4^th September 2015
 
by Peter Wertheim
The statement made by the PM to which we took exception was: “The Nazis did terrible evil but they had suf­fi­cient sense of shame to try and hide it”.
It’s true that the Nazis went to extraordin­ary lengths to keep their worst crimes secret from the rest of the world and, towards the end of the war, to destroy all evidence of their barbarity. Mass graves were exhumed and the remains of corpses burnt, gas chambers and crem­at­or­ia were blown up, documents destroyed and so on. The specific facts about the Auschwitz-Birkenau exterm­in­a­tion camp only became publicly known in April 1944, and were so horrific that many did not believe the reports. Even earlier during the war, the Nazis did not parade their most gruesome atro­cit­ies before a mass audience and even made films trying to whitewash their crimes. The PM is right about that.
It is wrong to say that the Nazis tried to hide their crimes out of shame. We just do not agree that the Nazis had any sense of shame what­so­ever about their crimes. Very few of them ever expressed remorse. Criminals commonly try to hide their actions in order to escape justice or retri­bu­tion. Shame has nothing to do with it.
Also, we did not “abuse” the PM in any way. We respect­fully differed and gave our reasons. That’s free speech and democracy – for which none of us need apologise.
Peter Wertheim
Executive Director
Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry.
See also Andrew Bolt’s Column in the Mel­bourne’s “Herald Sun”