Remembering the lessons of the Holocaust once meant ensuring that persecution and extermination of Jews would never happen again. Eighty years on, this understanding is evolving in a troubling way. Many Germans believe their responsibility now lies in preventing any future genocide—not just in Germany but around the world. In an unnerving twist of history, millions of Germans believe they are obligated to oppose the Jewish state. This reasoning is fueled by the media.

In a January interview, Der Spiegel asked Israeli-American historian Omer Bartov: “Doesn’t the Holocaust serve as a lesson in humanity for Israelis?” His shocking answer:

On the contrary, it serves as a lesson in inhumanity. To put it bluntly, the Holocaust serves Jewish Israelis to see themselves as beyond any moral and ethical boundaries that apply to other people. They live in a state that occupies, humiliates and oppresses millions of people. A state that is not prepared to think about a way out without more oppression and violence. People can only justify or ignore this by referring to the Holocaust: After what was done to us, we can do what we want. And the non-Jews have no right to tell us how to behave because they stood idly by while we were murdered. This puts Israel on a completely different moral level.

One would have thought the unhinged accusations against the Jewish people died with Adolf Hitler. But in some cases, they are worse today with dangerous consequences. Spiegel’s May 17 cover story explains: “How the Gaza War Is Changing the German View of Israel.”

The article notes that while some Germans believe the past teaches unconditional solidarity with the Jewish state, others believe Israelis are the new Nazis. The latter view is becoming more common. Sadly, Germany isn’t ready to teach the world about repentance and morals.

A Different Kind of Holocaust Remembrance

For many decades, Germany believed it had a moral obligation toward the State of Israel. After all, if Germany was not stopped in World War ii, no Jews would be alive today. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Germany’s guarantee for Israel’s security a “reason of state” in a 2008 speech to Israel’s parliament. Today only 1 in 4 believe Germany has such a responsibility. But it gets worse.

Spiegel wrote:

But what does the crime of the Holocaust mean for Germany? Does the Federal Republic of Germany primarily have a responsibility for Israel, for the Jews of this world? Or also for ensuring that genocide and misanthropy—no matter where, no matter by whom—are not repeated? The term “crime against humanity,” the concept of genocide, which the lawyer Raphael Lemkin developed for the [United Nations] to help prevent future genocides—they all operate with the idea of a universal catastrophe.

This is difficult for the Federal Republic of Germany. After all, there are few states that are such great advocates of the rules-based order. But when it came to relations with Israel, the Germans repeatedly stretched this order. National interests take crooked paths and can be contradictory. At least that was the case until now. But the Gaza war is calling this German-Israeli agreement into question. Israel has always been an exceptional case. But the contradiction may now have become too glaring to ignore any longer.

According to Spiegel, Israel is becoming such a serious offender of the “rules-based order” that it will be harder and harder to defend the Jewish state. Spiegel’s cover story was not intended to highlight a dangerous shift in German mentality. Instead, it bemoaned that criticism against Israel is not acceptable enough in Germany. The authors wrote:

Masha Gessen, a Russian-American nonbinary person from a Jewish family who wrote for the New Yorker, was to receive the Hannah Arendt Prize at Bremen City Hall. However, because Gessen had compared the situation in Gaza with that in the Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe in an article, the prize was ultimately only presented on a small scale. The philosopher Nancy Fraser, who was due to give lectures at the University of Cologne, was disinvited because she had signed an open letter that relativized the terror of Hamas and called for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

If you compare Israel today to the Nazis, Germany awards you. If the ceremony isn’t big enough, Spiegel writes a cover story blaming German Holocaust remembrance.

Other German papers have similar views. Germany’s Zeit wrote on May 17:

How should we talk to Israel today, in the face of possible war crimes in the Gaza Strip, in the face of a government whose rhetoric only seems to become more aggressive as criticism abroad and in Israel itself becomes more resolute? How can we in Germany, of all countries, do this?

After the Israeli government caved and allowed aid into Gaza, most likely into the hands of terrorists, the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote:

It is good news that Israel wants to allow aid supplies into Gaza again. However, the fact that pressure from Washington was necessary for this is an indictment of Israeli policy.

Again and again, Israel is being portrayed as a monster. No wonder Germany’s Holocaust remembrance is becoming so twisted.

Who Is the Victim?

During the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, Israeli men were killed, women raped, and even babies beheaded. If Hamas had gotten its way, many more than 1,000 Israelis would have died; the Jewish state would have been erased. In the following months, observers lectured Israel on the basis of morals in warfare. They accused Israel of starving the innocent and committing deliberate genocide.

Referencing this accusation, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in our January issue: “That is a diabolic lie! In fighting Hamas, Israel is working harder than any other modern nation to avoid civilian casualties.”

Instead of using overwhelming force with mass causalities, Israel has used precision strikes against terrorist hotbeds. But since so many Palestinian civilians, humanitarian organizations and so-called journalists work hand in hand with the terrorists, they too get hit occasionally.

Another accusation launched against Israel is that this blocks humanitarian aid going into Gaza. While many admit this aid often falls into the hands of the terrorists, they claim it would be inhumane to stop it. (Read “Truth and Lies About the Israel-Hamas War.”)

Germany’s Future

We are seeing a dangerous shift in German thinking. Shame about crimes committed in World War ii is being replaced by moral superiority. Germany believes it can teach the rest of the world its moral standard. The problem is Germany hasn’t truly learned the lesson from the Holocaust. In fact, Bible prophecy reveals Germany is about to repeat its most grievous sin.

As our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire explains, the events in Germany are preparing the rise of a prophesied strong leader who will lead his nation to betray the Jewish people.

Daniel 8:23 reveals that “in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.” At first, this strongman will appear to bring peace, but he will suddenly destroy many (verses 24-25).

This man will promise solutions to the Middle East conflict. However, Psalm 83 reveals he will secretly plot the destruction of Israel. The Bible reveals this evil is inspired by Satan the devil. Germany and the Holy Roman Empire explains:

“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:4). Satan is the power behind this rising European combine. His beast demonstrates its power by going to war. Satan is the master destroyer. He is about to aim his hate-filled power at the United States, Britain and the Jewish nation. Those are Satan’s main targets among the nations. They are the people who have had a history with God.

The devil used Hitler and the Holy Roman Empire to destroy around 50 million people in World War ii. They brought intense suffering upon much greater numbers of people. We have repeatedly seen the Nazi concentration camps on television. Edward R. Murrow rightly called them extermination camps—their main function was to exterminate people! That is only a small preview of what is about to impact this world again.

Satan already demonstrated his power in World War ii. We should receive that as a warning of what is about to happen again, but on a much larger scale!

We haven’t seen the last of the world’s genocidal madness—but the Bible promises we will soon. A prophecy in Isaiah 19 reveals that Germany, ancient Assyria, will repent and help lead the world into a prosperous new beginning. But this time is yet ahead.

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire explains the causes of anti-Semitism, the rise of dictators and mankind’s evil. It also explains that the same God who prophesied these evils has a plan to save mankind from pain and suffering. Order your free copy of this booklet and learn how you can have hope when mankind’s hopes seem to fail.