Steven Spielberg breaks his silence on Hamas' brutal Oct 7 attack against Israel saying: 'I never imagined I would see such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime'

Movie legend Steven Spielberg quietly broke his silence on Hamas' brutal assault on Israel in a statement saying: 'I never imagined I would see such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime.'

The Oscar-winner announced that the Shoah Foundation, which he founded in 1994, will begin archiving survivor's testimony from the attacks in a project titled Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony Collection. 

Spielberg said it was an effort 'that will ensure that the voices of survivors will act as a powerful tool to counter the dangerous rise of antisemitism and hate.'

Since 1994, the foundation has collected the stories of Holocaust survivors from across the world. 'Holocaust survivors are the most courageous and brave among us, and their accounts are a lasting testament to the resilience of the human spirit,' he said.

'Both initiatives — recording interviews with survivors of the October 7 attacks and the ongoing collection of Holocaust testimony — seek to fulfill our promise to survivors: that their stories would be recorded and shared in the effort to preserve history and to work toward a world without antisemitism or hate of any kind,' Spielberg added. 

'We must remain united and steadfast in these efforts. It was reported in November that the Shoah Foundation would be undertaking a project in relation to October 7.

In addition to the Holocaust, the foundation has also documented similar atrocities in Rwanda and Cambodia. 

Also in November, David Schaecter of the Holocaust Survivors' Foundation USA wrote an open letter to Spielberg, asking why the director had failed to take 'a stand against terrorism, against Hamas and the millions who celebrate the shedding of Jewish blood.'

'Wasn’t the entire purpose of recording 50,000 testimonies of our fellow survivors to make sure the world would never be able to deny, and must never forget, the Nazis’ systematic murder of six million Jews, including one and a half million children?'

'We who personally witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust never thought we would ever again see atrocities like those committed on October 7th,' he continued.

Schaecter himself was just 11 when he was shipped off to Auschwitz-Birkenau, starved and tortured for three years, he survived but his family perished in the horror. 

'Mr. Spielberg, Schindler’s List was about one man having the moral courage to risk his life to save others. We are not asking you to risk your life. We are asking you to use your voice,' he wrote in conclusion.

Spielberg has not publicly responded to the letter. 

During an interview with Stephen Colbert in March, Spielberg said that in the US-today, anti-Semitism is 'no longer lurking but standing proud with hands on hips like Hitler and Mussolini — kind of daring us to defy it. I’ve never experienced this in my entire life. Especially in this country.'

Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in the first two weeks after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

According to a post on her Instagram page, Spielberg's sister, Nancy, was in Israel on the day of the attack. Nancy returned to the US on October 16. 

Since then she has posted almost daily about the attacks on social media. Her most recent post saw her rail against Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie over her failure to speak out against the sexual violence suffered by Jewish women that day.

While last month, the Anti-Defamation League said that nearly three in four Jewish college students in the United States who responded to a survey said they have experienced or witnessed antisemitism during the current school year.

The finding comes amid rising tensions at some U.S. college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war and a proliferation of protests in support of either Israel or the Palestinians.

Some 73 percent of over 500 Jewish college students surveyed said they were exposed to antisemitism since the 2023-2024 school year started, the ADL, which fights antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, said. 

The survey also said that the percentage of Jewish students who said they feel comfortable with others on campus knowing they are Jewish dropped to 38.6 percent since Oct. 7 from 63.7 percent before that date.