The Holocaust
The Holocaust retains our attention more than 60 years after it ended. What many regarded as the most civilized nation on earth applied the most modern technology of the day to the destruction of human beings. Genocide on a theoretical and practical scale never before attempted and without the benefit of any lowered moral standard available to Arabs, Rwandans, Sudanese or other third world killers.
I know the facts, figures, dates place and names. I have read Dawidowicz and Goldhagen. Digesting it all, I have little to contribute but two things to remember.
Hitler was elected. No beer hall putsch, no coup, no revolution. Elected in a parliamentary system, a minority to be sure, but elected nonetheless, appointed as Chancellor, reflecting the prevailing wisdom and judgments of the German people. His platform was not a secret, Mein Kampf was in general circulation.
The Germans did not stop killing Jews until the Red Army physically and militarily prevented the killing. By January 1945 Himmler had directed that the death camps be shut down and the records destroyed, and yet Auschwitz and other camps, death marches and atrocities on a massive scale continued until the Russians overtook the retreating Germans. I have had occasion to criticize some historical writing which refers to the killers as the "Nazis". A minuscule percentage were members of the National Socialist party. The correct word is
"Germans".
What lessons do I take from the Holocaust? First, if a political leader espouses genocide I believe that he intends to do what he says. Political power does not moderate the views of the killers, it validates them. Second, societies of hate are perfectly capable of democratically electing the most horrible killers to office and following them through the consequences. How foolish would we be to say it could not happen again?
I have watched and listened to the Iranians and the Palestinians. The rhetoric of genocide is not hidden or subtle. It is clear and immediate, only lacking in the immediate means to the end. The Iranians and the Palestinians simply do not have the weaponry sufficient to wipe Israel off the map. At least not today. Those Palestinian sympathizers who deny the genocidal rhetoric are guilty of selective hearing, or projecting what they wish they would hear. In 2006 the only hope for peace in the Mideast is the hope that the Iranians and the Palestinians do not mean what they say, but there is no reason to believe that they do not mean what they say. On the contrary there is daily evidence that they mean exactly what they say, and have the intention if not the present means to carry it out. They have elected their leaders in free and open elections to carry out the wishes of the people, and the leaders are doing exactly that.
The lessons of the Holocaust are on the news every day.
I know the facts, figures, dates place and names. I have read Dawidowicz and Goldhagen. Digesting it all, I have little to contribute but two things to remember.
Hitler was elected. No beer hall putsch, no coup, no revolution. Elected in a parliamentary system, a minority to be sure, but elected nonetheless, appointed as Chancellor, reflecting the prevailing wisdom and judgments of the German people. His platform was not a secret, Mein Kampf was in general circulation.
The Germans did not stop killing Jews until the Red Army physically and militarily prevented the killing. By January 1945 Himmler had directed that the death camps be shut down and the records destroyed, and yet Auschwitz and other camps, death marches and atrocities on a massive scale continued until the Russians overtook the retreating Germans. I have had occasion to criticize some historical writing which refers to the killers as the "Nazis". A minuscule percentage were members of the National Socialist party. The correct word is
"Germans".
What lessons do I take from the Holocaust? First, if a political leader espouses genocide I believe that he intends to do what he says. Political power does not moderate the views of the killers, it validates them. Second, societies of hate are perfectly capable of democratically electing the most horrible killers to office and following them through the consequences. How foolish would we be to say it could not happen again?
I have watched and listened to the Iranians and the Palestinians. The rhetoric of genocide is not hidden or subtle. It is clear and immediate, only lacking in the immediate means to the end. The Iranians and the Palestinians simply do not have the weaponry sufficient to wipe Israel off the map. At least not today. Those Palestinian sympathizers who deny the genocidal rhetoric are guilty of selective hearing, or projecting what they wish they would hear. In 2006 the only hope for peace in the Mideast is the hope that the Iranians and the Palestinians do not mean what they say, but there is no reason to believe that they do not mean what they say. On the contrary there is daily evidence that they mean exactly what they say, and have the intention if not the present means to carry it out. They have elected their leaders in free and open elections to carry out the wishes of the people, and the leaders are doing exactly that.
The lessons of the Holocaust are on the news every day.
posted by Contraria | 7:14 PM
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