DEAR WEHO: Supreme Court decision dims heroism of history

To the Editor,

Last week’s Supreme Court 303 Creative v. Elenis ruling brought back for me a memory from my childhood in the Netherlands. We had a neighbor named Anna Holst. She was the most decent, brave, and courageous person I ever met. She was not a bystander to the Nazi terror. She was a “devout Catholic” who could easily have sat out the war in comfort. She would tell me stories about the dark days of WW II.

When the Nazis marched into the Netherlands, they started “by law” to make Dutch Jews second-class citizens. One day, when I was maybe nine years old, she took me by the hand, and we climbed a steep staircase which led to the attic. There, behind a secret wall in the maid’s room, was a hiding place. That’s where THEY had to hide. Over the war years Anna Holst sheltered eighteen of her Jewish friends and neighbors in her home. She knew of her fellow citizens who had already been deported for “resettlement” in Eastern Europe. She knew the same fate awaited them all if they were discovered. She was scared that any night the Gestapo (tipped off by their many collaborators) might once more search her house in the middle of the night.

At night, she would sit for hours on the stairway landing. Three rings on a nearby bell press there meant that everyone had to clear rapidly out their rooms and immediately go to the hiding place. “Why did these people have to hide,” I asked her. The invariable response was that she would tell me when I was older. After the war, she neither asked for nor received any official recognition for her incredible bravery. I do remember her receiving huge crates of Jaffa oranges from Israel.

Years ago, I had a conversation with Simon Wiesenthal after the publication of The Sunflower. He expounded on his famous admonition about a society’s response to a possible resurgence of fascism: The schools would fail through their silence, the Church through its forgiveness, and the home through the denial and silence of the parents.

West Hollywood has historically been a haven for oppressed citizens from all over the world: the LGBTQ+ community of America, Holocaust survivors and their children, people who sought political asylum from oppressive regimes and immigrants who seek to raise their children in a safe environment.

Attempts to destabilize our democracy have become a national phenomenon, not just to those minorities who have made West Hollywood their home. In all post-WW II Europe countries, the number of Nazi collaborators whose suppressed hatred and violence was stirred up by Nazi propaganda has been grossly underestimated.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center recently described the surges in anti-Semitic violence between 2021 and 2023: incidents of physical assault jumped by more than a quarter, with more than half targeting Orthodox Jews. Acts of vandalism surged by 51%, and harassment rose by 29%.

In Florida, Gov. DeSantis signed a slate of extreme anti-LGBTQ+ bills, enacting a record-shattering number of discriminatory measures into law. [He] has also signed SB 266, which doubles down on his attacks on academic freedom……….

The current Supreme Court abnegates any responsibility for their corrupt private actions. They appear indifferent to the vast-reaching consequences of their flawed rulings. These seem to originate in a reactionary arrogance with leanings to theocracy. No matter how well-versed they may be in the letter of the law, they eschew a sense of humanity and the Spirit of the Law. That is why such an increasing number of Americans disapprove of their immoral personal conduct. Their societal rulings are not issueless. The majority of this court is clearly incapable of divorcing their personal religious identities (as they themselves describe them) to reflect judicial probity. Several justices are “regular attendees at Mass;” Kavanaugh is an “active Catholic;” while Comey-Barrett describes herself as a “faithful Catholic.” (!) God is love.

What a contrast with the heroic and devout Catholic actions of Anna Holst! Today, eighty years after the heroic life of Anna Holst, we have a Supreme Court that would eventually drive minorities of whom they personally disapprove of into darkness. After all, that’s why they were placed on this court: to advance the divisive agenda of a disgraced ex-president, “in imitatio Trump” rather than “in imitatio Christi.” To again quote Mr. Wiesenthal, “Tolerance and human rights require each other.” Their ruling on the phantom 303 Creative v. Elenis case allows right-wing extremists a disproportionate (at present) platform to publicly denounce LGBTQ+ and other communities they oppose. This recent majority Supreme Court majority ruling will embolden more vile and discriminatory behavior. They, and all their supporters, are personally accountable for every injustice and hate crime that will still be committed in America. These people disregard the spirit of the law: measure by measure their acts sanction Americans to drive others into darkness or to be mere bystanders to discrimination and violence. This court twists the Constitution so that it is no longer a living document of the people. After all, in the murderous centuries of history, a majority of this Court still degrades God’s creation.

Anna Holst’s proudest moment came when the liberating Canadian troops were entering our town as soldiers walked alongside their tanks. She held up the child whom she had sheltered for a year and exclaimed with the greatest joy, “he is a Jew.” Let us, too, work to bring bright sunlight to those dark places to which others are trying to consign us and not ever allow hatred to prevail.

Alexander J. Kekesi,
West Hollywood