Today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a sobering moment in history when the world was forced to confront the magnitude of evil suffered by Jews under the German Nazi regime.
Several months later, in the aftermath of Europe’s deliverance, U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower braved this evil by traveling to the concentration camps.
“I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda,’” he said
In a resolute display of leadership, he chose to witness the horrors firsthand, ensuring that there would be no room for denial or revisionism in the years to come.
This past April, I led a senior congressional delegation to the Israel-Gaza border. We deliberately faced the ruins of yet another sobering atrocity committed against the Jews. For me, a Christian ally to the Jewish people, this experience triggered a renewed responsibility: ensuring the truth of what happened on Oct. 7, 2023, is never forgotten or distorted.
On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I reflect on our visit to the scenes of that horrific day. We stood at the site of the Nova music festival, where we met a beautiful, resilient 20-year-old survivor named Rafaela. She recounted the horrors of that morning—her words carrying the weight of memories that should never have been created, especially for someone so young. Nearby, trees were planted in memory of the 364 souls brutally massacred by Hamas.
At Kibbutz Nir Oz, we saw the blackened remains of homes, riddled with bullet holes and incinerated from the inside out. These were not military targets. They were the homes of Jewish families—from babies to the elderly, indiscriminately murdered in cold blood. Everywhere we looked, there were lasting scars on the land and its people. The scenes were a stark reminder of the depths to which humanity can sink when hatred is left unchecked.
We are witnessing a dangerous and familiar pattern. The rhetoric seen in the past 15 months is a deliberate affront to truth. There is a staggering volume of misinformation, and the irresponsible use of terms like “genocide” and “occupation.” These narratives attempt to obscure the reality of what occurred on Oct. 7, and our international institutions are the disdainful enablers of this unchecked evil.
Make no mistake: Every single Israeli life taken on that day, as well as every single Palestinian life lost in the ensuing conflict, lies squarely on the shoulders of Hamas. This is not a noble resistance movement. It is a systematic, psychopathic terrorist organization that has oppressed its own people on a plot of land unoccupied by a single Israeli for nearly 20 years. The claim that this is a fight against occupation is a tired and cynical lie.
Antisemitism is not confined to the Hamas Charter, the horrors of Auschwitz or the massacre of Oct. 7. It is on our college campuses, just like it has been in our country clubs for decades. It seeks to destroy the soul of a nation, of the world, rotting from the inside out.
Four more Israeli hostages came home this past weekend, and with them, a fresh reminder of the attacks against the Jewish people. A confrontation with truth is required of those who doubt or deny what happened. Jewish or not, antisemitism and anti-Zionism are cancers to our society. As Eisenhower understood, the world must see and bear witness.
“Never again” is more than a slogan. It is a commitment, a call to action and a moral imperative. For those of us who have borne witness, it is a responsibility and an obligation.
We must ensure that history is not rewritten. More importantly, we must ensure it is not doomed to repeat itself.
When we say never again, we must mean never again.