LAST WEEK GERMANY marked the 75th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, on January 30, 1933. Within a decade the Nazi juggernaut had devoured much of Europe, and its death camps had incinerated millions. No nation in Europe bears the shame of Nazism and anti-Semitism more heavily, yet none seems more determined to prevent their recurrence. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier no doubt spoke for many over the weekend: “The memory of the genocide committed by the Germans serves to keep us alert and fight anti-Semitism and racial hatred around the world.”

This is a good thing, this mixture of grief and resolve. We will need more of it. For on the very same day last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad–in yet another bellicose political sermon–promised that Iran would produce nuclear energy within a year and that Israel would soon collapse. “I warn you to abandon the filthy Zionist entity,” he said, “which has reached the end of the line.”