Newsmakers

Holocaust Survivor Hits Back at Anti-Israel Campus Chaos With Sobering Warning

Jochen “Jack” Wurfl knows the rampant evil antisemitism can breed as he lost nearly every family member during Adolf Hitler's reign of terror. Wurfl, who shared his harrowing story in the book "My Two Lives," told CBN News he never thought he'd see such disturbing antisemitism in America, where he settled after the Holocaust. "It's frightening, because it could end up in the same sort of situation eventually," Wurfl said of spiraling antisemitism that many have compared to the situation before Hitler launched his murderous quest. "I just don't understand it. How people can feel like this again — that they don't know what happened during the Holocaust, back during Hitler's regime?" The survivor lamented the loss of millions of lives and expressed his severe sorrow and fear over where the situation currently stands after Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack and the war and antisemitism that followed. "One would think that, once this happened, it could never happen again — that people have learned from this," Wurfl said. "But I'm beginning to wonder, because the younger people nowadays don't know anything about the Holocaust." Wurfl's comments come after a recent YouGov and Economist poll of 1,500 18-29-year-olds yielded some shocking findings. A whopping 20% believed the Holocaust never happened — and an additional 30% were unsure, underscoring fears of antisemitism among youths. Another recent poll from Summit.org and RMG Research found that 33% of 18-24-year-old voters believe "Israel does not have a right to exist as a nation in the Middle East." "It's frightening," Wurfl said of the current dynamics among young people who continue to occupy college campuses with anti-Israel fervor. "And I can't understand that our education hasn't been better to let the kids know what happened [during the Holocaust]." As CBN News has documented, Wurfl's own journey during the Holocaust was quite painful. "I lost my entire family," he said. "I lost my father, who had become a political prisoner ... and my mother was arrested by the Gestapo and the SS, and she was taken to Auschwitz, and she was killed there." Hear his warning for America here.

Broadcast on:: 30 Apr 2024

"It's frightening, because it could end up in the same sort of situation eventually," Wurfl said of spiraling antisemitism that many have compared to the situation before Hitler launched his murderous quest. "I just don't understand it. How people can feel like this again — that they don't know what happened during the Holocaust, back during Hitler's regime?" The survivor lamented the loss of millions of lives and expressed his severe sorrow and fear over where the situation currently stands after Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack and the war and antisemitism that followed.

"One would think that, once this happened, it could never happen again — that people have learned from this," Wurfl said. "But I'm beginning to wonder, because the younger people nowadays don't know anything about the Holocaust." Wurfl's comments come after a recent YouGov and Economist poll of 1,500 18-29-year-olds yielded some shocking findings. A whopping 20% believed the Holocaust never happened — and an additional 30% were unsure, underscoring fears of antisemitism among youths.

Another recent poll from Summit.org and RMG Research found that 33% of 18-24-year-old voters believe "Israel does not have a right to exist as a nation in the Middle East." "It's frightening," Wurfl said of the current dynamics among young people who continue to occupy college campuses with anti-Israel fervor. "And I can't understand that our education hasn't been better to let the kids know what happened [during the Holocaust]."

As CBN News has documented, Wurfl's own journey during the Holocaust was quite painful. "I lost my entire family," he said. "I lost my father, who had become a political prisoner ... and my mother was arrested by the Gestapo and the SS, and she was taken to Auschwitz, and she was killed there." Hear his warning for America here.