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

The Holocaust, Religion, and the Politics of Collective Memory: Beyond Sociology, by Ronald J. Berger. 2012. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London

Continued Blame-Christianity Approach. Zydokomuna Careerism Excuse Countered. Hollywoodization Promotes Holocaust. USHMM Promotes Israel

This book is a comprehensive overview of many different aspects of the Shoah. I focus on a few items of relevance.

BEYOND HOLLYWOODIZATION OF THE HOLOCAUST: HOLLYWOOD DRIVES THE HOLOCAUST-PROMOTING AGENDA IN THE USA

Berger candidly writes, “To a large extent, the Americanization of the Holocaust has occurred through the ‘Hollywoodization’ of the Holocaust, for what is popularly known about this event has been significantly shaped by what has been shown on television and the theater screen. In the postwar period, as just noted, three films merit particular examination.” (p. 184). They are: The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), the Holocaust miniseries (1978), and Schindler’s List (1993). (pp. 184-191). Needless to say, no other genocide gets this kind of recognition. Not even close.

HOLLYWOODIZATION EXTENTION: THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM: FOR PROMOTION OF ISRAEL

Berger utilizes a good choice of words as he comments, “In many respects, the USHMM, which opened in April 1993, represented the ultimate American usurpation of Holocaust memory.” (p. 193). It certainly has.

He continues, “Carter’s Chief of Domestic Policy, Stuart Eizenstat, who himself had numerous relatives who were killed in the Holocaust, helped persuade the president that the creation of a memorial would send an important symbolic message, on the occasion of Israel’s thirtieth anniversary, that the administration remained a staunch supporter of the Israeli state.” (p. 191). Eizenstat was later active in the Holocaust Industry.

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HITLER’S JEWISH GRANDFATHER?

Berger points out that, “Hitler’s ancestry remains somewhat of a mystery since his father, who was apparently a cruel man who beat his wife and children, was born out of wedlock and thus the religious background of Hitler’s grandfather is unknown. This has led to some speculation that Hitler had doubts about the purity of his own racial make-up.” (p. 68).

For discussion about Hitler’s paternal grandfather, see my review:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2020/03/13/hitlers-jewish-grandfather-long-held-objections-shown-to-be-invalid-sax/

CAREERISM NO EXCUSE FOR THE ZYDOKOMUNA: NAZIS COULD USE THE EXACT SAME EXCUSE

The Zydokomuna is sometimes exculpated by the fact that the Soviet system was attractive to young Jewish intellectuals, as it gave them careers. However, exactly the same was true of Nazism and young German intellectuals. Berger writes, “Many of the bureaucrats of the Nazi regime were bright, ambitious university (especially law) graduates who sought successful administrative careers…These bureaucrats competed with each other to expand their organizational domains and sought their superiors’ favor by pursuing and attempting to anticipate their wishes…” (p. 78). So, if careerism excuses the Zydokomuna, then it also excuses the Germans and Nazism.

NO MORE HOLLYWOODIZATION. DO NOT BLAME POLES FOR NOT RESCUING MORE JEWS

In common with many authors, Berger notes that the self-imposed apartheid, long practiced by most Polish Jews, later made it very difficult for Jews to be rescued from the German-made Holocaust by Poles, “In prewar Poland, more than half the Jewish children attended special Jewish schools, which inhibited their mastery of the Polish language; during the war years, these characteristics limited their ability to pass as Gentile Poles…The experience of my uncle, Sol Berger, is illustrative here.” (p. 99). Sol Berger had been incarcerated with a Polish Catholic priest, and this enabled him to learn about Catholicism. He managed to pass as a Polish Catholic and survive the Holocaust.

STOP THE HOLLYWOODIZATION: NAZI GERMANY DID NOT SEEK THE DEATH OF EVERY JEWISH MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD

What Berger has to say flies in the face of Holocaust supremacy, which posits that Nazi plans against Jews were total extermination, and that this is supposed to make the Holocaust unique and above all other genocides. It also contradicts those who say that, whereas Nazi policies against non-Jews could ameliorate with time, those against the Jews could only proceed in accordance with a ratchet wheel of greater severity. He comments, “Bauer (1994) and Levine (1998) remind us that the Final Solution evolved gradually through a process of cumulative radicalization. They suggest that this radicalization could be reversed as the wartime context that facilitated its emergence changed. Nazi concessions on Jewish policy that allowed for the emigration of Jews may have been a retreat from the Final Solution but were nonetheless consistent with the more modest goal of achieving a greater Germany JUDENFREI. Some Jewish lives could be spared if it was in Germany’s interests.” (p. 142). Wow!

However, Berger’s statements are overly restrictive: Nazi Germany did not release Jews only near the end, when she was on the ropes. She released individual Jews and groups of Jews throughout the war, including at times when she thought herself militarily invincible, and even at the time the Holocaust was being conducted. For examples, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2022/07/12/jews-ransomed-all-jews-must-die-a-myth-actual-captive-jews-freed-by-the-nazis-dutch-and-german-jews-wasserstein/

POPE JOHN PAUL II. UNILATERAL CONCESSIONS TO JEWS LEAD TO MORE ACCUSATIONS AND MORE DEMANDS

This work discusses Pope John Paul II and the 1998 Vatican document, We Remember: A Reflection of the Shoah. It led to an intensification of the blame-everything-on-Christianity approach. Berger comments, “As with the earlier Nostra Aetate, however, critics of We Remember remained unsatisfied because the document blamed followers rather than Church doctrine for anti-Semitism.” (p. 227). Berger than re-launches complaints that We Remember does not recognize the presumed equivalence of Christian anti-Judaism and Nazi anti-Semitism. He exhumes the canned accusations against Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII. To top it all off, Berger repeats the totally unsupported (not to mention libelous) insinuation that, without centuries of Church teachings about Jews (e. g, deicide), the Hitlerian ideology and policies would have been impossible. (p. 227).

Lost in all this is the elementary fact that Germany–and only Germany–ever tried to exterminate the Jews. And what Christian teachings did Hitler depend upon when he decided to wage genocide against Poles, Gypsies, and others? Does Berger realize that anti-Semitism predated Christianity? Berger’s standard blame-everything-on-Christianity approach avoids the racist aspects of Jewish religion. Finally, let us turn around the insinuation: Were it not for the anti-Polish propaganda endlessly propagated largely by Jewish journalists, the 20^th-century conquests and betrayals of Poland would never have happened.