Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

The Pain of Knowledge: Holocaust and Genocide Issues in Education, by Yair Auron. 2005. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London

Holocaust Overattention in Holocaust Education. Confronting Jewish Collaboration With the Nazis: A Valid and Enduring Issue. Ewa Kurek Correct on Judenrat

Author Yair Auron candidly writes, “What is the place in the collective memory of Jewish speculators and profiteers who also lived in the ghettos? Of members of the Judenrat who differentiated between suffering and suffering and between blood and blood? Of those Jewish policemen in the ghettos who helped the Germans carry out the destruction? Of some of the kapos and block leaders who helped to enforce the rule of terror in the camps? And of all of these, what do we want our children to remember, and what do we want them to forget? Put differently, what do we prefer to keep in the collective memory and what do we choose to erase from it.” (p. 6; Emphasis is the author’s).

Polish scholar Ewa Kurek had made an issue of the fact that the Judenrat engaged in pick and choose by deciding which Jews would be turned over to the Nazis. She was right.

THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM (USHMM): SOPS TO NON-JEWS

The author introduces the reader to the USHMM, “The museum, eventually built in Washington, D. C., was to be educational in character, and President Carter was insistent that it commemorate all victims of the Nazi regime, and not only the Jewish ones.” (p. 109). So what happened?

Non-Jewish genocides are included, but only insofar as they “know their place”. Auron comments, “The exhibits document the atrocities and murder of other groups committed by the Nazis, such as the Roma, Poles, Russian war prisoners, and homosexuals, but the museum’s emphasis is undeniably on the Jewish Holocaust, the Shoah.” (p. 110; Emphasis is the author’s).

HOLOCAUST OVERATTENTION: HOLOCAUST SUPREMACY RULES IN THE AMERICAN CLASSROOM: TOKENISM FOR OTHER GENOCIDES

Auron writes, “For example, as of July 2004, as compared to twenty states that have ‘Holocaust legislation,’ and twenty-six states (including the former twenty states) that have ‘Holocaust Academic Standards,’ only four states have ‘Armenian Genocide Academic Standards’ (some other states ‘possibly’ have Armenian Legislation or Armenian Academic Standards).” In those textbooks in which genocide is dealt with to some extent, the context is usually superficial, perfunctory, and simplistic, and sometimes inexact and even incorrect; often it seems that it is there only for appearance’s sake.” (p. 160; Emphasis added).

Recently (2019), in the wake of surveys that show a shallow understanding of the Holocaust by American students, Jewish groups have raised the clarion call for (what else?) even more Holocaust indoctrination. But how much shallower is American students’ understanding of non-Jewish genocides!

BEYOND HOLOCAUST SUPREMACY: A VIRTUAL HOLOCAUST MONOPOLY IN THE STATE OF ISRAEL. “OTHER” VICTIMS: BOZENNA URBANOWICZ GILBRIDE GOT IT RIGHT!

Auron comments, “Among young adults in Israel, the lack of knowledge or even an awareness of the genocides that befell other peoples or groups is deplorable.” (p. 166).

He adds that, “In high school textbooks dealing with modern world history or the history of the twentieth century, as well as those dealing in depth with the Holocaust, there is only the briefest mention, if any, of the Gypsy genocide. Actually, all of the non-Jewish victims of the Nazi regime–Gypsies, homosexuals, political prisoners, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles, and Russian prisoners of war–are similarly mentioned only in passing if at all. All of these are sometimes collectively labeled ‘Other victims,’ a term that is itself problematic. ‘Other’ as compared to whom? ‘Other’ in whose eyes.” (p. 168). “Other” as compared to Jews, of course.

Bozenna Urbanowicz Gilbride, a Polish Holocaust survivor, recently expressed offense at being called one of the “Other” victims of Nazi Germany. She was clearly on to something!

GENOCIDE RECOGNITION EQUALITY IS A (STATED OR UNSTATED) THREAT TO HOLOCAUST SUPREMACY

The author thus sagely writes, “There are two approaches in Israel about exposing young Israelis to knowledge about the genocides of other peoples. One opposes it, arguing that it will detract from the uniqueness of the Holocaust and allow these young people to compare it with other genocides and to perceive it in relative terms–considering it as but one of many such atrocities would greatly diminish the historical value of the Holocaust. The other school of thought finds the Israeli education system almost entirely focused–exaggeratedly and inexactly–on the Jews as victims, while unintentionally or intentionally ignoring the mass murders of other peoples throughout history, especially in the twentieth century.” (p. 170).

Genocide-Recognition Equality Now!

THE SHOAH AND THE NAQBA (NAKBA)

The author has an interesting section on the Holocaust and the naqba (the fate of the Palestinians after 1948). (pp. 79-84). It touches on victims and victimizers. Some Israelis summarily deny the naqba, while Palestinians variously deny the Holocaust, minimize it, and embrace it. When Israeli Arabs study the Holocaust, as they are required to in Israel’s schools, this may intensify the tension and distance between Israeli Arabs and Jews rather than bringing them together. (p. 81).

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For more on the racist unfairness of Holocaust supremacy, see these reviews:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/holocaust-supremacism-slights-armenians-auron/

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/holocaust-supremacism-slights-armenians-dadrian/