NEVER AGAIN: EMPTY WORDS

The perpetually broken vow of ‘Never Again’

The coffins of Israeli hostages Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas show that such promises remain unfulfilled, and speak to a global failure of will and responsibility. 

 

By Sacha Roytman Dratwa

 

JNS

Feb 26, 2025 

 

 

A train passes by a large billboard with the words "Never Again" in Tel Aviv, October 18, 2023.

 

Reportedly, as survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp were liberated in 1945, they hastily made signs that read “Never again.” It was a raw and visceral demand from the world.

It would become the cry of Jews ever since.

Despite these two words being often repeated and even incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the sight of the coffins of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz—himself born during the years of the attempted annihilation of the Jewish people—is a stinging reminder that little has changed.

Since the end of the Holocaust, the Jewish people have returned to their ancestral and indigenous homeland, building a strong and brave army that has defeated enemies many times its size. What doesn’t appear to have changed is the global inaction in the face of atrocities against Jews, including those committed against toddlers, children, terrified mothers and pensioners.

The Hamas-curated disgraceful and obscene handover ceremonies—and the coffins themselves—serve as a painful reminder of how the world has failed to uphold the solemn vow made in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust.

This pledge—repeated for generations by world leaders, civil society and international organizations—promised that the horrors of the Holocaust would never be allowed to repeat themselves. The heart-wrenching images of the Bibas boys’ coffins reveal how empty this promise truly is.

These two young children and their mother—with their hopes, dreams and futures cruelly extinguished—are not just victims of a regional conflict. They are symbols of the failure of the international community to prevent ongoing atrocities against Jews, whether in Israel or across the Diaspora.

Paris, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Pittsburgh, Jerusalem, Tehran, Toulouse, Mumbai, Poway, Tel Aviv … the list is seemingly endless. Jews targeted in these and countless other attacks are victims of a civilization that has repeatedly stood by, offering words of condemnation but failing to act when it matters most.

No matter how seemingly heartfelt or frequent, words are insufficient without the power of action.

Holocaust survivors witnessed firsthand how the world’s inaction allowed genocide to unfold. Yet today, in the face of murderous violence and ongoing attacks against the Jewish people, it is clear that many have not learned from the past.

The promise of “never again” was meant to be more than a slogan. It was meant to be an enduring moral commitment to prevent the horrors of blood spilled resulting from bestial antisemitic urges from ever taking root again. It was a pledge that the collective strength of humanity would stand as a wall with the Jewish people against such horrors.

These coffins are a testament that such vows remain unfulfilled, and speak to a global failure of will and responsibility.

The tragedy of the Bibas family is a reminder that words alone will never suffice. What’s needed is action.

What’s needed is a commitment to holding accountable not just those who perpetrated this unspeakable savagery but all those who support and encourage it—whether nations and governments that funded the evil monsters of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad or their cheerleaders on streets and college campuses around the world.

How can anyone mean “never again” and stand by as chants of Khaybar, Khaybar, Ya Yahud or “Intifada revolution” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” reverberate across the world?

Decision-makers and opinion-shapers globally must ask themselves: What are we doing to honor the vow of never again? Are we truly upholding this promise or merely offering empty rhetoric that does nothing to stop the ongoing suffering?

It is not enough to speak of the human rights of Jews in abstract terms, including leaders who tried to find context in the bloodletting of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It is these immoral equivocations that dishonor the office of those who make them, and spit in the face of those who survived the Holocaust and today’s Génocidaires, whether they wear black or green.

The international community must act with urgency, clarity and resolve.

We owe it to the Bibas and the Lifshitz families—and all of those who were brutally murdered on Oct. 7 and long before then—to make “never again” a reality and not just a slogan repeated when tragedy strikes.

The Jewish people cannot afford another broken promise.