Holocaust history has been obscenely manipulated in the past decades in many ways – efforts which completely diminish and distort the Holocaust’s true meaning, as well as the reason why it so desperately needs to be remembered.
One of them, ironically enough, was put forth this past Friday on the very day set aside by the United Nations General Assembly as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the anniversary of the liberation of the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau.
The text of the American proclamation for this occasion, meant to put into words the message the world so desperately needs to learn from this modern descent into barbarity less than a century ago, recalled the crime but somehow failed to identify the victim. The horror of the Holocaust was the focus, but alas the word which never made it into the public statement ostensibly intended to ensure that genocide never again stains the pages of history was the word Jews!
One people were the object of a “final solution” - total elimination, men, women and children.
It is a rewriting of history that boggles the mind. One people were the focus of Nazi Germany’s plan to purify the Aryan race. One people were designated for slaughter. One people were the object of a “final solution” - total elimination, men, women and children. It was a war unlike any other, whose objective was not conquering land or enslaving others. It was solely the complete annihilation of a particular group identified as subhuman. So remarkable and unique, from a historic perspective, was this effort that a new word had to be created to describe it. It was not until 1944 that the term genocide was coined by Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in a book documenting Nazi policies of systematically destroying national and ethnic groups, as evidenced by the mass murder of European Jews.
The very idea of genocide began with the Jews as its victims.
If the Holocaust is to have any meaning and if its remembrance is to have any significance it must be understood in the context of its anti-Semitic focus. But that is not the message the world would like to emphasize. Throughout Europe, anti-Semitism is again “in.” Hating Jews has once more become fashionable, if not permissible. Arab and anti-Israel forces have brought back into circulation some of the worst slogans, propaganda and calls for extermination of the Jews reminiscent of the darkest days of Nazi Germany. For all of them, the elimination of anti-Semitism can’t possibly be the lesson of the Holocaust.
That’s why we are seeing finely orchestrated efforts to change the message. For years, Jew haters thought the best way to counter sympathy for the survivors of the final solution was to deny the reality of the Holocaust. As if saying it never happened could rewrite history, anti-Semites promulgated the lie refuted by the personal testimony of tens of thousands of witnesses. Denial, however, could never sway most of the educated and intelligent world. But a far more insidious solution found its way into the battle to destroy the relevant lesson of the Holocaust: the universalization of the crime, the misrepresentation of the horrific attempt to destroy the Jews as but another chapter in the story of the universal tale of Cain against Abel, of good threatened by evil.
Here is how administration spokeswoman Hope Hicks explained the omission of Jews from the statement meant to foster remembrance of the Holocaust: "Despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered.” Hicks added that “While 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, 5 million others were also slaughtered during Adolf Hitler's genocide, including priests, gypsies, people with mental or physical disabilities, communists, trade unionists, Jehovah's Witnesses, anarchists, Poles and other Slavic peoples, and resistance fighters."
So the new version is that a lot of people suffered. War is hell. The Holocaust had countless victims, irrespective of nationality, religion or identity. And, oh yes, forget about the final solution and the yellow star and the hunting down of the circumcised and the mad push of Hitler to the very end to find and murder every Jew in order to rid the world of what he called the scourge of mankind.
Of course there were others who perished. But it was only Jews who were all marked for death. And it was only Jews who were murdered not because of what they did but simply because of who they were.
The de-Judaization of the Holocaust is to render it devoid of its major message. The Holocaust is the story of a unique moment in history when a nation gone mad under the spell of an insane dictator made anti-Semitism its most important national policy – and ended up paying the price for its lunacy.
That is what justifies all the Holocaust memorials, all the books and the movies, all the lectures and remembrances. Forget the Jews from the story and you may as well admit that the world really learned nothing from the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century.
(24) Ernest Josef, June 23, 2019 9:46 PM
the world should never forget this past History so it will not repeat again G-D Blesss
(23) Anonymous, January 29, 2019 8:19 PM
Yes - So spot on
The white washing of History. Current administration should be ashamed.
(22) Bobby5000, March 31, 2017 4:16 AM
Ignore suffering while condemning the fact that others ignored ours
I don't get it. Talking about what occurred 75 years ago is more important than saving lives now, the suffering in Sudan where children are left to starve and officials steal food supplies cannot be compared to the starvation at Auschwitz, we condemn the fact that others did not help but requests for us to help today are off-point.
(21) Bob Van Wagner, February 6, 2017 6:16 PM
""Purim-Fest 1946!"
Those were the last words spoken by the last German of the 10 evil German men hung at Nuremberg on the last day of the Days of the Jewish New Year 5707, that being 16 October 1946 Gregorian, or Hoshana Raba. His name was Julius Streicher, he was born 12 February 1885, Gregorian. Eleven men were to have been hung.
US Master Sergeant John C. Woods and assistant MP Joseph Malta were the executioners, the 10 Germans were killed by a method known as the "long drop". The 10 Germans were dropped through a trap door, their necks tied to a think rope hung from a huge wooden beam above a courtyard. Some banged their heads badly against the narrow trap door, some lingered for as long as 14 minutes, strangling to death. The intent of the long drop is to break the neck quickly, a quick nigh-painless death is the intent. Reality is a G-d wills, according to our deeds are we judged.
The eleventh man condemned at the trial was Hermann Göring, a cross-dresser who wore women's clothing under his uniform, he committed suicide by cyanide pill the night before the hangings. The death sentences were given out on 1 October 1946 Gregorian, the 8th of Tishrei 5707.
The Germans who ran the war, the innermost circle of Hitler: what was their intent? To wipe out all the Jews.
They were all very smart, educated, urbane men. IQ tests performed during their imprisonment and trial gives their IQs ranging in the 120's-130's. Julius Streicher's was measured to be the lowest at 106.
In recent years as a number of influential Jews have pointed out (Caroline Glick for one), Holocaust-centric education of the young has produced a cohort of less-than affiliated Jewish youth in the Millennial generation.
Why is that? Because the real lessons of the Holocaust are not taught. The real lessons are why Queen Ester insisted to the Sages of the Time that the Purim scroll be written.
(20) Anonymous, February 5, 2017 12:24 PM
No yellow star for POWs, Gypsies, Priests, Homosexuals, Poles, Russians
The point is that there was only one systemized mass-execution center, created entirely for the extermination of the Jews. The point is that there was only one Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Jews were the only group singled out to wear a Jewish star. If anyone failed to read the memo, there were casulties of war, there was a process of execution of 'undesirables' that the Nazi's saw it, but unlike the above, there was no memorandum that saw the Gypsies, or POWs as a 'Problem' to be fixed through mass-extermination. That was the difference. Its like a factory that makes spaghetti with tomato sauce. It might be that on the side they also make soap with the extract from cane-sugar they use in the ketchup, but the main point of the factory is to make spaghetti with tomato sauce. To simply ignore that is to deny the Holocaust existed. War is messy, and undesirables are unfortunately cannon-fodder pre-Geneva. Jews were not vestigial remains of a war where the world went mad. Jews were systematically singled out and exterminated en-masse. It would have happened regardless of whether or not the Germans marched into Poland and started World-War II. That is the point.
However, to remember the tragedy of the Holocaust as simply man's inhumanity to man, misses the point. One perspective lies in the tragedy of the destruction of the Temple - that our purpose in the world is to bring about a sanctification of G-d's name by loving each other, and doing self-less acts of kindness and study Torah. When we fail in that mission, G-d helps us along to realize our full potential. The tragedy of Holocaust denial is only because we ourselves deny our potential to sanctify G-d's name. When the world sees who we truly are - a spiritual nation that shines with the light of Torah, then the tragedy of the Holocaust will be an episode filled with purpose and meaning.
(19) Anonymous, February 5, 2017 11:46 AM
were only the jews singeled out for extermination???
were only the Jews singled out or were the Gypsies and other groups also slated for extermination???
(18) Dvirah, February 4, 2017 9:35 PM
The Simple Truth
"Forget the Jews from the story and you may as well admit that the world really learned nothing from the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century." - They only learned how to lie to themselves more effectively.
(17) Paul Levy, February 4, 2017 8:19 PM
Impact
On two occasions I have visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Only when the facts of the fate of individuals who's only crime was being Jewish did the full impact hit me.
I have refrained from visiting the sites of the camps as I have heard that today the residents of the nearby districts make money from them and they are almost modern day 'chamber of horrors'. There are rumours of people taking selfies outside the gas chambers.
Here in Amsterdam is the home of one little girl of prodigious talent her sister, parents and another family who were swept away as casualties of the worst catastrophe ever to befall european jewery, and whose story only became known because the cleaner happened to finfd her diary on the floor.
On a final note, whilst queing to go in a few years ago a group of school children were in front of us laughing and joking. This continued through the museseum next door through which we proceeded. As soon as we entered the 'Secret Anexe' however they were completely silent - totally unbidden.
In the UK were I live antisemitism is on the rise. Perhaps those who receive convictions should be sent there as part of their sentence.
(16) LarryB, February 4, 2017 9:13 AM
Trump clearly made a mistKe
Ben Klein, I am more in your camp it seems than anyone else here. Having said that, Trump should have mentioned the Jews. It was not a rememberance day for anyone else. It was specifically made for the Jewish victims. That does not make him a racist or stupid. But he did make a mistake.
(15) Ariella, February 3, 2017 12:39 AM
some misrepresentation in this holocaust article.
The Roma (Gypsies) were also targetted for annihilation for no other reason than they were Roma...The comment that the Jewish people were the only ones who were the only ones who were innocent "murdered without doing anything" is also wrong. What was left out is that the Holocaust is the name for the Jewish genocide and therefore must not be distorted.
(14) Anonymous, February 3, 2017 12:16 AM
The Trump administration actions all but comes out directly to say they are bigoted. The beloved son in law is nowhere to be found when Trump omits the Jews from his Holocaust speech. To this administration it's all about what is convenient for their underhanded purposes.
(13) Anna, February 2, 2017 11:15 PM
It didn't occur to anyone that this was HOLOCAUST Remembrance Day, and the Holocaust was...Jews.
It didn't occur to them to say something like this is when we remember the 6,000,000 Jews who were sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps by the Germans (oops, unPC, the Nazis, the Germans had no idea) and murdered there, either by being gassed or worked and starved to death. Other people were killed there as well, gays, Gypsies and Communists, and we remember them, but Holocaust Remembrance Day is when we specifically remember the Jewish people who died because they were Jewish.
(12) Shelly, February 2, 2017 7:07 PM
Holocaust Victims
"Not every victim was a Jew, but every Jew was a victim"
(11) Hindy Kierman, February 2, 2017 6:59 PM
Holocaust Distortion
As Elie Weisel z"l once said so eloquently, "not every victim was a Jew, but every Jew was a victim. As Hitler, yimachshmo v'zichro, may his memory be blotted out,
was dying, he encouraged people to continue killing Jews. I am surprised at the Trump administration, especially with Trump having a Jewish son-in-law and grandchildren, that the Jewish Holocaust was omitted, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, That was clearly a victory for deniers of the Holocaust, and should be brought to Trump's attention.
(10) Steve David, February 2, 2017 4:36 PM
The Statement Did Not "De-Judaize" The Holocaust
I thank Rabbi Blech for his typically eloquent and thoughtful essay. I take issue with him on a few points: 1. I believe that it's incorrect to call the Trump administration's statement "de-Judaized," which implies that Jews were excluded. The statement did not exclude Jews, it simply did not specify them. 2. It's been reported that the statement was drafted by Stephen Miller, a senior advisor in the Trump administration. Mr. Miller is not only a Jew, but he is also the grandson of Holocaust survivors, so it is incomprehensible to think that the statement was meant to de-Judaize the Holocaust. 3. In addition, Rabbi Blech neglects to note or criticize the Pope for also failing to specify the Jews in his Holocaust Remembrance Day statement. Nor like President Trump did the Pope have his chief of staff appear on network news shows the next day to explain that his boss has children and grandchildren who are Jewish and obviously meant no offense to them or to any Jew, who as a People suffered horribly in the Holocaust. I don't know how he could have been any clearer.
(9) Anonymous, February 2, 2017 4:01 PM
Missed the Point
I found Stanley Nayshtut's post missed the point. Let's stay with the topic of the Remembrance of all of the Jews that were lost during the Holocaust. Criticizing other Jews in this venue has nothing to do with the article.
(8) ilan, February 2, 2017 3:39 PM
No mention of Trump?!?
The rabbi mentions only "the administration" without mentioning whose administration put out this dismaying Holocaust memorial statement. I suspect that might be because so many Aish readers, and perhaps the rabbi himself, foolishly believe that Trump is good or at least better for the Jews or Israel. He is not! A wake up call should be unnecessary, given the racism, xenophobia, and misogyny Trump has unabashedly professed; A wake up call should not be necessary given Trump's "us vs. them" and "Americans vs. outsiders" attitude. (Just a reminder, Jews are outsiders, sooner or later.) If that hasn't been enough for any particular Jew, perhaps his distorted take on the Holocaust will be a clue that Trump is not to be trusted as our ally.
(7) John Spencer-Davis, February 2, 2017 3:12 PM
This article disrespects the suffering of the Romani people and others.
I agree that the suffering of the Jewish people under Nazism must never be forgotten and should never be diluted by the fact that war is hell.
I do not agree that the suffering of the Jewish people should be regarded as more special than the suffering of other racial and societal categories under Nazism.
"So the new version is that a lot of people suffered. War is hell. The Holocaust had countless victims, irrespective of nationality, religion or identity."
No. That is quite false. Very specific categories of people were killed or sent to concentration camps. There is no reason why the suffering of such individual groups should not be remembered as part of the Holocaust. The treatment of the Romani people, for example, was savage and dreadful in a very similar manner to the treatment of the Jewish people. For the author of this article to deal with the suffering of others in thirty words is deeply disrespectful.
Anonymous, February 2, 2017 7:05 PM
Jewish Target
No other group was targeted by the Nazis, as were the Jews. No other group was referred to as a "problem," such as 'The Jewish Problem', or "solution," such as "The Final Solution". The planning that went into this, the coordination, the secrecy, has never ever been seen before that. No other group suffered as much as the Jews. Yes, others were killed, but Jews were on the lowest rank, designated for torture and ultimate death, only because they were Jewish. Six Million people of one religion is a lot to destroy. The good news is that while this is the world's worst tragedy, we are still here, with the State of Israel, and they are gone gone gone. That's what happens to anyone who messes with the Jews.
(6) issac brott, February 2, 2017 2:36 PM
TELL IT TO SOMEONE WHO CARES?
What's your problem?
Since when do we need to rely on anyone's sympathy.
You must be an American who has caught the disease of assimilation.
The moment that Jews need to 'rely' on the sympathy of goyim that the moment that we are in serious trouble again.
Israel has always stood alone and has returned to strength...we will survive if we are not wimpy and rely not on third party 'sympathy' but ourselves.
Go spend your life grovelling for love and affection...it's delusional and dissipating!
(5) Mike, February 2, 2017 12:44 PM
The Rabbi makes a good point.
I have no problem with remembering the many non-Jewish victims of the nazis. Gypsies, disabled, homosexuals and others were targeted and should be acknowledged. However, you don't get inclusion by excluding the Jews. The Jewish people were singled out in a way that no other group experienced. Hitler didn't track down these other groups throughout all of Europe and the middle east. Hitler wanted to kill every single Jew no matter where they lived. He did not exhibit that kind of hatred for these other groups. Thank you Rabbi Blech for this article.
(4) Dennis, February 2, 2017 12:11 AM
Oy gevalt!
"And it was only Jews who were murdered not because of what they did but simply because of who they were."
Respectfully, that is simply untrue.
People with disabilities were deemed to be racial pollutants; it was their systematic etermination that actually inspired the methods of mass killings used at Auschwitz ("Aktion T4"). Same thing with gypsies and homosexuals - for them, too, it was a crime to be who they were. And the same thing was true for many Soviet prisoners, deemed to be racially inferior - the first victims of Zyklon B in 1941 were chiefly Soviet POWs and miscellaneous other infirm prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau II. Of 5 million Soviet POWs, 3,3 million were brought to death. That is a genocide of its own.
What is indeed true is that Jews were the priority targets. But I find the undertone of the article - which can be interpreted as saying that the other victims don't really matter - to be horrifying to say the least.
One of my relatives was murdered by the Nazis in a horribly efficient manner: He was dependant on medication. They cut it off, as they thought a chronically ill person was not worth the effort of keeping alive. Within weeks, he was dead. He was deemed to be a liability because of who he was.
I agree with @Anonymous, February 1, 2017 1:40 PM. All the murderous toxicity of Nazi extermination ideology wants quashing, not just the main thrust. Implying the other victims are somehow second-class victims smacks of making their deaths seem less grievous. Is this something a society sworn to make sure this never happens again could actually want?
(3) nora, February 1, 2017 4:34 PM
God remains faithful in His Word - Promises as well as Fulfillment
We must not overlook the fact that God is behind everything that occurs to us, in Deuteronomy He had proclaimed through Moses what would happen if Israel disobeyed or obeyed. Needless to say, because of the results, we disobeyed like any other nation would have. The point is He keeps His word. The whole world should know and learn this, be aware, & continually conscious of this!
(2) Yaakov novograd, February 1, 2017 2:20 PM
Thank you.
Excellent essay.
And so important.
(1) Anonymous, February 1, 2017 1:40 PM
Mention everybody, not nobody
Gypsies and people with disabilities were also murdered "not because of what they did but simply because of who they were". Most of them had never even criticized the Nazis yimach shemam, and even if someone did dislike the regime that doesn't mean his death was somehow his own fault. I think the statement should have mentioned the Jews AND the others. With antisemitism making a comeback, Roma being treated like dirt and parents of children with disabilities being told that they should have had an abortion, it seems as necessary as ever.
Simcha Talia Hirsch, February 2, 2017 2:13 AM
I agree
I am so glad you mentioned people with disabilities. Over the past several years I have noticed as well this increase in this negative attitude about people with disabilities and idea that they are of no value. There seems to be an increase is hostile feelings of why should I help pay for programs to help the disabled and your family's problems. Compassion and kindness have given way to anger and hate it seems.