I want to talk about 60 Minutes of CBS shame

I don't know what Lesley Stahl (CBS) was smoking before the interview with Iranian President E. Raisi. The thirty seconds of Holocaust denial on 60 Minutes will go down in the history of American journalism as the 30 seconds of infamy. To those who might not have seen or heard the comments let me recall the short exchange.

Stahl: "Do you believe the holocaust happened - that 6 million Jews were slaughtered?"

Raisi replied: " Look, historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians. There are some signs that it happened. If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched"

Are you kidding me. Some signs? 6 million signs! This was allowed on prime time American television. The stupidity, the arrogance and cynicism of the Iranian, who at the time of the broadcast was murdering Masha Amini because she wasn't wearing the hijab "properly", was disgusting. But the bizarreness of the whole conversation is that Stahl is Jewish and she is American. She wore the hijab properly. How can she not have cut the interview short, how did she not start shouting with Raisi, throw whatever was in her hand in his face? Shout, scream, be outraged?

The Holocaust is not "history" for me. It is something that haunts me every single day, even if I was born 8 years after two thirds of our family was deported by the Germans and their Hungarian helpers, murdered in Auschwitz. The older I get, the pain I feel just grows stronger. The time that has elapsed since the sad days of July 1944 when my Grandmother Paula and Grandfather Pál Sommer were shipped off to Auschwitz in cattle cars and were gassed upon arrival, does not heal the wound, lessen the pain. No, it keeps growing. Uncle Tibor, a world class economist, whose books about the wonders of the world are on my bookshelf, perished in the camps. My Aunt éva and my cousin Zsuzsika (4 months old) did not have a chance. They tried to tear Zsuzsika from Aunt éva's arms at the "selection" upon arrival to Auschwitz [when the Germans decided if you will die immediately, unfit for slave labor, or only after you have been worked to death] but she did not let go. She held Zsuzsika to her heart and walked to the gas chamber with her, according to eye witnesses who survived the horrors. Paula, Pál, Tibor, éva, Zsuzsika are just five of the six million who never made it out. I look at their photos all the time. And it hurts every time.

And this thug says it must be allowed to be investigated, needs to be researched. And this on American television. As an American I am appalled. I am upset. And I am angry.

Most holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe chose to burry the horrors, the scars and the nightmares and did not share them with their children. My father was different. He chose to tell me about the Holocaust when I was 9 years old. I grew up with the sadness, the pain, the loss. My father tried hard to forgive, but he never could. He was a strong man, and I saw him cry only once. It was when we visited Auschwitz together. He said it was time to see it for himself. As we walked through the gates of hell, passed under the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign, he suddenly stopped and started crying, and he would not stop crying. Then he hugged me and said "I can't take it any longer". My Catholic mother, converted to Judaism in honor of the memory of the Jewish half of the family who perished.

In the last hours of his life Father kept telling me "not a day has gone by in all those years when I did not think about Mother Paula and Father Pál. How they must have suffered. They were good people. Never hurt a soul ".

So for me to see this stupid interview, whether it was an editorial error, or an ask by officials who desperately want a deal with Iran, or sheer stupidity, I don't care, it's a tripwire. It's a shame. It's a red line.Thirty minutes of infamy, that Lesley Stahl, a Jewish woman will have to live with for the rest of her life. Stahl will have nightmares over it. She will be depressed. She will bang her head into the wall. As she should. If she ever wants to visit Auschwitz I am happy to accompany her. We'll go together. I can promise her, it's quite an experience.

But I will never forgive her.

It is my duty to fight. To make sure the memory of the martyrs are not disgraced. Because no one gave me the permission to forget or to forgive.