Auschwitz was liberated 80 years ago on Monday. Its lies still bind us today.

The Nazis lured Jewish people from across Europe onto trains with false promises of work abroad, and when they arrived, they were met with more deceit disguised as showers.

Then, there are the lies the world told itself while these horrors were happening. Many claimed to have done all they could for Jewish people, even as they didn’t bomb the railways leading to Auschwitz. The ship St. Louis, loaded with Jewish refugees, was turned away from Florida back to Europe, and Britain halted Jewish immigration to the territories under its control, thereby blocking the escape of countless lives.

In the decades that followed, lies persisted because they were convenient. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan referred to the German soldiers buried at Bitburg cemetery as “victims,” going so far as to equate them with those who suffered in concentration camps.

Elie Wiesel challenged Reagan on national television

Though it was too late to prevent this mischaracterization, my father, Elie Wiesel, made it his mission to counter it. His words drew international attention.

“The issue here is not politics,” he told Reagan on live television, “but good versus evil. We must never confuse the two, for I have witnessed the SS in action and seen their victims.”

Despite his efforts, Reagan went ahead with his visit to Bitburg, and the distinction between the perpetrators of evil and their victims blurred even further.

Today, just 40% of individuals under 35 recognize the Holocaust as a factual event. This statistic worsens in the Middle East, where only 16% of the nations surrounding Israel acknowledge these historical facts.

However, the challenge extends beyond mere ignorance. Many young people today mirror Reagan’s moral confusion, viewing the Hamas fighters as victims, just like the Israelis kidnapped on October 7, 2023. To them, Hamas represents an underdog.

My father spoke out against apathy, but what we confront now goes beyond that. There is no indifference; everyone holds strong opinions about the Israel-Hamas conflict. Is this a case of mass naivety? Are good intentions responsible for the chaos? Many Christians who harmed Jews during the Middle Ages likely believed they were acting in defense of their families, convinced that Jews had poisoned water supplies and adhering to the blood libel myth.

Facing evil is difficult. It’s troubling to witness jihadists in Gaza firing their weapons in celebration while negotiating the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners for just three Israeli women.

One of those terrorists, Abu Warda, responsible for the deaths of 45 civilians in the 1996 Jerusalem bus bombings, will be freed by Israel. Do we consider him to share the same moral standing as the women he will be exchanged for?

Hamas aims to erase Israel

It’s simpler to believe that this militant group merely desires their own state than to truly listen to their declarations: as stated in Hamas’s charter, their goal is the annihilation of Israel. Since the recent ceasefire, Hamas has reclaimed control over Gaza and will likely impose further suffering upon its inhabitants.

In his speech at Bitburg, my father referenced the distinguished New York Times editor Abe Rosenthal, who, after visiting Poland, expressed in a 1990 article, “Forgive them not, for they knew what they did.”

The American psyche is strongly influenced by the Christian inclination to forgive and move forward, especially regarding acts of terror committed against others. However, we must not extend forgiveness to Hamas. We must confront evil head-on when we encounter it. Time is of the essence.

Good intentions alone are insufficient.

My grandfather, Shlomo Wiesel, who died at Buchenwald a week after Auschwitz’s liberation, was also the son of an Eliezer. My great-grandfather was killed as a medic in World War I after being drafted by the Kaiser. I now see my father’s criticism of Reagan being manipulated by those who oppose Israel, proclaiming that fighting indifference equates to mindlessly endorsing the downfall of a democratic nation.

It can be frightening to challenge a mob, especially when some members are our acquaintances or family, who may be swept up in the moral confusion currently wreaking havoc on college campuses. On this anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, we must ponder these challenging questions:

Will we continue to rationalize the images of non-uniformed Palestinian civilians celebrating and assisting Hamas during the October 7 attacks, similar to how previous generations overlooked the actions of the SS, the Wehrmacht, and the townspeople who supported them?

Will we keep conflating the roles of perpetrator and victim, of terrorism and just conflicts, losing sight of the difference between Hamas, who use human shields, and the Israel Defense Forces, who take unprecedented measures to minimize casualties while targeting the tunnels constructed for future atrocities?

Will we persist in granting moral legitimacy to those who label Israel, a small nation, as the antagonist for choosing to survive?

To distinguish between good and evil, we must start with a choice between truth and lies.

Forty years ago, President Reagan had not grasped this lesson. Eighty years after the liberation of Auschwitz—have we?

Elisha Wiesel is the son of Marion Wiesel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel.