Овој напис го има и на: Macedonian

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. From the author’s photo archives

 

History teaches us that evil triumphs when good people are silent. In fact, one who is silent and recognizes evil, is not a good person at all. Hence, silent journalists are not good journalists.

 

Author: Zoran Bojarovski

 

There are organizations, groups and individuals in the world that, due to reasons familiar only to them, wish to entirely distort the truth about the Holocaust or to devalue it to the extent of obliterating the importance of this tragic process and to send this lunacy into oblivion.

Macedonia also has its share of advocates of absurd, meaningless and monstrous ideas that the Holocaust had been organized by the Jews themselves, i.e. “according to forbidden books and research conducted in Germany, Poland and Hungary, there is a much evidence that prove the Ashkenazi are the ideologists, the financiers and the organizers of the Holocaust. With a goal to annihilate the rival Jewish tribe”.

To be completely frank, we ought to state that the author of the aforementioned quote is not the author of this intimidating, and in the same time, grotesque thesis. The quote is a part of the conspiracy theories, but of course, that is not a justification for somebody who considers himself/herself a media professional to disseminate and to affirm this dreadful phantasmagoria.

There are certain things that humankind must not forget. Journalists should be familiar with and should approach those things that must not be forgotten accordingly: do everything to understand the darkest pages of humankind’s history so they would recognize every new threat.

That’s every progressive humans’ duty and the journalists have a special place as first line guards.

 

NOBODY IS BORN GOOD

A verse of the Torah, the sacred Pentateuch of the Judaism, says: “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). One interpretation of this verse states that nobody is born good. The human becomes a good person by building his/hers character by continuously defeating temptations caused by the basic living instincts and by adopting the understanding that there is somebody else besides him/her or above him/her.

The Holocaust is a severe, tragic lecture that we should always have in our minds and never forget what happens when we make room for monstrous instincts instead of the humane human character.

Hence, the scream of the 6 million civil Jewish victims, executed in most gruesome manner during World War II, sends a warning that we should always be aware of evil and that evil is not once and for all conquered. It is an everlasting battle, because evil and hatred are hidden in each of us and in everyone around us. Keeping all this in mind would be the first step, the first barrier and the first resistance against inhumanity, against dark forces.

Another very important lesson from this mournful period of human history is the realisation that the silence about evil, the hushing up of the signs and the presence of evil, makes us allies of evil. When we are remaining silent about evil or we do not want to recognize it, the evil augments and gains strength.

History teaches us that evil triumphs when good people keep silent. In fact, one who is silent about evil is not a good person at all.

Therefore, silent journalists are not good journalists.

 

NEVER DOUBT THE TYRANTS’ EVIL INTENTIONS 

In the 1930s, the world had been watching the events taking place in Germany but remained silent. It was too late when the world decided to react, because there were already millions of innocent dead people.

On the other hand, the history is full of lessons teaching us that when good people had risen against evil, they had always been victorious, and the evil had been sent into the most remote parts of hell, where it awaits its new chance.

Whether it gets the chance or not, depends on our vigilance and our readiness not to forget.

Therefore, it is important to remember the Holocaust. This is especially important for the media professionals. Not only we render homage to the victims when we remember them, but we also vouch that we haven’t forgoten and we shall not forget. The Holocaust reminds us that if we forget it, evil will have open doors, and it will be only a matter of time when evil will destroy the human civilization.

While we speak about silent people, we should not forget that the same consequences occur when the institutions remain silent. Because all laws are for null when they let media windbags and intruders to poison the public. The media content titled “The Jewish tribe”, and the silence of the institutions cannot be interpreted otherwise, when they, according to the Law on Criminal Procedure, have instruments against anybody who “approves or justifies genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes”. Article 407-a from this law states:

(1) One who publicly denies, harshly minimizes, approves and justifies the acts from Article 403 to Article 407 via information systems, shall be sentenced from one to five years of imprisonment. (2) If the denying, minimizing, approving or justifying are perpetrated with an intention of spurring hatred, discrimination or violence against certain person or group due to their national, ethnic, racial affiliation or religion, the perpetrator shall be sentenced to at least four years of imprisonment.

Jurists are, of course, the authority on this, but it seems like the aforementioned text contains elements that could be covered by this Article.

“Nevermore” is the moto that journalists should always bear in mind. I assert that journalists are not allowed to forget. They must not forget the Holocaust, nor any other genocide or crime against humanity.

 

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This journalistic lesson was created within the framework of the USAID Media Strengthening in Macedonia Project - Media Fact-Checking Service Component,, mplemented by Metamorphosis. The journalistic lesson is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of its author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, USAID or the United States Government. For more information on the work of USAID in Macedonia please visit its website (http://macedonia.usaid.gov) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia).

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