It’s very rare for a Jewish book to be covered as a front page story in the New York Times. But that’s just what happened a few days ago to a highly unusual publication about the Holocaust.
And frankly, I am appalled.
I’ve read many Holocaust books. I’ve taught Holocaust classes. I’ve been in the forefront of those who preach the need never to forget the unspeakable crime of the 20th century. I’m committed to the importance of reading about the horrors of Nazi genocide, no matter how personally painful it is to confront the details of this terrifying tragedy. But it is beyond my comprehension to become aware of an attempt to tell the story in a way that echoes the very crime it is meant to condemn, in a sense to perpetuate the mindset that permitted the Shoah to happen.
The book is predicated on a gimmick. In its 1250 pages, there is no plot, no narrative, no characters and in fact no words other than one. The word is “Jew,” and it is repeated six million times. That is all. Nothing else. Turn page after page and you have what is meant to serve as a reminder of every one of the victims. And, as the publisher hopefully puts it, readers will gain some idea of the immensity of the loss of all those who perished.
These unique, irreplaceable human beings have become nothing more than nameless, faceless objects on a lengthy list.
And what is missing, to my mind, is the most important point of all: the names of these victims. They nowhere appear. All that readers are left with is the supposed impact of the number six million. The book implies that every one of them is meant to be suggested just by the word Jew. And so these unique, individual, distinctive and irreplaceable human beings have become nothing more than identical objects on a lengthy list, nameless and faceless – the very goal of their executioners who systematically replaced their victims’ names with tattooed numbers which identified them only as Jews.
It is a fascinating aspect of Jewish law, whose source is in the Bible itself, that when taking a census Jews may never be counted by number. Indeed, to this day, when needing to ascertain whether there are in fact 10 Jews present for a prayer service, we are not permitted to count those who are present as one, two, three, etc. but rather by way of a biblical verse consisting of 10 words - all so that we not diminish the concept of individual uniqueness.
That is why any attempt to understand the Holocaust by way of the immensity of the number of victims is not only certain to prove ineffective but also self-defeating. It is a remarkable truth that probably the most powerful impact on the world’s conscience and consciousness of the Holocaust was the Diary of Anne Frank, the story of one young girl with whom everyone could identify rather than any list with no personal meaning.
And that is probably why the most moving of all the exhibits at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, is in the wing known as the Hall of the Children. The darkness is claustrophobic and frightening. The only light comes from blinking stars in the ceiling, symbolic reminders of the children who perished. The only sound that is heard is a recitation, not of prayers, but of names – an endless list of infants, children, and teenagers, whose only legacy is the name they were given at birth. To stand for a time and listen, to meditate and realize that every name was a person as precious to their loved ones as our children and grandchildren are to us is to recognize in yet another way that the phrase “six million” hardly begins to describe the loss of the Jewish people and the world.
To repeat the word “Jew” six million times is to turn people into numeric abstractions, unique souls into identical cookie-cutter constructs with no thought for the remarkable and exclusive potential of each one of their lives whose loss impoverished all of mankind.
The author and publisher, committed Jews who do so much for the Jewish people, certainly have good intentions. But to me this approach feels eerily like the ideology where each of us is described simply as “Jew,” the first step in turning us into faceless victims.
Agree or disagree? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
(30) Deborah, September 1, 2016 10:55 AM
Inappropriate
We need to know the names of these victims. This book would be like printing a book about slavery using only the word "black". I would find that grossly insensitive.
(29) Hilda, February 20, 2016 11:01 PM
Disagree to a point
Although you make a valid point i do not totally agree. i think the book is somewhat useful. 6 million is a number but when somebody sees that it takes '1250 pages' to write just the word Jew 6 million times he can start to comprehend what 6 million actually means. when i originally heard about this book i thought i'd love to see it since it made ppl think that each and every word Jew is referring to a person with his parents, siblings, cousins, friends etc. Each person is a world!
(28) Anonymous, July 2, 2015 5:25 PM
I definitely agree. I am, actually, still in school (middle school, at a Yeshiva institution) and in honor of Yom HaShoah, we did a project titled, "Project Witness." Each girl got a card, in which was the name of a girl who died in the Holocaust, dates/places of birth and death, etc. with the very intention and purpose that their NAMES shouldn't be FORGOTTEN, ever! We did mitzvos l'iluy nishmas hakedoshim -- elevating the very aspect which they could no longer fulfill. I think that the whole idea was an excellent way to ensure that each person shouldn't be forgotten, simply called history and ignored.
(27) Helene, February 13, 2014 3:53 PM
While I agree with all the comments and understand the sentiment, this book does provide something important. As an NYC public high school teacher, it is very hard to get the idea of 6 million people across to my students. The figure is just too huge. This book would help student to see how much 6 million is. Secondly, right or wrong, children to not relate as well to foreign sounding names. (Please don't say that that is no excuse to not write the names, I agree) but that is the reality of the situation. By writing the word Jew 6 million times, the book brings home, in a very powerful way, who the victims were in terms of religion and illustrates the sheer number of those victims. I think that that was the intention of the book. I also do not believe that it was the author or publisher intention to belittle or objectify those who perished.
Anonymous, July 2, 2015 5:34 PM
Yeah, at the same time at which remembering their names is important, remembering the unbelievable excuse for their deaths is very valuable to today's Jews: it behooves us, seeing these many people murdered for the one word "Jew", to remember and cherish our religion and establish it as something that is at least tolerable to the world, if not "to be respected tremendously". As for the memories of the victims, the best we can do for them NOW, after the fact, is to a) do mitzvos in their memory -- YES, with a name -- and b), to ensure that what happened to them never, ever happens again. THAT is the point of remembering: Jew.
(26) Shellie, February 6, 2014 8:00 PM
Senseless
I agree.
(25) Chava Willig Levy, February 5, 2014 11:19 PM
Might I suggest an alternative, something meaningful that graces our home?
This book's author and publisher certainly had noble intentions but I think that their project does a disservice to the very people they wished to honor. Even if they had stuck with their original concept - a coffee table book with the word "Jew" printed six million times - they could have printed that word with many permutations, e.g., different fonts, sizes, shadings and colors.
Might I suggest an alternative, something meaningful with graces our home?
On our living room wall, we have hung a framed black-and-white photo purchased from the State of Israel national photo collection:
http://tinyurl.com/lkj796q
It features six young Holocaust survivors who had just reached Israel's shores, tattooed numbers on their arms.
Directly above this photograph, we have hung a giclée/lithograph of Geula Twersky's painting, "Names":
http://www.geulaart.com/gallery.php?k=names
From a distance, the painting and the photograph appear identical. But upon closer inspection, one sees that the artist has replaced the six tattoos with six Hebrew words from Isaiah 40:26, "He who took them out in great numbers calls each one by name."
To the Nazis, we were just numbers but the Almighty knew - and knows - each of us by name.
(24) Rina, February 4, 2014 8:40 PM
I agree with Rabbi Blech. As a seminary student last year, I visited Poland and I cannot believe a single week will ever impact me as much. Yet even standing in Auschwitz or Treblinka, only stories and actual names and details come truly make me realize where I was. While we have become desensitized to the number 6 million, and it was more than that, we need to focus on maybe the smaller picture. THEY WERE PEOPLE WITH NAMES!
And it's not for exploitation that we live in the shadow of the Holocaust, it's in memory of the people.
Lisa, February 16, 2014 5:13 AM
Why don't you write a book with the 6,000,000 names?
The point was the amount of Jews that were murdered.....the number 6 million that non of us can comprehend! Someone else can write a book with the names......
(23) Anonymous, February 4, 2014 12:32 PM
Also 12 million Slavs
And also the 12 million Slavs who were murdered by the Nazi's as well.
Marl, February 14, 2014 10:39 PM
12 million Slavs (response)
Jews have been the object of hatred from the beginning of their existence.
Yes, Hitler murdered millions of people -- but NO people with the express purpose of eliminating them from the face of the earth! JEWS have that distinction.
Christians murdered millions of Jews, too ... because Jews refused to convert.
Hitler murdered about 70% of ALL the world's population Jews. No other peoples that he murdered were ONLY because they were black or gay or Christian.
The entire Holocaust was about Hitler exterminating ALL Jews. He did his best - but we still survived, although our numbers never grew since that time.
Why do Christians insist on negating Jews!
Thomas Dudley, June 7, 2015 1:59 AM
Any Christian who denies the Holocaust is not worthy of the name. There have been too many witnesses to this horror. Its very immensity is what makes it hard to believe. But we must realize sinful man is capable of even this horrendous crime.
(22) Dan, February 3, 2014 11:04 PM
Words are limited. Therefore each and every person of the 6 million that perished have been limited to one word- Jew....Is this not insulting to them? i Believe that each and every one of them were far greater than a limited word,hence its a disgrace....
(21) Alina, February 3, 2014 9:43 PM
that is the point
I think this is exactly the point they were trying to make. That these people only were Jews in the eyes of their murderers, I think that is why they have no names, and this is the horror of it
(20) Rachel, February 3, 2014 8:54 PM
As always, you get out what you put in...
...I think that some people will find this a fitting memorial. And others will think it dehumanizes the murdered.
Kind of reminds me of initial reaction to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Some people thought it was offensive because it was just a wall that only listed the names of all the fallen, in the order of their deaths, rather than having standard sculptures.
I have not seen the book, but I would like to. And on a few pages, I think we would add the names of my husband's murdered grandfathers.
(19) rivka, February 3, 2014 8:08 PM
Not only Jews
I am Jewish, and dcedicated to perpetuating the memory of the Shoah. Nevertheless, I think this book should have been expanded. How many physically disabled? How many "gypsies"? Etc etc. No, the holocaust cannot be represented simply the word Jew. It is important to acknowledge how widespread was the Nazis' hatred, it was not just the Jews who suffered. We were by far the great majority, yes. But not the only victims.
(18) Anonymous, February 3, 2014 3:01 AM
Rabbi Blech has misunderstood the intent and impact of the book
I must respectfully disagree with Rabbi Blech whose articles I generally find extremely accurate. This time I think he has missed the point. I know the author quite well. We learned together in Yeshiva for seven years. This "book" , as explained in the NY Times article, began as an exercise for Middle School children to help them understand the concept of 6,000,000, a number so great that it is almost impossible to fathom. The goal of the exercise was to let people see what 6,000,000 is. Rather than trivialize the individuals who perished it was meant to let the reader (?) try and conceptualize the greatness of the tragedy. I held this book in my hand (when there were only 3 existing copies) and started to tear up. I was present when holocaust survivors themselves began to cry upon realizing the sheer weight of numbers. The author had this book in his possession for decades before he was convinced to publish it. For him, this was a simple act of love , attempting to let the average person understand the extent of loss we have suffered.
The very title of the book belies Rabbi Blech's assessment. "And Every Single One Was Someone" tells us exactly what the author's goal was.
Just as the Diary of Anne Frank told the story of 6,000,000 through the story of one, this volume is meant to multiply the story of one by 6,000,000.
I can only urge Rabbi Bleich to hold the book as ADL Director Abe Foxman, a holocaust survivor, did so perhaps he too would appreciate the utter power of the book.
Or perhaps not. But I believe he would at least understand its purpose more fully.
Lisa, February 3, 2014 4:26 PM
Can the Holocaust be told by just using one word , Jew?
This book is not to teach about The Holocaust albeit it is to let us visualize the vast unimaginable number: 6,000,000.
I held an original copy .... It overwhelms you!
Rabbi Blech did you see this book? Did you hold it & turn it's pages?
If not, it's worth it !
Gabriel, February 5, 2014 5:38 PM
But I do agree that it does make the reader of the book realize how many Jews actually died, may they rest in peace
Gabriel, February 5, 2014 5:37 PM
Would the author have the same effect if he listed all the actual names of the Jews who passed?
And would it be the same if someone wrote a book like this but with the title of "Slav" or "homosexual" or "mentally handicapped person" or "elder" ?
I think it would be very insensitive and that is what Rabbi Blech is trying to say
(17) MESA, February 2, 2014 10:45 PM
I think there are two sides here. I do agree that we mustn't forget that it wasn't just 6 million who were murdered, but that they were all human beings with distinct personalities. But I don't think that by showing 6 million pages, or 6 million paper clips for that matter, we are depersonalizing our kedoshim. I think people just need a way to understand the impact. But this is also why we need the survivors to tell their stories and make it as personal as possible. As Jews, we should take very loss personally.
(16) Shirley, February 2, 2014 8:55 PM
-cant prevent "never again" unless we know what happened
As a Gentile I agree with the opinion of the writer of the article. I think it desentizes people the same way hearing vulgar language on a daily basis loses its distastefulness. Also in response to "its about the victims and we dont need to understand why Hitler did" Right now people in America are protesting Obamacare and his policies specifically because they have read and understand what Hitlers policies were and how he and the medical community put them in place to start the Holocaust. Had people not protested who knows how far along we would be in our own Holocaust.?
(15) Nicole, February 2, 2014 7:50 PM
Names of the victims murdered by the hand of the Nazis are available, the Nazis had lists of people that where send to the camps. I found my grand mother, grand father and ant in the Book of Serge Klarsfeld, there are the list of the Jewish people sent to concentration camps from France. There must be other list from other country's. Names are available and it is important when writing about our lost and murdered one to produce names, it give them a face, a past life and identity. It is not right to have them nameless. At Yad Vachem just hearing the names of those children, in the darkness, it is like a dager in my heart. They all deserve to be called by their name, it is a respect to their suffered soul and body and a reminder to us not to forget them.
(14) Jody Barankin, February 2, 2014 7:21 PM
A quotation
"The murder of one person is a tragedy. The murder of one million persons is a statistic." --- Josef Stalin The author(s) of the book is (are) wrong. Rabbi Blech is right.
(13) Michelle Fuhlbohm-wylde, February 2, 2014 7:18 PM
Yes indeed. Could not agree more.
(12) Lisa, February 2, 2014 7:03 PM
Very impacting
Just wondering if Rabbi Blech or any of the others who oppose this book has ever held it in your hands & actually flipped through the pages? So very impacting !! Try it.....
(11) Daniel W. Krueger. Ph.D., February 2, 2014 5:45 PM
Exploring the sheer volume
I have to respectfully disagree with the statement that the book is missing the names of those murdered.
The book is a representation of the scope of the attempted full destruction of the Jewish people. There is no source at this time that has all of the names of those murdered. While the Nazis kept very good records many were destroyed during the liberation campaigns just before the cowards bolted from the camps.
There were people who everyone in their family died and records destroyed - so those names are not captured and thus the known names will also be missing many souls.
The use of the word Jew is impactful - especially to non-Jews. Every one of the six million murdered were murdered for being a Jew. The book makes the argument that it all one needed to be was a Jew and they were fair game for murder at the hands of the SS.
There have been many expressions of the number six million over the past decades - one that comes to mind and has happened in a few schools here in the United States is the collection of paperclips - one for each of the six million.
Are these children and their teachers saying Jews are paperclips?
I think not.
It is an attempt to solidify physically what six million looks like - it is not a number that is in everyones day to day consciousness.
In our effort to never forget we must embrace every genuine expression designed to lead to a full understanding of the atrocity leveled upon the Jews.
Henry Federman, February 2, 2014 8:36 PM
Jew
I am also a holocaust survivor,while some names we knew,family,friends most of them we don't know. Once in awhile we hear stories of survivor who tell us of what they saw and heard.I understand that in this book there are blanks so you can replace 'Jew ' with someone's name. You only had to be a Jew to be killed,no name required,sometimes just a number.
Michael Mendershausen, February 2, 2014 9:15 PM
Dr. Krueger
I disagree with you. You are right about not one place having all the names, but Yad Vashem estimates among the 5 million testimonies they have about 4 million individual names; twelve of them are my immediate family and many hundreds more are cousins. Hitler wanted to erase us from the globe, not just in Europe, and this book serves the purpose of erasing them as individual and homogenizing them.
(10) Marlene Josephs, February 2, 2014 5:02 PM
I couldn't agree with you more!
I saw this article when it first came out in the NYTimes (or as I like to say "Slimes"). I was appalled for just the same reasons that you wrote, Rabbi Blech, and it left me so cold. I couldn't help thinking about the quote that I read about many years ago by then General Eisenhower when he helped to liberate the camps: "Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses – because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”
- General Dwight D. Eisenhower, on future Holocaust denial
This book, while it may be well intended, can be used against the remembrance of the lost neshamas and each of their worlds of lost neshamas that could have been. Hashem's wisdom in directing us to never count a human being by number is so blatantly demonstrated by this book...instead of numbers it is done with the cold "JEW"!
(9) Anonymous, February 2, 2014 4:56 PM
An insightful and important perspective
This article is very insightful. The first two comments on your article totally miss the point. Why should Jews put their efforts and money to explain Hitler's/the Nazi point of view/perspective. It has always been about the victims and should be about the victims. I remember after the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli government published a book (White binding) simply filled with the names of all it's fallen soldiers. It was one of the most powerful books I ever read. While I understand the motives of the author of this book, I think he "missed the mark" in making his point.
(8) Marny CA, February 2, 2014 4:19 PM
One word for whom?
Shall I use only one word for Germans? Should there be only one word for Christians who murdered Jews who refused to commit!
Speaking Christians usually ends up with them telling me that Jews were not the only people killed by Hitler. They truly are not interested in knowing that Hitler murdered over 70% of ALL the Jews on the face of the earth!
What is the one word for Christians who pray to a Jew and call me 'dirty Jew'?
I'm tired of being told or reading "Jews have all the power and all the money!"
When a non-Jew says to me 'oh, you're a Jew' - I cringe. They seem not smart enough to know that it would be more appropriate and less caustic to simply say 'oh, you're Jewish.'
Is there one word that I can call non-Jews??? Something that they would cringe at hearing!?
In the scheme of the planet, and removing all the zeros:
7,000 billion people TOTAL
of which:
6,986 non-Jews
0,014 Jews
Ruminate about those numbers for a while! If all the Jews murdered by Christians and Hitler and others throughout history the number of Jews would not come even close to 6 BILLION 900 Thousand and Eight-Six.
If Jews are so hated, why do the Haters wear jeans or go to doctors and lawyers and bankers who are Jewish. Why do Haters use cell phones? Or thousands of other ways that Jews have enhanced the world since the beginning of their existence!!
Give me a word -- just one word. One word to tell me why Jews are so hated, even to the Present!!
Bruno, February 2, 2014 9:33 PM
I totally understand your point, and sometimes i ask that to myself that very often. Jealousy it is the first adjective that comes to my mind. However jealousy it is not enough to so much hate
Marsha Mintz Williams, February 3, 2014 4:06 AM
Very well stated
Even tho I spent most of my life not knowing I was/am Jewish, I always loved jewish people, and always wondered why christians didn't keep ALL the commandments. It felt like I had been released from a cage when I learned that I was Jewish in 2001. Now I am devouring knowledge as a starving person would devour food!!
(7) jack doueck, February 2, 2014 3:42 PM
Well Done Rabbi Blech - As Usual - Right on Target
Rabbi Blech, as usual, is inciteful and thoughtful. His critique of the book - and of the NY Times - is right on the money. Hazak UBaruch!
(6) Harry Pearle, February 2, 2014 3:35 PM
Big Lesson: We should show RESPECT for EVERY Jew!
Rabbi Blech misses the point. If is up to us, the living to identify with the victims and the living Jewish people. Instead, R.Blech does not even mention the title of the book: 'And Every Single One was a Someone'. Not only, that he does not mention the author, Phil Chernofsky. He does not mention that Mr.Chernofsky is director of education for OU's Israel Center....
This reminds me of Pirkei Avos 6.3: ' He who learns from his companion, even one chapter, one rule, one verse, one word, or even one letter, is obligated to treat him with respect.'
(5) Vera (Katztenstein) Grifenhagen, February 2, 2014 3:14 PM
Survivor
All of the above say it all! It would be wonderful to put a list together ( book) with all the available info of those who perished
during the Shoah.(all -no matter religion) Any interest out there?
HPearle, February 2, 2014 4:37 PM
How about printng INITIALS of known Holocaust victims?
Practically speakng, it would be almost impossible to print a listen of names of victims in a simple volume. We don't even have a record of all who perished. But it might be possible to print the INITIALS of the millions of known lost and add the word JEW to the respect of the unknown.
This volume may be a first step, with great impact of our lives, now.
(4) MDL, February 2, 2014 2:51 PM
The book's message is powerful.
I totally agree with comment number one. People throw around the number 6,000,000 all the time without really understanding how big a number it really is. The publisher's intent was to show the enormity of the destruction, and it worked. I used a similar tactic when leading a group on a trip to Poland, and it was effective. Of course, there is also room for books like the ones R. Blech applauds. But that doesn't take away from the usefulness and impact of this one.
(3) Lisa, February 2, 2014 1:47 PM
I saw & picked up this very heavy book...amazing
How can we wrap our minds around the number 6 million? I know I can't! It's just another angle to the immense number of Jews we lost.... It's not to undermind anyone's identity.
(2) Anonymous, February 2, 2014 12:23 PM
No enough
I was thinking I agreed with you until I read comment #1. The failure was in not including everyone who died; there were more identification patches in the camps than just magen David's, and more than just jews who died. To have made a more powerful impact; for "people" to really "get" the holocaust and not "forget" it, it needs to be understood on the largest scale possible; that a LOT of people died, jew AND non jew. The holocaust needs to be shown as it really was: an epic "human" tragedy, like the Flood, that should never be forgotten.
Pat Abatemarco, February 2, 2014 5:38 PM
Honoring EVERYONE we lost.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. As Jews we must never forget, nor let the world forget. However, the Shoah was not exclusively a Jewish tragedy. Let us not forget that the Nazis killed the physically and mentally disabled, the mentally ill, political dissenters, and gays and lesbians as well. Many people lose sight of that. If we remember all the victims perhaps readers will be more likely to not think of the Holocaust as a strictly Jewish tragedy that they do not relate to. If we are to prevent this from happening again we need everyone's help. It was too easy for the world to overlook and deny what was happening because it was happening to the Jews and frankly we were not considered that important. This was a human tragedy not just a Jewish tragedy.
(1) Anonymous, February 2, 2014 9:29 AM
Missing the Point
With all due respect, I think the author of the article has missed the whole point of that book. The whole idea of a book filled with the word Jew was to highlight the dehumanization process of the Nazis towards the Jews. Hence its title: "And Every Single One Was Someone"
The fact that the book does not mention the names of victims was a powerful way of showing that for Hitler, these people were just "nobodies" whereas Phil Chernovsky wanted to show that each of them were "someones".
Rabbi Benjamin Blech, February 2, 2014 3:43 PM
Getting the Point
I do not respond to comments on my articles but the importance of this issue demands that I reply to this post. Indeed I got the point all too well - the book wants "to highlight the dehumanization process of the Nazis towards the Jews" by repeating the very same crime. We need to rectify the sin of turning victims into nothing more than "Jew", rather than to commit that selfsame act once again - and proclaim it a fitting memorial!
Lisa, February 2, 2014 8:50 PM
Being labeled "JEW"
It's an honor to be called a JEW....especially when we don't know all the names that were murdered!
This book is not about the individual person, we have many books about survivors.
This gigantic book is a numbers book....it's suppose to be nameless & faceless !
It impacted me immensely!
Dvirah, February 11, 2014 6:56 PM
Agree With Rabbi Blech
The names should certainly be shown, perhaps as "Plony, Jew" - which would make both points and in fact sharpen that all the was important to the Nazis about the human being, Plony, was that he/she was Jewish. Where the names are not known, one would write "name unknown" or perhaps, even better, "name lost."