If you could have prevented the Holocaust , would you?

This question has become sadly relevant following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack , when Hamas brutally and viciously raped, tortured, and murdered Israeli men, women, children, and infants. This was the largest slaughter of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

No one could have convinced me to sit on the sidelines while these acts of savagery took place. After I retired from the military in 2014, I made a promise to the Jewish people that if anything took place like what did on Oct. 7, I would be prepared to help. So, I promptly left my office in Washington, D.C., and boarded a plane to Israel .

What has been broadcast on television does not begin to capture the horrors of what occurred in Israel. As a former Navy SEAL combat medic with multiple combat deployments, I can attest that what Hamas committed against the Israelis was indescribably evil and vile — and magnitudes worse than anything I witnessed during my time of service.

I visited sites such as Kibbutz Be’eri, where Hamas slaughtered hundreds of innocent Israelis and took many as hostages into a fortified Gaza Strip. I also visited the location of the Supernova music festival, where more than 200 young adults and children were brutally murdered. I spoke with people whose family members were murdered, many of whom were Holocaust survivors.

While visiting the site of the Supernova festival, I noticed countless festival cups across the grounds where festivalgoers were peacefully dancing and united before Hamas’s attack. I asked the Israeli minister I was with if I could take some of the cups back with me to Washington, D.C., to serve as a physical and solemn reminder to the world of the atrocities that took place on Oct. 7. Those cups are now in my office in Washington.

As a sitting member of Congress, I have a duty to hold those accountable who refuse to condemn Hamas or the genocide of the Jewish people. We saw a shocking example of this when one of my congressional colleagues claimed that the phrase, “From the river to the sea,” which is an active call for the eradication of the Jewish people in Israel, is instead “an aspiration call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” This could not be further from the truth.

This is part of a disturbing rise in antisemitism across the United States, which has been especially pronounced at our colleges and universities. Just this month, my colleague Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) questioned the presidents of Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania during a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing on campus antisemitism. When asked whether the calling for the genocide of the Jewish people violated their harassment policies, all three presidents refused to simply say “yes.”

The fact that people who refuse to condemn the calls for genocide taking place on their campuses are in charge of educating our children should be revolting to everyone.

So, I ask again: If you could have prevented the Holocaust, would you?

If your answer is yes, I encourage you to join me in not only supporting Israel but also in condemning the terrorists who joyfully insist on eradicating its people.

I pray that my experience in Israel will increase the sense of urgency among my colleagues to put aside their political differences and act in the best interest of the United States and our allies. Should they not, I emphasize to our friends in Israel and the Jewish people around the world that they are not alone, and I will continue to be the advocate they deserve in Washington.

Derrick Van Orden is a U.S. representative for Wisconsin.