The Holocaust was the single greatest hate crime in the history of the world. It was a time when the chosen people of God were selected by a fanatic to be erased from the face of the earth, to appease his hatred and his ambition. The Jewish people survived, re-established the nation of Israel, and vowed, “Never again.” Over the years there have been Holocaust deniers, and Jews have been targeted for oppression, but if there has ever been anyone with the temerity to call for wholesale forgiveness from the people of Israel towards the Nazis, I have been mercifully unaware of such an individual.

What I am not unaware of is the call to forgive the Covidians, those who oppressed and tortured their fellow citizens in the name of “flattening the curve” of the Covid pandemic. Covid, an ailment with a mortality rate of 1%, was treated like the Black Death.

The amount of damage done by those in power in the name of public safety cannot be overestimated.  Economies were crippled, children who missed two years of school and consequent social development among their peers have suffered severe setbacks in their education and social skills, and people used as guinea pigs for an unproven technology in the form of an mRNA vaccine have suffered adverse health outcomes, including potentially fatal blood clots, myocarditis, and, possibly, lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.

Image: Children in Covid masks (edited). YouTube screen grab.

Emily Oster, of The Atlantic, has written an article pleading for forgiveness of the pandemic measures.  She wants people to forget the isolation and loneliness of the lockdowns. The sorrow of those who could not be with loved ones as they passed away. The trauma of being termed murderers by those who wanted to force experimental vaccination. The economic suffering of people who lost their jobs for refusing to submit to forced vaccination. The children who have endured grave harm from being sequestered like hardened criminals.

The Covid lockdown was a hate crime against the whole of humanity. Forgiveness is no more appropriate for those in power during that time than it would be for the Nazis from the Jewish people.

The comparison is even more apt when one considers that the aftermath of the Holocaust included the establishment of the Nuremberg Code, which forbids medical experiments on people against their will. Those in power during the pandemic violated that code and should be held accountable just as the Nuremberg trials held those who perpetrated the Holocaust accountable.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.