The Daily Shoah — Day 7: Bearing Witness

I recently learned of an alt-right podcast called The Daily Shoah*. This show, hosted by a man by the name of Mike Enoch, reportedly had over 100,000 listeners in 2017. Knowing how deeply offensive this title is is an insider privilege. You have to have some Jewish, Hebrew, or Holocaust history background knowledge (or propaganda exposure) in order to be in on the “joke” that is this title — a title that implies listeners can enjoy Nazi ideology and antisemitism while taking a jab at both the worst tragedy in human history and the popular, left leaning TV show currently hosted by Trevor Noah.

The Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust. While the term Holocaust comes from Latin (meaning “burnt offering”) and was first coined at the end of World War II, the term Shoah pre-dates the events of World War II, appearing as early as the Bible and existing sporadically throughout Jewish history until it became married to the worst experience endured by the Jews — the horror inflicted by Nazi Germany. In all of its uses throughout history, the term was used by Jewish people to signify complete and utter destruction.

I’d like to provide Enoch’s Daily Shoah with a little dose of utter destruction. How about you? For the next 7 days I will be posting stories that share my experiences growing up with my Holocaust surviving grandparents, the lessons they taught me, the trauma they passed down to me, and the demons I’ve seen them battle. I want to honor the strength they’ve had in battling the effects of the Shoah daily for the…