According to an April 5th report by the BBC, on the morning of October 7, waves of Hamas gunmen stormed across Gaza’s border into Israel, killing about 1,200 people. Hamas also fired thousands of rockets into Israel. Those who died in the attack included children, the elderly, and 364 young people at a music festival. Hamas took more than 250 others to Gaza as hostages. The BBC also saw evidence of rape and sexual violence during the Hamas attacks.

A little background on Hamas is in order. According to the BBC report, Hamas became the sole ruler of Gaza after violently ejecting political rivals in 2007. The organization has an armed wing. Before the start of the war, Hamas had about 30,000 armed fighters.

The group, whose name stands for Islamic Resistance Movement, wants to create an Islamic state in the place of Israel. Hamas rejects Israel’s right to exist and is committed to its destruction. Hamas justified its attack as a response to what it calls Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. These attacks include security raids on Islam’s third holiest site, the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.

Hamas, especially its armed wing, is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and others. Iran backs Hamas with funding, weapons, and training.

Anyone who has seen the news has heard about the outbreaks of pro-Palestinian protest on college campuses across this country. More moderate elements in these groups are pushing the universities to divest investments tied to Israel. The militant elements have no problem chanting, “Death of Israel.” In the wake of these demonstrations, Jewish citizens in the United States have experienced increasing incidents of anti-Semitic behavior towards them.

I was born in 1950 – roughly five years after the defeat of Hitler and his minions in World War II. Hitler and his forces were responsible for the murder of 6 million Jewish people. When Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the Ohrdruf concentration camp in April 1945, he was astonished at the Nazi brutality he witnessed. He saw bodies stacked like wood and living skeletons struggling to survive.

Eisenhower wanted to document what he saw, so he urged reporters to take photos and document the horrors. Despite the evidence before his eyes, Eisenhower believed a time would come when certain elements of world society would deny that the Holocaust ever happened.

I grew up in a nation that had no doubts about the atrocities of the Holocaust. I talked with people who had fled Germany, and some whose families never had a chance to get out. Hearing some today chant “Death to Israel” sends cold shivers down my spine.

Some seem to confuse Hamas and Palestinians in general. When I taught at Farmville Central, I worked with several students who had Palestinians roots. All of them were mannerly, respectful, and hardworking. But while most members of Hamas are Palestinians, the vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. I doubt most Palestinians are even sympathetic to the goals of Hamas.

The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel made this astute observation:

“History teaches us that man learns nothing from history.”

Are we preparing to repeat one of the most heinous chapters of history?

Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.