"I felt like a Nazi:" When descendants of Holocaust survivors become perpetrators

By any moral standard, the role of a soldier should be to protect, not to dehumanize; to defend, not to destroy indiscriminately. Yet, as more and more accounts from inside the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) reveal themselves, a dangerous transformation is underway, one that not only endangers the people of Gaza, but also corrodes the souls of those in uniform.

The IOF has long prided itself on being a "moral army," but beneath that national myth lies a growing number of testimonies that speak to something else entirely: a descent into callousness, sadism, and, in some cases, outright psychopathy. From soldiers describing a thrill in setting homes on fire to others relishing the power to kill without consequence, the psychological toll of the Israeli Occupation's war on Gaza is no longer just a matter of national trauma, it is a mirror reflecting atrocities hauntingly reminiscent of the crimes that Jews once suffered under the Nazi regime.

The 'Israeli' government claims this war is about defense, but when the soldiers carrying it out have to blur their faces and hide their identities in every video and photo, that tells another story. They know what they are doing is wrong. They know that someday, somewhere, someone will hold them accountable. And they should be worried because the world has seen this before.

After World War II, Nazi officers and collaborators stood trial for crimes they claimed were just “following orders.” Today, 'Israeli' soldiers, many of whom describe a thrill in shooting civilians, setting homes on fire, and abusing prisoners, are following a similarly chilling trajectory.

Let us not forget the Nazi soldiers who stormed Jewish homes in Europe also told themselves they were doing their duty. They too believed in their exceptionalism.

Take the words of a soldier who said, “I felt like, like, like a Nazi ... it looked exactly like we were actually the Nazis and they were the Jews.” That is not the language of critics. That is the voice of someone who pulled the trigger, who stood in the ruins of Gaza and recognized the echoes of history, only this time from the wrong side of the barrel.

Let that sink in.

The line between following orders and becoming an instrument of evil has become frighteningly thin. As psychological research has long confirmed, ordinary people, when placed under authoritarian command and social pressure, can commit horrific acts. But what is more disturbing are the soldiers who do not just follow, they enjoy it.

These are the "callous" and "ideologically violent" types identified in psychological studies of IOF infantry units: those who treat killing as sport, who see brutality as strength, and who view Palestinians not as human beings, but as targets. One soldier confessed that a woman who threw a slipper at him was kicked so hard “she can’t have children today.” Another described a fellow soldier shooting a man in the back four times “in cold blood” and walking away with no consequences. These are not outliers; they are part of a growing culture.

"It’s like a drug," one soldier said. "You feel like you are the law, you make the rules. As if from the moment you leave the place called Israel and enter the Gaza Strip, you are God."

If this does not frighten you, it should.

What makes this situation even more appalling is the government’s role in stoking it. Instead of leading with discipline and restraint, 'Israeli' officials have fanned the flames of hatred and vengeance. Rhetoric that demonizes Palestinians and undermines legal oversight has empowered the most dangerous personalities in the military. In this environment, the IOF’s own so-called code of ethics, which allegedly prohibits harming uninvolved civilians and insists on refusing illegal orders, is being treated as optional.

Meanwhile, the evidence of war crimes continues to mount: civilians shot while waving white flags, homes torched without authorization, detainees tortured and killed, and entire neighborhoods razed in revenge. The haunting familiarity to World War II-era atrocities is not a stretch, it is a warning. The lessons of the Holocaust were never meant to be tribal; they were supposed to be universal. “Never again” loses its power when it only applies to one side.

Some will dismiss this comparison as offensive, but it is precisely because of this history that we must speak out. Jews know better than anyone the consequences of silence, the cost of moral indifference, and the danger of dehumanization.

We cannot avert our gaze simply because they themselves underwent a genocide. Atrocities are atrocities, and one genocide cannot excuse another. Your past does not absolve you of your current crimes.

It is time for the 'Israeli' public, and frankly, the world, to reckon with what this war has become: Not just a military campaign, but a moral collapse, one that mirrors the very horrors from which Jews once fled.