IMAGINE…growing up in a beautiful country where your family lived for generations, and enjoyed a wonderful cultural lifestyle and professional status within their communities.

Then, to show their allegiance to their country, 100,000 fought during World War I and 12,000 sacrificed their lives.

IMAGINE…as the political atmosphere slowly changed, many ignored signs that the new regime was not in their best interests. Only a few recognized the problem early enough to leave their beautiful homeland.

Sadly, the majority didn’t want to believe they would be in danger—until it was too late, and their lives were stripped away from them.

They were forced to wear a symbol identifying them as “inferior” to other citizens and they became the scapegoat for the country’s economic and cultural failures.

Their places of worship and businesses were eventually burned to the ground. Laws were passed depriving them of their citizenship, nor could they work in their professions or attend schools and universities.

Deportation from the Lodz Ghetto (fewer than 1,000 Jews in the ghetto survived the war). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. No known restrictions.

IMAGINE…suddenly, a loud pounding on the door to their homes! Soldiers forced their way in to see who lives there. The families were ordered to pack one suitcase for each person and told they must leave to be relocated to a “better place.” With guns pointed at them, they had no choice but to obey.

They thought they were going to the train station, hoping the comfortable passenger cars would be there. Instead, shockingly, there were long rows of sinister wooden cattle cars. The soldiers ordered everyone into the dark, dirty cars. They were squeezed in so tightly that no one could move. There was no water or food, and only one latrine bucket for each closely packed car.

The hope of being sent to a “better place” was replaced by abject fear. Parents desperately clutched their children. Tears streamed down their cheeks.

IMAGINE…the dark, heavy wooden door of the cattle car noisily starting to close. And the sound of the metal-on-metal steel wheels loudly screeching until that final, shocking, earsplitting, CLICK...as they were locked in as prisoners. They gasped for air, not knowing where they were going. Many would die from suffocation or exposure.

Upon arrival at their destinations, many were immediately sent to their deaths in gas chambers. Others were sent to concentration and death camps. At the end, 6 million were murdered.

These are the stages of antisemitism, how it slowly transforms and reveals itself, then escalates into a convulsive, savage, and deadly culmination. Now do you get it?

That was then, this is now…with the current rise of antisemitism since October 7, 2023, and incidents of violent Jew-hatred worldwide akin to World War II Germany, we cannot ignore (as our relatives and ancestors did) the dangers these radical situations present.

An incredible organization, Hate Ends Now, created a Mobile Holocaust Cattle Car Exhibit to educate audiences and raise awareness about the Holocaust, exemplifying the dangers of Jew-hatred, intolerance and racism.

Randy Osborne, President of the Florida Eagle Forum and Brigitte Smith, Chair of the Marion County Republican Executive Committee, are devoted friends of the Jewish community and supporters of Israel, as seen at this October 7 rally in Ocala, Florida.

Recently, they raised $5,000 to bring the Holocaust Cattle Car Exhibit to the students at the Ocala Christian Academy (OCA) and Ocala residents. It was an experience I will never forget.

The introductory presentation concentrated on how extreme hate can manifest. The OCA administrators, city and county officials, gave impassioned speeches on the dangers and warning signs of hate and that it must not be tolerated. It was truly emotional and their message powerful.

The students and guests, totaling 424 throughout the day, were then able to go into a World War II Cattle Car replica. After the heavy wooden door closed, they watched a 360-degree multi-media presentation projected onto the Cattle Car walls narrated by Holocaust survivors telling their painful stories of loss of freedom, persecution, dehumanization, loss of loved ones, and, since they lived to tell their tales, their miraculous survival.

When the presentation was over and the students and guests exited the Cattle Car, you could see from their expressions that they had a new understanding of how extreme hate, with a diabolical purpose, can morph into an unimaginable scale.

Then it was my turn to go into the cattle car. I entered into this dark, confined space, walked to the rear of the car, and was fully enveloped by this macabre wooden prison. All of a sudden, tears were streaming down my cheeks.

Then the Hate Ends Now presenter started to close the heavy wooden door. The sound of the metal-on-metal steel wheels loudly screeching until that final, shocking, earsplitting, CLICK…locking me in…caused me to remember pictures of Jews in Cattle Cars arriving at Auschwitz, only to be gassed to death in fake showers and their bodies burned in grotesque ovens.

And with that, my whole body started to tremble, and I couldn’t stop shaking and crying throughout the entire presentation. For all I could think of was, “It could have been me.

This brought back troubling memories from years ago when I was in training at a commercial real estate firm. I was sent to special classes around the United States. One week, I roomed with a woman who was born in Germany. Her family came to the United States in 1939.

I asked her if she could tell me how Hitler indoctrinated the population with Jew-hatred. She told me she grew up on a farm and her parents would tell her to be careful and not fall into their water well for the Jewish rats lived in the bottom and would harm her. She then realized how horrible this sounded and wouldn’t discuss it any further.

A second horrific event occurred at this same firm two years later. At the beginning of a sales meeting, before our manager arrived, an arrogant male agent smiles and says, “I have a Holocaust joke.” I felt the blood drain from my face and my body get cold. Then he laughingly declared, “Too bad there weren’t microwaves.” Sickeningly, everyone else laughed. I had never heard anything so despicable.

With that, I abruptly stood up and yelled, “You are all disgusting antisemites,” and left the room. I never told my manager about this incident, which was a big mistake, for I was ostracized until I left the company two years later to work at a new commercial real estate firm.

I had great success and sold a major corporate headquarters. Commercial real estate deals usually take six to nine months to close. Because of the high-level training and negotiating skills I learned at the previous firm, I closed this deal in three months.

To celebrate, I called the manager who taught me these skills, and invited him to lunch to thank him for his dedication to teaching and wisdom. I told him about the “Holocaust microwave joke” incident. He asked, “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped you?” Embarrassed, I told him, “I was afraid I would lose my job.” He looked me straight in the eye, reached across the table, put his hand on my arm, and compassionately responded, “That never would have happened.”

If only what he said were true. What did happen was that, on October 7...Jewish babies were burned to death in kitchen ovens.

Adrienne Skolnik has been published in American Thinker, The Forward and has a Times of Israel Blog.