This essay was submitted to the WSWS by Shih-Yu Chou. Now based in Taipei, she acquired her doctorate in politics from Sheffield University.

President of the Republic of China (hereafter Taiwan) Tsai Ing-wen delivered a speech at an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event held in Taipei on 17 April 2024.

Tsai Ing-wen, who stepped down on May 20, claimed, “Every year, we come here together to remember those who perished in the Holocaust, as well as those who endured unimaginable suffering because of this tragedy.”

Vowing to “fight against discrimination and bigotry,” she went on to stress: “In the pursuit of justice and truth, we can learn from Israel and Germany: Israel in its efforts to preserve the historical accounts of the Holocaust, especially its victims, and Germany in its courage to face the past.

“The world must continue to confront anti-Semitism and authoritarian aggression. We are also seeing the horrifying effects of such aggression in Ukraine and in Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel. This is why we stress the importance of working alongside the international community to safeguard what we fought so hard to achieve, namely, democracy, freedom, equality, and peace.”

Displaying contempt for Palestinian deaths and suffering, Tsai’s remarks were a whitewash of today’s German establishment and of the complicity of Zionist organizations along with “democratic” imperialist powers, especially the United States and Britain, in the Holocaust.

To see why Tsai’s statement had nothing to do with remembering the lesson of the Holocaust when understood as “Never again for anyone” or warning against ongoing genocides, we must examine Zionist collaboration with the Nazis and expose Germany’s supposed “coming to terms with history”, which is really all about suppressing the truth of its Nazi past and its imperialist present.  

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