After unspeakable horrors, silence is shattering our world

Oct. 7, 2023, will be remembered as a horrific day when many lives and families in Israel and across the globe were shattered by the barbaric actions of Hamas. More than 1,400 people were tortured and murdered and more than 200 were abducted into Gaza.  

A belief that “Never Again” would be upheld to ensure that Jews would be safe from mass slaughter was destroyed. A yearning for understanding and compassion from friends, colleagues and academic and professional societies was unanswered.

It is their silence that still shatters our hearts. 

As a daughter of a Holocaust survivor with family in Israel and as a doctor who has practiced in underserved communities, it is this silence that has rocked my core belief that we as a society will stand up for what is wrong and fight for what is right. Individuals and professional organizations that have traveled with me to Israel — especially in the late 1990s when we thought peace was within our grasp after the Oslo Accords — have remained silent, not denouncing the atrocities that have been inflicted on innocent civilians. 

I’ve tried to understand why. Is it out of misguided moral equivalency in that Palestinians have also become the “collateral damage” in this war and showing empathy for those who were butchered by Hamas condones this? Is it due to closeted antisemitism or self-centered apathy? Is it related to the distrust or disdain for the Israeli government, and this cognitive dissonance is causing confusion and clouding moral compasses? Or is it just plain ignorance and believing the falsehoods and lies that the Israelis deserved this? 

I don’t know the answers. But I do know that this silence is lethal — it always has been so.

I recall stories that my father, Andre, told me when I was old enough to understand that we all have choices to make in our lives. We can turn a blind eye and remain silent in the midst of fear or suffering. He reminded me that his neighbors didn’t try to help his family when the Nazis rounded up Jews in his community in Hungary, which is now part of Romania. They stayed silent. And when the time came for these neighbors, there was no one left to help them. 

Evil does not know boundaries. It does not care what language you speak or skin color you have or how much money or titles you possess. Evil destroys everything in its path, and silence enables it. 

I listened to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s speech when he arrived in Israel shortly after Hamas, according to captured members of the group, raped, shot, tortured, burned and decapitated innocent people. He said that there was no space for “neutrality.” This is a battle between good and evil. 

My mother’s family came to the United States to escape more pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century. The few Holocaust survivors from my father’s family immigrated to Israel. The right that was cherished by all was freedom of speech in both these countries. Yet, I’ve also seen how violence can shackle this freedom through fear. 

On Oct. 10, Temple Emanuel — one of the largest synagogues in Denver  — held a vigil service attended by more than 2,000 people. While participating virtually, I was transported back to June 1984 when Alan Berg, a Denver talk radio show host, was murdered in his driveway by white supremacists. It happened a few days after my father appeared on his show and Berg talked about eliminating neo-Nazis. He became a target. 

My father was warned by the police not to attend Berg’s memorial service at Temple Emanuel. My twin brother and I represented the family that day. After this, my father stopped talking for years about the horrors of losing his entire family and being starved and beaten in four concentration camps. I saw the light go out of his eyes and how the silence tortured his soul. 

You see, it was his conviction to tell the world what happened that kept him alive during the Holocaust when 6 million Jews perished. The Shoah Foundation, created by Steven Spielberg to document the tales of Holocaust survivors, gave him back his voice and his glorious spirit.

Today, we are surviving yet another collective trauma. Our voices need to be heard loud and clear to honor those we have lost and to give hope for the day that evil will be shattered.

Saralyn Mark, M.D., is the founder of SolaMed Solutions LLC, host of the podcast, “Always Searching,” and founder of iGIANT (Impact of Gender/Sex on Innovation and Novel Technologies). She is the director of health innovation for Star Harbor and a former senior medical and policy adviser to the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and NASA.