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Linda Lovitch

Hamas Brings Back Theresienstadt

Israeli hostages Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy wave on a stage before Hamas operatives hand them over to a team from the Red Cross in Gaza City on January 25, 2025. ( AFP)

While watching the Hamas “press conference”/victory celebration in which they paraded the four Israeli women hostages in Gaza city square before releasing them, I literally sat with my eyes glued to the spectacle on the television screen as my jaw dropped.

It was a jarring combination of a Hollywood premiere together with Theresienstadt. Yes, you read correctly. I made a reference to the Nazi camp/ghetto. I’ll explain this in a minute. As a matter of fact, I feel comfortable throwing in a connection to Hitler’s Mein Kampf in which he describes in great detail how to create a spectacle at his rallies — the setting, the stage, the lighting, the banners, even use of bombastic body language and voice in order to  ignite the passions of the crowd.

Wow, I thought, Hamas has upped their PR game – big time!

The four girls are paraded onto the stage in “army uniforms” to show the control and defeat of the Israeli army.  Of course, we all saw the videos of these poor young women, dragged bloody and in their pajamas from their army base on October 7th. So, yeah, uniforms – of what army- not so clear. Then, the masked Hamas combatants proclaim victory. The girls are told to wave and smile. Behind them is a very professional step and repeat banner that puts Hollywood red carpets to shame. Apparently the printing shops are still working in Gaza. On it are written their carefully crafted messages: The Palestinian fighters of freedom will always be the victories (I didn’t say they used grammarly), Al Aqsa flood: A revolution against Zionist injustice and criminality, Palestine- the victory of the oppressed people vs. the Nazi Zionism. Wow, someone’s been working on their Mad Men messages.

The women are surrounded by a huge crowd of men shouting at them and cheering on the Hamas stars on stage.

And, God bless these incredible, brave lionesses – Karina, Naama, Daniella and Liri!  They smile, they stand up straight and proud. All while facing the very monsters who raped them, stole them from their country and continued to abuse them physically and psychologically.

Word is that they actually feed the Israeli hostages and allow them to shower before release.  In an earlier release, they were also drugged to make them look happy. Then, they are told to smile and wave at their monstrous captors and the camera as the Red Cross Uber team, seeing them for the first time, whisks them away. And, now, for the piece de resistance — the evil geniuses have added goodie bags for the hostages – as a souvenir of their stay in the dungeons of Gaza. Goodie bags? You can’t make this shit up.

So, is this spectacle really fooling the world?  Can people really be that stupid?  That heartless? To believe that “they weren’t really treated that bad”?

Scene from a Nazi documentary filmed in the Theresienstadt ghetto during the summer of 1944 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

And, now I take you back to Theresienstadt –  the Nazi camp/ghetto where Jews were stored on their way to other death camps. The Nazis made this the showcase for the world –  even though they were detaining old Jews who had been ripped from their homes and forced into slave labor, the world saw a camp full of culture and a working society. In preparation for a visit by the International Red Cross, the Nazis actually opened a bank with fake bank notes, opened shops selling the objects that had been confiscated from the Jews when they arrived there. They even set up a playground. Of course, all of the sickly Jews were shipped off to other death camps because that would tarnish the image.

On June 23, 1944, the Red Cross gets a tour and even a show by the “residents”.  So, the Red Cross writes a glowing report –  there is adequate housing, food, medical equipment. And the world was fooled.

Hey, at least the Red Cross visited the Jews there. They haven’t made one visit to the Israeli hostages in Gaza in 15 months.

So, world, are you going to accept the latest spectacle of Hamas? Are you going to forget the atrocities committed by Hamas against the Jewish people? Are you going to forgive them the slaughter, the rapes, the kidnapping, the physical and psychological abuse? Are you actually going to believe that they are benevolent kidnappers?

Did we not learn anything from World War II?

Please tell me you are not that blind to evil.

If so, we are surely lost.

About the Author
Linda Lovitch is a media and communications consultant in Israel, working with government spokespersons, ambassadors, high tech executives, start-ups, universities and non-profits. In the last year, Linda has prepped survivors from the Nova Festival and residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza to tell their story to audiences abroad. Linda helps people communicate with clarity and confidence whether talking to live, televised or online audiences.
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