Stephen Kapos Doku

PINIONOPINION,

Opinions|Israel-Palestine conflict

I am a Holocaust survivor. UK police interviewed me for protesting genocide

It’s vital for all of us in Britain to speak out now against our own government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.

Published On 25 Mar 202525 Mar 2025





Members of the Jewish Bloc for Palestine take part in a Free Gaza protest near Admiralty Arch in central London, on May 1, 2024, in support of the Palestinian people [Adrian Dennis/AFP]

I was seven years old when Germany invaded and occupied their unreliable ally, Hungary, in March 1944. This makes me 87 years old now. But my memories of hiding as a hunted Jew on false papers, and the utter devastation of the climactic fighting around us, between a trapped German Army and the Red Army, are still a crystal clear memory. I see the burnt-out cars, tanks, dead horses and human bodies, ammunition and helmets thrown about, burnt-out buildings, mountains of rubble and broken glass everywhere – just like tragically destroyed Gaza is looking today.

For over a year now it’s been clear that Israel’s plan is to destroy Palestinian society in Gaza in order to force as many people as possible to leave. This policy has many differences from Nazi Germany’s plan to destroy Jewish society in Europe – but it also has many similarities. That is why, as a Holocaust survivor, I’ve felt compelled to join various pro-Palestine protests in London.

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