OPINION: Faced with subhuman barbarism on our border, what would we do?
Suppose 260 people were killed in Glastonbury? The atrocity in Manchester killed 22 and we're still appalled by it, writes Jewish News historian Derek Taylor, who survived a V2 bomb in 1944.
A reporter was talking to an Israeli spokesman about the war. He asked her “If October 7 had happened in Britain, what would you do?” She was flummoxed and eventually said lamely, “We’re not talking about Britain”.
Fortunately Jewish News can tell you what we’ve have done because I know all about being bombed by rockets. If the trajectory of a V2 rocket had been slightly different in 1944 I wouldn’t be writing this. It landed two streets away in Islington and made an enormous noise. V2 rockets killed 9,000 and did a great deal of damage.
What did the UK do in response? We sent 800 bombers to Dresden, a German cultural town, and officially killed 25,000 people in one night.
Ten years after the end of the war, I was a guide for American students visiting Europe. We arrived in Cologne and you could still see right across the city because we’d flattened it with thousands of bomber raids. Only the cathedral escaped.
Of course in 1939 when war broke out there were many Germans and Italians living in Britain. Thousands were interned on the Isle of Man as potential spies. Many Jewish refugees were among them. It was realised that few of the Germans and Italians who had worked in Britain were fascists, so we sent 2,000 of them to Canada for their safety, on a ship called the Arandora Star. It was torpoedoed and the cream of Britain’s hotel executives drowned. Over 1,400 died.
We sent 800 bombers to Dresden, a German cultural town, and officially killed 25,000 people in one night.
What has changed since those wartime days is the speed of communication. We now know how many die, though the figures can be manipulated. In reporting the casualties in Gaza, Hamas says the vast majority were children, old people and the disabled.
No figures are provided for members of Hamas. We can also see the effects of bombing on our television screens, but the humanitarian disaster in Gaza is not matched by coverage of the Israeli music festival where over 200 young people were massacred.
Just suppose that 200 were killed in Glastonbury? The atrocity in Manchester in 2023 killed 22 and we are still appalled by it.
We are fortunate to live in Britain. All the main political parties have agreed that Israel has the right to defend itself and many European countries are supportive as well. The difficulty is to keep reminding the world that Israel didn’t start this war. It began with the murder of 1,400 Jews on October 7. We knew there was going to be a blitz when we went to war in 1939. Over 70,000 Brits died between July and December 1940. Bombing Germany did not raise humanitarian questions.
There was one agreement between the Nazis and the British though in that terrible conflict. It was agreed between them that they wouldn’t bomb Oxford and Cambridge and we wouldn’t bomb Heidelberg. The agreement was honoured on both sides.
Hamas have said their objective is to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews. Well, what would the man in the street do? He would call that a humanitarian disaster and do all he could to stop it. We’ve got another humanitarian disaster in Ukraine and that doesn’t look like ending soon either. What a mess.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
