When the Holocaust returned it came denouncing anti-semitism and wearing a Star of David. It was never going to look how we were expecting. It wasnt going to show up in its old familiar costume with the bent cross and the tiny mustache, blaming all the problems on the Jews. It had to look different. If it didnt look different, we never would have let it in the door.

And thats still whats throwing a lot of people off: it looks different. It doesnt look like what all all the World War II movies and Holocaust novels conditioned us to watch out for. In fact, it looks so different that the victims in the last story have the same religion as the antagonists in the new one.

That old aphorism History doesnt repeat itself, but it often rhymes is true because people dont tend to make the exact same mistake in the same way twice, but the conditioning which led them to make the first mistake will often lead them to make a second similar one. Weve all been made far too familiar with the Nazi extermination program to ever consent to Jews being rounded up and loaded onto trains again, but we also didnt purge from our civilisation all the murderousness, hatred and tyranny which made it possible. Thats why this new Holocaust has been allowed to happen.

Weve all been conditioned to watch out for the next Hitler, but theres never going to be another Hitler. Weve been so focused on looking out for the Hitler who never comes that many of us missed when we started singing verses that rhyme with the ones we were hearing in Germany eight decades ago.

People assume whats happening in Gaza cant be an actual genocide, because the news media keep assuring everyone thats not what were looking at, and so do the politicians in both parties.

This cant possibly be what it looks like, people say. If it was, we would have heard about it in the news.

The villains in this new story dont look like the villains in the old story, and, if you are a properly indoctrinated westerner, they might not look like villains at all. They might just look like Jews defending themselves from terrorists and western governments rightly defending their dear allywhich is exactly what they should do if they want to prevent another Holocaust!

But its that very misperception which is making todays Holocaust possible. This mass atrocity is being tolerated by huge parts of the population exactly because we see it as intolerable for large numbers of Jews to be killed by those who hate them, not understanding that the people who were killed on October 7 were killed not because of their religion, but because they were part of a settler-colonialist project which is premised on the perpetual abuse of a preexisting indigenous population.

People defend Israels actions on the grounds that Israel has reasons for doing things the way its doing them. They have to bomb Gazathey suffered an unprovoked attack from a bunch of evil terrorists. They have to bomb all the hospitals and schools and mosquesthats where Hamas are hiding. They have to bomb areas that are packed full of childrenHamas are using those children as human shields.

But those who commit mass atrocities always justify their actions. They always have reasons for doing them. They always frame it as a necessary act of self-preservation.

That was always what the next Holocaust was going to look like. It was never going to feature new bad guys who cackle and twist their mustaches saying Haha, we are evil! Lets kill a bunch of people because we are evil! They were always going to frame themselves as the heroes and victims, and the other side as the villains and victimisers. They were always going to offer a bunch of reasons why what theyre doing is actually good and righteous, even though it looks evil on its face.

If we are to prevent genocidal atrocities, we need to be able to recognise whats happening in real time, and we cant do that if were expecting them to show up in familiar and instantly recognisable packaging. We need to be able to see through the manipulations and justifications in the here and now so we can stop it in its tracks instead of waiting for history to judge it in our rearview mirror after its already happened.

This is important to recognise when it comes to saving Gaza, and its important to recognise when it comes to preventing the Holocausts of the future as well. They will never look identical to the Holocausts of the past. Their form will be unprecedented, and they will have different justifications for their orchestration. But they will rhyme. And we need to be able to pick up on that as it happens.

Republished from Caitlin Johnstone from Caitlins Newsletter, October 23, 2023