My favorite wingnut racist blogger Charles Johnson yesterday wrote a piece commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a place the very name of which has become synonymous with evil. Johnson’s piece is well intended; it offers a sketchy, History 101-type description of the death camp, the kind of thing you can find on any number of Web sites. And that would have been fine, but he ruins it by coming to an appallingly wrong conclusion of what the lesson of Auschwitz should be:
If remembering Auschwitz should teach us anything, it is that we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing, knowing where it inevitably leads.
Now wait a minute. I am a Jew and I support Israel (though not unconditionally). But this is absolutely NOT the key lesson of the Holocaust, not at all. Far more important is the lesson that men, even the most civilized and cultured, are capable of doing the most atrocious of things when barbarism is permitted to flourish and when the basic tenets of human decency are discarded and replaced by notions of superiority. Another key lesson is that racial stereotyping of ANY group, be it gypsies, Jews, gays or Slavs, can have dire consequences. And another key lesson is how urgent it is that we have stringent laws, check and balances to reign in those who would abuse their power, and those who would see fit to torture and kill.
Yes, the plight of the Jews is a central part of this mosaic, but the lessons of Nazism aren’t simply about making sure we all protect Jews. It’s about making sure no group — Jewish or otherwise — ever again falls victim to the kinds of horrors the Jews faced in Auschwitz. It’s about preventing man’s basest instincts from overcoming his critical thinking.
How odd, that Johnson doesn’t see the extreme irony here — that his own site is the kind of breeding ground for hatred and racism that made Auschwitz possible. His embrace of torture, religious hatred and the notion that we can do whatever we want to those who belong to a specific religious group — the road to Auschwitz got started from precisely this deviant mentality.
1
By bingfeng
many studies indicate that holocausts are closely connected with dictatorship and power centralization.
and in the individual level, it is no doubt connected with intolerance.
so to prevent that tragedy happen again, we need to fight against two evils, one in organizational another in individual level.
January 27, 2005 @ 8:54 pm | Comment
2
By Jing
I don’t think its really relevant or not you are Jewish. If you go against the LGF crowd, you are instantly reviled as a self-hating Jew.
January 27, 2005 @ 9:03 pm | Comment
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By Mark Anthony Jones
Richard – I have just read what you have to say about the lessons of Auschwitz, and I have to say that I couldn’t agree with you more! We see eye to eye 100% on this one!
Best regards,
Mark Anthony Jones
January 27, 2005 @ 9:16 pm | Comment
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By bellevue
People may think Auschwitz is 60 years behind and thus far from today’s world. Richard is right; it’s not about Jewish only. In more recent hisotry, the plight of Kurds, Tibetans, Uighurs and of many other ethnic groups all just prove that Auschwitz is not as far behind as one might think and wish.
January 27, 2005 @ 10:52 pm | Comment
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By Mark Anthony Jones
Yes, I agree Bellevue. And it’s also about what is happening now in the Guantanamo Bay interrogation centre. Democracy is a fragile thing I’m afraid.
Regards,
Mark Anthony Jones
January 27, 2005 @ 11:22 pm | Comment
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By vaara
“we must all support Israel and the Jewish people against […] vilification”
Does this mean they’ll be abandoning their jihad against Barbara Boxer?
January 28, 2005 @ 1:19 am | Comment
7
By ACB
For once I agree with you Richard.
The lesson that we should learn applies to everybody, all mankind.
If we are capable of doing this to one people, then we are capable of doing this to any people, and if we allow one people to be so treated by our blindness or unwillingness to make a stand, we are capable of allowing it to happen to any people.
The Nazi so treated many people, just look at Holland and Russia. If we think that the lessons of Auschwitz only tell us to protect one people, we have learned very little indeed.
The people who suffered in Auschwitz were largely Jewish, but they were also human. This wasn’t just a crime against Jewish people; it was a crime against all mankind, and if we allow the kind of hatred and intolerance that we saw in Nazi Germany to build up anywhere else, then we will see the foundations laid for another Auschwitz, and then another, and another …….
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
January 28, 2005 @ 6:53 pm | Comment
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By richard
Great quote, ACB – and you and I agree on a lot of things, I promise.
January 28, 2005 @ 6:55 pm | Comment
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By bellevue
Just for your information, the quote ACB used is frequently posted on Chinese BBS by liberal-minded Chinese. I read it many times in Chinese, but no one knows who Pastor Martin Niemöller is!
January 29, 2005 @ 3:32 am | Comment
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By pete
On Paster Niemoller, check google.com and the first item has an article about him. Interesting information. He even survived WarII although he had been arrested and imprisoned several times.
January 29, 2005 @ 5:51 am | Comment
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By bellevue
Thanks pete. He was lucky: he certainly would not be able to survive Cultural Revolution if he had been under Mao.
January 29, 2005 @ 6:02 am | Comment
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By JR
“On Paster Niemoller, check google.com and the first item has an article about him. Interesting information. He even survived WarII although he had been arrested and imprisoned several times.
Posted by pete at January 29, 2005 05:51 AM
Thanks pete. He was lucky: he certainly would not be able to survive Cultural Revolution if he had been under Mao.
Posted by bellevue at January 29, 2005 06:02 AM ”
Bring in the straight jacket, someone is running amok in here.
January 29, 2005 @ 11:56 am | Comment
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By elemental
A perfectly stated response, it’s points cannot be reiterated enough.
The funny thing about the wingnuts is that they seem to think that something as commonsense as “support(ing) Israel and the Jewish people against the vilification and the complicity we are witnessing” is like a big deal to them. And they can’t seem to grasp that you can do so and still not hate Arabs or Muslims.
It’s almost as if they think they’re special for not being anti-semitic.
July 20, 2005 @ 7:22 am | Comment