Thoughts on the Holocaust
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, and there are some things about the commemoration that make me angry.
One is that there are people who claim the Holocaust did not exist. My mother was an English Jew who survived World War II in bomb shelters, but she lived with the reality that--if Hitler's bombing campaign of London were truly successful--she, too, might be buried alive or sent to a camp.
Another thing that makes me angry is that people always say about the Holocaust: "It must never happen again." What the hell are they talking about? "It" has happened again and again and again since World War II. There may not have been concentration camps with gas ovens, but the mass murders of ethnic groups have never stopped. Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan..the list goes on.
It particularly upsets me that people acknowledge the Holocaust as the extermination of 6 million Jews. It was that, but it was also the extermination of 5 million homosexuals, Gypsies, Communists, disabled people, resistance fighters, trade unionists, and many, many more. Today, Laura Bush gave a speech about Holocaust Memorial Day, and said that the Holocaust should be a reminder to us about what happens when we let anti-Semitism exist. What about when we let homophobia exist? Or any kind of bigotry?
People get bent out of shape when they hear about PETA's "The Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign, but I think it is spot-on. I have the posters, but I usually cannot bear to look at them. It is easier for people to say that PETA has "gone too far" than to acknowledge that American consumers daily participate in the torture and painful deaths of billions of creatures. What difference does it make who is suffering, as long as there is suffering going on?
And finally, in his brilliant book, City of Nets, Otto Friedrich writes that Ben Hecht once took out a full-page ad in the New York Times:
One is that there are people who claim the Holocaust did not exist. My mother was an English Jew who survived World War II in bomb shelters, but she lived with the reality that--if Hitler's bombing campaign of London were truly successful--she, too, might be buried alive or sent to a camp.
Another thing that makes me angry is that people always say about the Holocaust: "It must never happen again." What the hell are they talking about? "It" has happened again and again and again since World War II. There may not have been concentration camps with gas ovens, but the mass murders of ethnic groups have never stopped. Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan..the list goes on.
It particularly upsets me that people acknowledge the Holocaust as the extermination of 6 million Jews. It was that, but it was also the extermination of 5 million homosexuals, Gypsies, Communists, disabled people, resistance fighters, trade unionists, and many, many more. Today, Laura Bush gave a speech about Holocaust Memorial Day, and said that the Holocaust should be a reminder to us about what happens when we let anti-Semitism exist. What about when we let homophobia exist? Or any kind of bigotry?
People get bent out of shape when they hear about PETA's "The Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign, but I think it is spot-on. I have the posters, but I usually cannot bear to look at them. It is easier for people to say that PETA has "gone too far" than to acknowledge that American consumers daily participate in the torture and painful deaths of billions of creatures. What difference does it make who is suffering, as long as there is suffering going on?
And finally, in his brilliant book, City of Nets, Otto Friedrich writes that Ben Hecht once took out a full-page ad in the New York Times:
FOR SALE TO HUMANITY
70,000 JEWS
GUARANTEED HUMAN BEINGS AT $50 APIECE
70,000 JEWS
GUARANTEED HUMAN BEINGS AT $50 APIECE
The Roumanian government had agreed to let that many Jews emigrate if someone would provide a home and transportation for them. The ad went on: Roumania is tired of killing Jews. It has killed 100,000 of them in two years. Roumania will now give Jews away for practically nothing.
All 70,000 went to their deaths.
All 70,000 went to their deaths.
posted by Diane at 9:10 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Nicely connected, my friend.
By
The Heretik, at
11:11 PM
Good post.
And yes, to the bit about it not having stopped.
And can I add my own personal "this really annoys me"?
It really annoys me when people get all pious about the Holocaust not being such a big deal because Stalin killed so many more people, really, or because "communism" worldwide killed so many more, or because abortion (this one's really my favorite) kills so many more each year -- like we're in a contest here and people can only care about one thing -- when what they're really meaning, of course, is that the Holocaust killed Jews and gay folk and Gypsies and other trash, so who really cares?
I mean it's not like it was little fetuses being killed or anything, you know.
By
delagar, at
7:47 AM
Beautiful post, DED. You should place this in your "Best of" folder.
By
Anonymous, at
3:43 PM
Thank you. That stuff has been bothering me for a long time.
By
Diane, at
3:59 PM
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