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David Harris Oped featured in
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Dear John,
In his open, must-read letter to CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour,
published today by The Times of Israel, AJC CEO David Harris urges her
to apologize for analogizing a deadly Holocaust-era tragedy,
Kristallnacht, to the current Trump Administration. "You were
weaponizing Kristallnacht, instrumentalizing the Holocaust to make
your point," writes Harris, the child of two Holocaust
survivors, who asks Amanpour to "do the right thing, apologize
for your comment, and issue a clarification."
Best regards,
Kenneth Bandler
AJC Director of Media Relations
An Open Letter to Christiane Amanpour
The Times of Israel
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By David Harris
November 16, 2020
Dear Christiane Amanpour,
You are a well-known journalist with a global audience both on CNN and
social media. What you say matters to many.
That's why your commentary on November 12 likening Kristallnacht
to the Trump era was so troubling. Because it comes from you. Because
it carries with it an aura of authority and credibility. Because you
haven't backed away from it.
Since we all carry our own "baggage," let me put mine on
the table up front.
I am the first person in my extended family born in the United States.
Every relative older than me was touched by the Second World War and
Holocaust. That includes my father, who was a target of Kristallnacht
in Austria.
Moreover, I represent a strictly nonpartisan organization, American
Jewish Committee, so I have absolutely no political axe to grind in
writing to you.
What was wrong with your commentary? Two main things.
First, in setting the stage for your attack on the Trump
administration, you purported to describe the events of November 9-10,
1938, which came to be known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken
Glass.
You said it was an assault on "fact, knowledge, history, and
truth."
But something striking was missing from your description. Not a single
word about the actual targets of the Nazi assault in Germany and
Austria. Those targets were Jews, synagogues, and Jewish-owned
businesses.
The damage was incredibly widespread. Scores killed. 30,000 Jewish men
arrested and imprisoned in Buchenwald, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and
other infamous concentration camps. 1000+ houses of worship burned to
the ground. Thousands of shops destroyed.
In so many ways, Kristallnacht signaled the start of the
implementation of the Nazi genocide against the Jewish people.
A stand-alone commentary about this anniversary could have done so
much to combat surging antisemitism in the world today, not to mention
shocking ignorance, as polls show, about the Holocaust in Europe and
the U.S.
Indeed, you could have drawn inspiration from the remarks of German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said earlier this month: "We remember
the disgrace of November 9, 1938, the pogroms against Jewish fellow
citizens throughout the country, the people driven to their deaths,
the burning synagogues, the destroyed stores. We commemorate the
victims of the crime committed by Germany against humanity, the Shoah,
in shame."
Yet, alas, that did not appear to be your goal, which is my second
concern. Rather, it was to set the stage for your central message
- suggesting that Kristallnacht was an appropriate historical
reference to what has been unfolding in the U.S. under President
Trump.
In other words, you were weaponizing Kristallnacht, instrumentalizing
the Holocaust to make your point. It's hard to reach any other
conclusion.
You despise President Trump? You fear an uncertain transfer of power?
You worry about his trampling on truth and facts? Obviously, if those
are your beliefs, it's your right, indeed your obligation, to
speak out.
But, please leave Kristallnacht and the Holocaust out of it. A misuse
of history. An offense to the memory of the Nazi era and the
systematic annihilation of six million Jewish women, men, and
children, including my family members. And, I would add, an
overwrought reading of the situation today for anyone with an
understanding of the Nazi era.
Ms. Amanpour, time is fleeting, but better late than never. Please do
the right thing, apologize for your commentary, and issue a
clarification.
David Harris is CEO of American Jewish Committee (AJC). Please join
72,300 others and follow him on Twitter @DavidHarrisAJC.
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