History is Not for Sale: When the Murderer Becomes the Victim – and Memory Becomes a Target

The recent events in Poland and Colorado are not disconnected from each other. They are two ends of the same toxic thread, woven around the attempt to erase truth, rewrite history – and do something even more grave: turn murderers into victims.

In Poland yesterday, a far-right candidate was elected, a man who explicitly denies the responsibility of Poles in the murder of three million Jews during the Holocaust. He is not ashamed. On the contrary – he builds his campaign on false national pride that cleanses the collective conscience. This is not an innocent attempt to “balance” the historical narrative. This is a calculated effort to change historical facts, to place a distorted mirror before the younger generation, and to blur the clear boundaries between executioner and victim.

In a forward-facing world, we increasingly hear voices seeking to leave the past behind. But the past does not disappear – it changes form. From denial, through deception, to silencing. And this does not remain in the political sphere – it translates into real violence.

Across the ocean, in Colorado, we heard the echo of these consequences. An armed terrorist burst into a community center, shouted “death to all” and wounded eight people, including a Holocaust survivor. That same survivor – whose testimony is living witness to the horrors that occurred – became a target once again. The words the terrorist shouted are not coincidental. They draw from ancient roots of antisemitism – the same antisemitism that enables politicians to present the Polish people as victims, while the blood of their victims still cries out from the earth.

When elected leaders seek to transform perpetrators of crimes into people who have been “wronged,” and when terrorists feed off this discourse to justify hatred – it is clear there is a pattern here. This is not merely a distortion of history. This is the reconstruction of a dangerous reality. A reality where blame passes from the hands of the murderers to the hands of the murdered.

This attempt to rewrite history is not just a moral sin. It is a strategic threat to the human fabric of democracy. Because if we begin to accept every narrative as a legitimate “opinion,” lies too will wear the form of truth. And precisely here, the importance of preserving history – exactly as it occurred, without shortcuts, without refinements and without assumptions – is critically vital.

Antisemitism is not born overnight. It is not an “extreme event.” It is an infrastructure of ideas fed over generations. It is a system. And when it merges with cynical politics, it breeds evil that begins with words on social networks and ends with physical violence in public spaces.

This is not another ideological clash. This is a battle for truth. We must not allow any leader, any party, any political force – no matter how much money backs them or how many votes they bring – to purchase memory, erase testimonies, or distort history.

In this battle, each of us is a guardian of truth. This is a moral, Jewish, and human responsibility. We must stand as a wall against any attempt to erase, deny, or soften the horror. Because if we allow this to happen – the blood of the future will also stain our hands.