Why Teach the Shoah?

[Castro]

How much do you agree, or disagree, with the statement below? If you agree, what makes the Shoah historically unique among other similar events? If you don't agree, what other historical events could, or should, be widely investigated and commemorated?

 

Why Teach the Shoah?

 

The Shoah has been seen as an event that fundamentally challenges the foundations upon which human civilization rests. It has generated a credibility crisis of major proportions in our most basic assumptions about the nature of humankind and of society, of the modern state, and of our responsibilities as citizens of the world to speak up and act to stop the unjust suffering of innocent people everywhere.

 

At the core of the Holocaust was the decision to murder every single Jewish man, woman and child. Nazism, drawing upon earlier antisemitic traditions, and welding them together with more modern trends such as fascism and racism, developed a total world view that served to raise mass murder to the highest of ideological imperatives. The apparatus of the modern state was systematically and fully enlisted in order to implement this task. The "War Against the Jews" was launched simultaneously with and parallel to World War II, and, in the view of many scholars, was the real motivating force behind the actions of the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. The indifference of the governments and peoples of the world to the fate of the Jews and the other victims of the Third Reich is a stain on the collective conscience of mankind. The ease with which they accepted the fundamental breaches of human and civil rights by an antisemitic and racist regime should stand as a warning to us all.

 

Therefore, the intensive study of this historical event should be a high priority for everyone everywhere.

 

However, as with all complex events, the Holocaust easily lends itself to varied interpretations and misinterpretations. The problem is compounded by its highly emotional impact. In order to address this problem, the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem has created a Summer and Winter program for educators with the appropriate academic and pedagogic tools to enable graduates to confront and discuss the main issues surrounding the causes and effects of the Shoah.

 

Source

[Castro]

Could this be one reason why Jews are so adamant about teaching the Shoah:

 

Thursday, 8 December 2005, 18:19 GMT

 

Iran's president says move Israel

 

Iran's conservative president has said that Israel should be moved to Europe.

 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if Germany and Austria felt responsible for the Jewish Holocaust, they should give up land to make room for Israel.

 

"You oppressed them, so give a part of Europe to the Zionist regime so they can establish any government they want," he said on a visit to Mecca.

 

The president's remarks were quickly condemned by Israel and the US.

 

"This is not the first time, unfortunately, that the Iranian president has expressed the most outrageous ideas concerning Jews and Israel," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

 

"He is not just Israel's problem. He is a worry for the entire international community," he added.

 

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Iranian leader's comments "further underscore our concerns about the regime".

 

"And it's all the more reason why it's so important that the regime not have the ability to develop nuclear weapons," he said.

 

Mr Ahmadinejad's stance drew condemnation from French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who were meeting in Berlin.

 

"The comments by the Iranian president are totally unacceptable," said Ms Merkel.

 

'Palestinians paying the price'

 

In October, Mr Ahmadinejad caused an outcry by calling for Israel to "be wiped off the map".

 

In his latest remarks, he accused European governments of backing Israel because of the Holocaust.

 

"Is it not true that European countries insist that they committed a Jewish genocide? They say that Hitler burned millions of Jews in furnaces... and exiled them," Mr Ahmadinejad said at a news conference in the Saudi Arabian holy city.

 

"Then because the Jews have been oppressed during World War II, therefore they [the Europeans] have to support the occupying regime of Jerusalem. We do not accept this," he said.

 

"The question is, where do those who rule in Palestine as occupiers come from? Where were they born? Where did their fathers live? They have no roots in Palestine but they have taken the fate of Palestine in their hands," Mr Ahmadinejad added.

 

"Isn't the right to national self-determination one of the principles of the United Nations charter? Why do they deprive Palestinians of this right?"

 

The president's comments come as Iran is mired in controversy over its nuclear programme, which it says is solely for the provision of fuel, but which the US says is aimed at producing nuclear weapons.

 

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report in September said questions about Iran's nuclear programme remained unanswered despite an intensive investigation.

 

Source

[xiinfaniin]

Castro, few years ago, while I was in the East, I had the opportunity to visit Holocaust Museum at DC. Man, I can tell you these guys are pushing the envelope a little too extreme. I did not cry. But most people did. I was with my friend, and he told me we should at least pretend crying. This is a place that was built to observe the innocent death of millions of people, he reminded me. Expression of grief is what’s expected of us. We spent hours touring the place, and it felt a little awkward for us. Perhaps going to Washington Mall might have been a better plan for us.

 

What caught my attention though was how these establishments are committed to keep this issue alive. You can’t imagine how many busloads of school children were there, not so much to memorialize, but to be educated about the significance of that event. And quite significant it really was. I agree. What Hitler’s regime did was immoral and cruel. But I wonder if it’s being deliberately blown out of proportion to keep that century’s wound forever raw . Is it a unique? What about the fate of Muslims of Andalus? What about that of the fall of Baghdad in the hands of Kings Khan?

[Qandalawi]

^^

I did not cry. But most people did

You are hard-hearted, no remose and somewhat lost all sense of humanity. lol

 

What about the fate of Muslims of Andalus? What about that of the fall of Baghdad in the hands of Kings Khan?

Don't make mistake, It has always been and will ever be a two civilisations and you know them, us and I mean Muslims on one hand and them on the other.

 

We don't do such commemorations in our countries, we simply don't recognize that shit, they do it only in the west, so why care, they share a lot and have more in common than us, let them enjoy, and tell their lies stories to each other.

[Castro]

^ In my senior year in college, I took a religion course focusing on the commemoration of the Holocaust. The aim of the course was to show the many forms commemoration of the Shoah takes. From monuments, to galleries, to museums, to classes to even movies. So one day, while going through the manifestations of the remembrance, I raised the question of why so much commemoration. The professor's and 20 other pair of eyes were glued to me instantly. It's as if I suddenly pointed out the pink elephant in the room. I got an A in that class for a paper I wrote on Schindler (the character behind Spielberg's movie by the same name). The professor (a visibly staunch supporter of Israel and also a Jew) loved it. I believe he loved it not because it was a particulary positive take on the Shoah commemorations, but because it was a 'fresh' (his own word) look at why remembrance of the Holocaust was necessary.

 

So what was my fresh look at the Holocaust and its rememberance? I argued that the nature of the Holocaust, though not largest in scale, was an acutely horrific event. The victims were civilians, the manner was burning and the goal was ideological. In comparison to this, I chose the slavery of Africans in America. This Holocaust in its own right (though many Jews don't like the word association) occured over centuries. The victims were civilians, the manner was utter brutality and the goal was acquisition of wealth. Similiar still is the plight of native Americans, the continued impasse of the Palestinians and other large scale attrocities (even genocides).

 

There is a case to be made for those who insist this never ending commemoration is too much. Though I would argue the level of awareness other attrocities have received may be a reflection of how poorly organized those victims and their descendents are. I don't know. I certainly know more about the Holocaust than any other similarly horrific event. What intrigues me nowadays, though, are some of the motives behind this continued reminders. Is this a case of using the Holocaust to justify some of the actions of the state of Israel? Can the Holocaust occur again, as some of the commemorators insist? Does suffering such a calamity make the victims or survivors irreproachable going forward?

[Yeniceri]

Originally posted by Castro:

If you don't agree, what other historical events could, or should, be widely investigated and commemorated?

Read about the Hidden Holocausts for yourself and decide. There is good reason to consider the 20th century the "bloodiest century" of all time. Read about it.

 

The fact remains that there have been many Holocausts, especially during the 20th century.

[Castro]

^ True, but how many of them do we commemorate and remember as much as the Holocaust? What makes the Shoah so special?

[Yeniceri]

Originally posted by Castro:

What makes the Shoah so special?

Cause the Jews cried like frightened little girls. The whole world pitied them - the race that faced annahilation at the hands of evil Adolf and his "Final Solution." They simply capitalized on global pity for them. Quite the champions in that fora, I must add.

[Castro]

^ Atheer, there must be more enduring and complex rationales for the Holocaust reminders we constantly face besides the cries of "frightened little girls". I'm sure you'll appreciate that the cries of any victim are heeded as long as there is awareness of the events. Take the Rwandan genocide of 1994, for example. The US refused to officially call it a genocide but insisted, instead, on claiming acts of genocide have been committed. The same reaction the US had to Rwanda, it must have had to Germany and the Final Solution. It probably referred to it as acts of genocide back then too. My point is, why does the Shoah (of six decades ago) receive exponentially more commemoration and coverage than the Rwandan genocide that occured a mere decade ago? Are the victims of the Holocaust more innocent? The perpetrators more vile? Or are there more tangible and materialistic motives behind this non-stop reliving of the Holocaust?

[Zafir]

Adheer Castro, that because Jews own every thing me media and almost all the financial

Corps, as we all know with money and media one dictates what one gets and when. Think about it, of the top of my head I can count at least 12 movies made about the so called holocaust, and to ice this cake. They have one movie every year about the same concern that at least gets nominated if not win an Oscar. Jews are very powerful peopling especially those in power in the west.

 

10000 Bosnians died, slavery and etc. what about those unfortunate folks.

[Yeniceri]

Originally posted by Castro:

why does the Shoah (of six decades ago) receive

exponentially more commemoration and coverage

than the Rwandan genocide that occured a mere decade ago? Are the victims of the Holocaust more innocent?

Sxb, you're comparing two aspects of history that might seem similar on the surface but are, in reality, on different sides of the spectrum.

 

First of all, to be absolutely clear, there is no such thing as a victim being more innocent than any other victim. A victim (of persecution, in this case) is a victim - a powerless human being maimed and murdered by rival humans.

 

Now, there are several factors as to why we can't compare the Rwandan genocide (and it was a genocide) vis-a-vis the Jewish Holocaust. The Jewish Holocaust ocurred during a very historic time for the entire world: World War Two. The whole world was was aflame and the Jews were being burnt alive. All eyes were on Hitler and Nazi Germany. The Jewish state, Israel, came into being in the post-WW2 period, in 1948. Millions of European Jews who felt threatened in Europe (and for good reason) fled to the new State of Israel. Let's remember that these Jews were fairly wealthy families who'd lived in Europe for centuries, including businessmen and professional elite. The State of Israel knew it had history on its side because one of its primary policies was to raise awareness about the Jewish Holocaust worldwide. They used political, financial and communication means to deliver this vital message that would assure their continued existence in a hostile part of the world.

 

Did the victims of the Rwandan genocide have such opportunities? Did they have the financial and communication capability to deliver their message to the world? Did they even have the whole world's attention?

 

Let's remember that in early-mid 1994 when the Rwandan genocide being was taking place, South Africa was fighting to overcome the Apartheid regime, the OJ Simpson case had over American TV, Serbian forces were committing massacres in Saravejo, among other global events.

 

Why does the Jewish Holocaust get more commeration? Because the founders of Isreal made sure that the legacy of the "Final Solution" is never forgotten. They used all means in their ability to market their holocaust as "The Holocaust." They were so sucessful that denying the Holocaust is a crime in some countries.

[Castro]

^ Are they the 'chosen people' or what?

[Zafir]

^^ Were the chosen people at one point in time, but now, we are the chosen people.

[Socod_badne]

I say yes.

 

The holocaust was unique event in human history. It was the culmination of millennia plus old persecution of entire ppl. The Nazis were simply finishing off what others before them started and wanted to do for a long time -- namely kill every last jew. For that reason the holocaust was unique and should continue to keep its privileged status among all the other tragic genocides, holocausts in human history.

[Castro]

Originally posted by Zafir:

^^

Were

the chosen people at one point in time, but now, we

are

the chosen people.

Does that mean we'll finally unite and be successful? But we haven't had our Holocaust yet. Is that coming too?