Eighty years ago, American Jewish twin brothers, Hilbert and Howard Margol, had a face-to-face confrontation with precisely this sort of evil when they and their fellow members of the 42nd Infantry Division liberated the Dachau concentration camp. A few weeks beforehand, the division entered Germany, and the Margol brothers participated in an unusual seder—with the Haggadah’s apt reminder that, “In every generation there are those who stand against us [Jews] to eliminate us.”

Howard is no longer alive, but Hilbert, now one-hundred-and-one, speaks with Benjamin Mack-Johnson about the experience:

The 42nd Infantry Division was commanded by Major General Harry J. Collins, a highly decorated and respected U.S. Army officer. He was also committed to tackling anti-Semitism within his ranks, working directly with the division’s Jewish chaplain—Rabbi Eli Bohnen—to ensure his Jewish soldiers were taken care of. . . . As the 42nd Infantry Division began its two-day rest period in [the German city of] Dahn, Bohnen informed General Collins that the next evening would be the first night of Passover and that he wanted to put together a seder.

Collins agreed, but Bohnen was faced with a problem: he had only one Haggadah for some 800 soldiers:

“They found a mimeograph machine, but it was dirty and dusty, so then they went looking for rags to try and clean it,” Margol recalled. “All they could find were two Nazi flags. That’s what they used to clean the mimeograph machine that ended up printing 800 copies of that prayer book.”

The 42nd Infantry Division’s “Rainbow Haggadah” is believed to be the first Haggadah printing in Germany since the Nazis took power in 1933. Few copies survive today. Before the traditional Hebrew text, Collins inserted a message to the Jewish soldiers under his command.

“The celebration of Passover should have unusual significance for you at this time, for like your ancestors of old, you too are now engaged in a battle for freedom against a modern Pharaoh,” he proclaimed. “This Pharaoh has sought not only to enslave your people but to make slaves of the whole world. God grant that victory for us will make it possible for you to celebrate the next Passover with your loved ones at home, in a world you helped make free.”

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.