Never Again Means Armed: A Holocaust Survivor’s Daughter Warns America

April 22, 2025

The Shot That Echoes: Lexington, Concord, and the Fight for Freedom

On April 19, 1775, American patriots stood at Lexington and Concord, muskets in hand, refusing to surrender their arms to British troops. Their defiance sparked a revolution and birthed a nation founded on liberty and resistance to tyranny.

I carry that same resolve. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors—Jews who endured the Nazis’ systematic disarmament, persecution, and genocide of six million—I learned a brutal truth: my parents survived, but most did not. Their lesson was clear: the Nazis stripped Jews of their weapons before annihilating them. This isn’t just history. It’s a warning.

The Nazi Playbook: Disarm, Then Destroy

Imagine Berlin, 1933. A Jewish shopkeeper owns a legal hunting rifle, a symbol of his duty to protect his family. Then, Nazi SA stormtroopers smash through his door, seize the rifle, and declare Jews “untrustworthy.” His permit is void. His rights are gone.

By 1935, the Nuremberg Laws erased Jewish citizenship and gun rights. The 1938 German Weapons Act banned Jews from owning firearms, ammunition, even knives. After Kristallnacht, a decree demanded all Jewish weapons be surrendered—or face death.

This was deliberate: legal disarmament paved the way for terror. Permits were marked “unreliable.” Propaganda vilified Jewish gun owners. The Gestapo raided homes, arrested resisters, and left Jews defenseless as ghettos and camps loomed.

An armed Jew could have fought back. A disarmed Jew had no choice but submission.

America’s Echoes of Control

Now picture an American in 2025, buying a firearm and entering a federal database of 4 million legal gun owners (FBI, 2023). Scholar John Lott warns: databases can be weaponized, just as Weimar’s gun registries targeted Jews.

Why track law-abiding citizens when only 14% of illegal gun purchases are prosecuted (ATF, 2023)? That’s not safety—it’s surveillance.

In California, a mother is barred from owning an AR-15, labeled an “assault weapon,” though such rifles are used in less than 2% of gun crimes (DOJ, 2004). The 1994–2004 federal ban didn’t lower homicides, and mass shootings persisted, like Columbine.

Red flag laws? In California, 70% of gun seizures happen without a hearing (San Diego Union-Tribune, 2022). In Maryland, 60% of red flag orders are overturned (Baltimore Sun, 2023). The state decides who’s “dangerous,” seizes first, and justifies later—eerily like Nazi tactics.

Each law—permits, magazine limits, waiting periods—builds a system of vague rules and arbitrary power. It’s a blueprint from 1930s Germany.

Survivors’ Warnings

• Henry Oster saw his father’s rifle confiscated in Cologne, 1933. By Kristallnacht, his family was defenseless (USC Shoah Foundation, 1996).
• Ruth Winkelmann’s father, a WWI veteran, surrendered his pistol in 1935. Politeness from police didn’t stop their persecution (AP, 2024).
• Kate Haberman’s uncle was arrested for hiding a shotgun. Her family faced Auschwitz unarmed (Kupferberg Holocaust Center).
• Peter Silverman’s father was beaten for an illegal pistol. “One bullet,” Peter said, “could’ve shown we weren’t helpless” (Montreal Holocaust Museum).

The numbers tell the story:

• 1934: 2,000 Jewish guns seized in Berlin.
• Post-Kristallnacht: 20,000 firearms confiscated, 7,000 Jews arrested.
• 1939: Jews fully disarmed as deportations began.

(Halbrook, Gun Control in the Third Reich; Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews)

The Second Amendment: A Shield Against Tyranny

The Founders wrote the Second Amendment to prevent tyranny, not for hunting. My parents survived because someone defied evil. Millions died obeying orders. Every dictator—Hitler, Stalin, Mao—disarmed their people before unleashing horror.

America’s 120 million gun owners are a bulwark. But registries, bans, and red flag laws erode it.

• Chicago’s strict laws didn’t stop 617 homicides in 2023 (Chicago PD).
• Colorado’s red flag laws haven’t reduced suicides—22 per 100,000 in 2021 (CDC).
• California’s 10-round magazine limit mirrors Nazi restrictions that left Jews powerless.

These laws don’t stop crime. They disarm the law-abiding—and history shows the consequences.

Jews Can Shoot: Never Again Is a Vow

Jews Can Shoot was born from my parents’ survival and the millions who perished. We exist to ensure no Jew, no American, faces tyranny without the means to resist.

Gun control doesn’t disarm criminals. It disarms those tyrants fear: people who fight back.

On this 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord, “Never again” is not a slogan—it’s a commitment. And it means armed.

By Doris Wise, Founder of Jews Can Shoot