Steven Spielberg breaks his silence on Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7, saying: ‘I never thought I would experience such unspeakable barbarity against the Jews in my lifetime’
Film legend Steven Spielberg quietly broke his silence on Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel in a statement saying, “I never thought that in my lifetime I would witness such unspeakable barbarity against the Jews.”
The Oscar winner announced that the Shoah Foundation, which he founded in 1994, will begin archiving testimonies from survivors of the attacks in a project titled Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony Collection.
Spielberg said it was an effort “that will ensure that the voices of survivors will serve as a powerful tool to counter the dangerous rise of anti-Semitism and hatred.”
Since 1994, the foundation has been collecting the stories of Holocaust survivors from all over the world. “Holocaust survivors are the most courageous among us, and their stories are a lasting testament to the resilience of the human spirit,” he said.
“Both initiatives – recording interviews with survivors of the October 7 attacks and continuing to collect Holocaust testimonies – seek to fulfill our promise to survivors: that their stories would be recorded and shared in the effort to erase history. and work towards a world without anti-Semitism or hatred of any kind,” Spielberg added.
Steven Spielberg pictured after a screening of Maestro last week in Los Angeles, the director issuing a statement on November’s Hamas attack
One of the most iconic scenes from Spielberg’s Oscar-winning Schindler’s List, featuring a young girl’s red coat, the only moment of color in the black-and-white epic
Hamas terrorists pictured on October 7. Spielberg was asked by the Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA last month to condemn the group in an open letter
Israeli citizens – including Vlada Patapov in red – flee the Nova music festival after it was attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7
Hamas has vowed to carry out ‘additional terror attacks’ against Israeli civilians, with the terror group warning that ‘what is to come is worse and greater’ in a chilling new threat. Pictured: Hamas terrorist during the October 7 attack
A photo shows bullet-riddled buildings damaged during the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel
“We must remain united and steadfast in these efforts. In November it was reported that the Shoah Foundation would undertake a project related to October 7.
In addition to the Holocaust, the foundation has also documented similar atrocities in Rwanda and Cambodia.
Also in November, David Schaecter of the Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA wrote an open letter to Spielberg, asking why the director had failed “to take a stand against terrorism, against Hamas and the millions who support the shedding of Jewish blood to celebrate’.
“Wasn’t the whole point of recording 50,000 testimonies from our fellow survivors to ensure that the world could never deny and never forget the systematic murder of six million Jews, including one and a half million children? ‘
“We who personally witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust never imagined that we would ever again experience atrocities like those committed on October 7,” he continued.
Schaecter himself was only eleven when he was shipped to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was starved and tortured for three years. He survived but his family perished in the horrors.
‘Mr. Spielberg, Schindler’s List was about one man who had the moral courage to risk his life to save others. We ask you not to risk your life. We ask that you use your voice,” he wrote in closing.
Spielberg has not publicly responded to the letter.
During a interview with Stephen Colbert in March, Spielberg said that anti-Semitism in the US today “is no longer lurking, but standing proudly with our hands on our hips, like Hitler and Mussolini – and kind of daring us to defy it.” I’ve never experienced this in my entire life. Especially in this country.’
Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in the first two weeks after the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Spielberg pictured with his sister Nancy in November. According to a post on her Instagram page, she was in Israel on the day of the attack
According to a message on her Instagram page, Spielberg’s sister, Nancy, was in Israel on the day of the attack. Nancy returned to the US on October 16.
Since then, she has posted about the attacks on social media almost every day. Her most recent post saw her rail against Oscar winner Angelina Jolie for not speaking out against the sexual violence Jewish women suffered that day.
Last month, the Anti-Defamation League said that nearly three in four Jewish students in the United States who responded to a survey said they had experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism during the current school year.
The finding comes amid rising tensions on some American college campuses over the war between Israel and Hamas and a proliferation of protests in support of Israel or the Palestinians.
About 73 percent of more than 500 Jewish students surveyed said they have been exposed to anti-Semitism since the start of the 2023-2024 school year, according to the ADL, which combats anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination.
The survey also shows that the percentage of Jewish students who say they feel comfortable with others on campus knowing they are Jewish has fallen since October 7 from 63.7 percent before that date to 38.6 percent.