Israel has proved the Nazis wrong, says historian Simon Schama

Israel is the ultimate riposte to the Nazis’ attempt to exterminate the Jewish people, Simon Schama has declared.

The acclaimed historian gave the Balfour Centenary Lecture on Wednesday evening, celebrating Israel as a “living, breathing, thriving democracy” of “six-million Jews who are nothing short of a crushing retort to Hitler and the Shoah.”

The historian discussed the persecution of European Jewry before the Second World War, emphasising that a “first Holocaust” had already taken place before the advent of the Third Reich.

He said: “Israel still stands as a living, breathing, debating, thriving, rejoicing democracy. Israel’s six million Jews are the ultimate retort to the number that Adolf Hitler exterminated.

“The life of Israel is Hitler’s failure.” ...