The Rev. Franklin Graham recently returned from visiting the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, and he told Newsmax on Tuesday it's unfortunate the sense of evil surrounding that place regarding atrocities committed against Jews still permeates today.
"Auschwitz is a testimony to the hate and the evil that took place [more than 80] years ago," Graham told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "But that evil is still in the world today. We see it every night on the news as we watch the news. That hate is there, that evil is still there, and that's why I say as a minister, I pray that God will somehow find a way to resolve this problem."
Graham, leader of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, visited Israel shortly after the Iranian-backed Hamas' terrorist attack on Oct. 7, which led to the slaughter of at least 1,200 civilians, with more than 200 others being taken hostage. He said the rise of antisemitism is something that should not be ignored.
"We see the rise of antisemitism and I think it's 300-some percent increase in antisemitism in this country," Graham said. "To go to Auschwitz to see where 1.1 million Jews were gassed, and I stood in that gas chamber, and I looked at those ovens. It's incredible to think that we see antisemitism today.
"Of course, I was there right after what happened in those [kibbutzim] along the [Israeli] border there in Gaza. And I saw where people had been killed and slain just because they were Jewish people. To see all this come back again breaks my heart. But the only one who can solve this problem is God. … We've got to pray that God will somehow bring this to an end."
Graham said he is working to help those affected by Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip. Many Gazans have been casualties in Israel's commitment to wiping out Hamas and rescuing the remaining hostages.
"As Christians, as for myself, we should do everything we can to work for peace to try to help resolve these problems we see in the world," he said. "I'm not a politician. But in Israel we've tried to help the people that have suffered. We are waiting now to work in Gaza. We have permission to accept a hospital and some other things there. So, we're going to do that. We want to help everybody, and I want to do it in the name of God's son. Jesus Christ. That's what we do."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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