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In Holocaust Shooting Evil Loses

The contrasts in Wednesday’s tragic and hate-filled shooting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum tell the whole story for Mark Rothman, director of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust: Security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns died heroically, guarding the innocent people inside from the evil on the outside. During the Holocaust, it was the guards themselves doing the killing, showering evil upon the innocents inside.
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June 11, 2009

The contrasts in Wednesday’s tragic and hate-filled shooting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum tell the whole story for Mark Rothman, director of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust: Security guard Stephen Tyrone Johns died heroically, guarding the innocent people inside from the evil on the outside. During the Holocaust, it was the guards themselves doing the killing, showering evil upon the innocents inside.

On Wednesday, Rothman said, “The good people were protected, and the evil perpetrator was stopped.”

Rothman lauds Johns and the other security guards, as well as the emergency plans in place at the USHMM, for the fact that more people weren’t hurt by 88-year-old white supremacist James W. Von Brunn, who was indicted today in the shooting. About 2,000 visitors – including many school children—were inside the building when the shooting occurred, many of them in the entryway Von Brunn was trying to infiltrate when he was shot by security officers. Aside from Johns, who died from a gunshot wound to the chest at George Washington University Hospital, only one bystander was hurt, by shattering glass.

Still, Johns’ death is tragic, Rothman said.

“His loss is immeasurable and excruciating for his friends and loved ones,” Rothman said. Johns, who was 39 and had an 11-year-old son, was remembered by friends, co-workers and museum visitors as shy but friendly, someone who was warm to visitors and co-workers. At 6-foot-6-inches, he was referred to as “Big John,” and called a “Gentle Giant.” A half-dozen Facebook pages in his memory, two with more than 500 members, have been established, and an unofficial gathering to say Kaddish for him has been called at the museum for 7 p.m. Friday.

Rothman says the shooting is another sign that we must remain ever vigilant of hatemongers.

“Evil is irrepressible. It appears again in every age, and has innumerable faces, but it is allowed to flourish when good people do nothing. That is what happened in 1933, but in 2009, good people did something about it at great risk to themselves,” Rothman said.

He noted the irony that Von Brunn attacked the very values – an open, tolerant society – that have allowed him to thrive. Von Brunn was well known to law enforcement authorities and watchdog groups as a virulent anti-Semite and bigot. He was arrested in 1981 for trying to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board, which he believed allowed Jews to control the banking industry. He served more than six years in Federal prison, which on his website he blamed on a “Negro jury, Jew/Negro attorneys, and … a Jew judge.” In 2002, he self published a screed that he called a “hard-hitting exposé of the JEW CONSPIRACY to destroy the White gene-pool.”

“American does not throw people in jail for life because they have evil thoughts, unless it rises to a criminal level,” Rothman said. “That fact that he was still on the streets reflects the values of a free and open society.”

Rothman said the Museum of the Holocaust increased security after the attack and will continue to monitor its security plan in its rented facility next door to the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles on Wilshire Boulevard, and in the new facility set to open summer 2010 in Pan Pacific Park.
“You can never be arrogant about security, but you cannot create a police state. You have to strike a delicate balance.”


A Statement from the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust:

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust adds its voice to the chorus of those wishing to comfort the friends and loved ones of Steven Tyrone Johns, of blessed memory, pictured at right.

Mr. Jones died violently, an innocent victim caught in the crossfire between a known white supremicist and the target of the murderer’s obsessive hatred. His passing undoubtedly broke the hearts of all those who knew him and loved him.

Today was a tragic loss, but also a stunning victory. Today good triumphed over evil, completely the opposite of what happened during the Holocaust. There evil triumphed over good; the innocents were imprisoned, tortured and murdered, while the evil Nazi perpetrators flourished. Mr. Jones is not just a hero to the Jewish people or the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, but to mankind.

The history of Mr. Jones’ murderer was known to law enforcement and private watchdog groups such as the Anti-Defamation League. He had been imprisoned for previous anti-Semitic acts, and actively engaged in white supremisist acts for decades. These facts only underscore the simple irony that instead of dying, the evil he represents will itself kill when given the slightest opportunity.

The perpetrator’s evil flourishes when good people do nothing, as they did too often during the Holocaust. Mr. Jones and his fellow guards at USHMM responded as they should have. But brave and quick-acting security guards are only the proximate protectors of good. Each of must do something, today and in our own homes, in our schools, our places of worship, and our communities, to make sure virulent hatred may never have another opportunity to kill.

 

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