intercepted in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Missile debris landed near the Israeli port of Haifa, site of a major oil refinery.
Oil markets were closed after benchmark U.S. crude prices gained 11% on Thursday following a speech by Trump that offered no clear sign of an imminent end to the war.
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US-Iran: Diplomatic Push Falters as Qatar Steps Back and Pakistan Talks Stall
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks after a meeting with the Lebanese president at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Emilie Madi
i24 News – Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran appear to have reached an impasse, as key regional mediators pull back and broader talks stall.
According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, Qatar has informed US officials that it does not wish to take a central role in mediating between the two sides. Officials familiar with the matter said Doha has made clear it is “not willing” to lead negotiations or act as the primary broker.
At the same time, Pakistan-led efforts to bring Iranian and American officials together have also stalled. Mediators say Tehran has refused to attend proposed meetings in Islamabad, calling Washington’s conditions “unacceptable,” further underscoring the widening gap between the two sides and the growing difficulty of restarting dialogue.
Despite the deadlock, diplomatic channels have not fully closed. Turkey and Egypt are continuing parallel efforts to revive talks, with discussions underway about potential alternative venues, including Doha and Istanbul.
US President Donald Trump downplayed the impact of recent military developments on diplomacy, including the destruction of a US fighter jet during operations in Iran. Speaking in a brief exchange with an NBC News journalist, he said: “No, not at all. It’s war. We are at war.”
He further fueled speculation with a cryptic social media post on Truth Social, writing: “Keep the oil, anyone?” criticising international allies on Friday over rising fuel prices. Trump appeared to mock allies such as the United Kingdom, writing that they should “keep the oil.”
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Report: Iran Retains Significant Missile Capability Despite Weeks of US-Led Strikes
Iranian missiles are displayed in a park in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 31, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – Despite weeks of sustained airstrikes by the United States and its allies, Iran has reportedly managed to retain a substantial portion of its military capabilities, particularly its ballistic missile arsenal.
According to a report by The New York Times citing US intelligence assessments, Tehran has developed methods to mitigate the impact of the strikes, allowing it to preserve and restore key parts of its missile infrastructure.
While the Pentagon has claimed responsibility for striking more than 11,000 targets over five weeks and reducing the rate of Iranian missile fire, intelligence officials now caution that the actual damage may be more limited than initially assessed. Iranian forces are reportedly able to rapidly repair or reactivate missile launchers stored in heavily fortified or underground facilities, sometimes within hours of being hit.
Analysts also point to the widespread use of decoy sites, which may have drawn strikes away from operational assets. Many of the targeted locations are believed to have contained dummy installations, complicating efforts to accurately gauge the degradation of Iran’s ballistic capabilities. Combined with deep underground bunkers and dispersed storage networks, this approach is seen as enabling Tehran to maintain a higher level of readiness than publicly estimated.
US intelligence officials assess that this resilience reflects a deliberate strategy: preserving a credible long-range strike capability as both a deterrent and a bargaining tool in any future negotiations, while ensuring regime survival and continued regional influence.
Despite sustained air dominance claimed by Washington and its allies, Iran’s adaptive tactics continue to complicate battlefield assessments, leaving the true balance of power in the conflict uncertain.