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

Holocaust Education in Primary Schools in the Twenty-First Century: Current Practices, Potentials, and Ways Forward, by Claus-Christian W. Szejnmann (eds.) 2018. Palgrave Macmillan, London

De-Judaization, Huh? Or a Hyper-Judaization of the Holocaust? Scrupulously Maintaining Holocaust Dominance, in the Classroom, Over All Other Genocides

This work is written mostly for teachers, and focuses on whether or not the Holocaust should be taught at the primary school level. Apparently, to some educators, one is never too young to undergo Holocaust indoctrination.

THE “UNIVERSALIZATION” OF THE HOLOCAUST STILL MAINTAINS HOLOCAUST SUPREMACY

Paula Cowan is a Reader in Education at the University of the West of Scotland, a UK delegate of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and is associated with other high-level promotion of the Holocaust. (p. xiii). She makes the following distinction between the universalization of the Holocaust, and what she calls the marginalization of the Holocaust and the Jewish experience in the Holocaust, “The distinction between the two in learning the lessons about the Holocaust is that universalization can acknowledge the centrality and specific treatment of the Jews in the Holocaust within the wider definition. This relies on the approaches and views of teachers and educators. De-Judaization does not make this acknowledgement and depicts Jews as victims of the Holocaust alongside others.” (p. 43; Emphasis in original).

Oh, dear! Unless Jews are central, they are marginalized. Such is the Orwellian doublespeak. How terrible if non-Jewish genocides are put on the same level as the Jews’ Holocaust! An unpardonable sin.

HOLOCAUST MIS-EDUCATION: PLAYING WITH WORDS

Note that the Orwellian doublespeak is an exact inversion of the truth. The problem is the long-term Judaization of genocides, resulting in the emergence of Holocaust supremacism, and not the de-Judaization of the Holocaust!

The new Orwellian phrase “de-Judaization of the Holocaust” has been politicized and weaponized in other contexts. After a speech in January 2017, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, President Donald Trump was accused of de-Judaization just because he allegedly did not specifically mention the Jews. Horror of horrors!

“JEWS ARE SPECIAL” THINKING MUST UNFAILINGLY CONTINUE TO RULE THE SCHOOLS

The dread of non-Jewish genocides becoming equivalent with the Jews’ genocide is abhorred by Cowan, “Should an age-appropriate, accurate, historical understanding of the primary victims of the Holocaust be a priority for students who are being introduced to the Holocaust in schools, or should an inclusive, general understanding that focuses on all the victims of Nazism be adopted? The latter approach, though correct, is not accurate and can easily lead to de-Judaization.” (p. 45).

In discussing the definition of the Holocaust as specified by Encyclopedia Britannica, the USHMM, Yad Vashem, Imperial War Museum, etc., Paula Cowan writes, ‘…while the Nazis persecuted a wide range of groups, ‘the Jews were first and foremost on the list of targets, and the Jews occupied a very special place in Nazi thinking, in Nazi ideology.’ Understandings of the Holocaust which do not specify the distinctive treatment of the Jews by the Nazis are therefore de-Judaizing the Holocaust.” (p. 45). She provides no evidence for her grandiose statements about the Holocaust.

Apparently, the Nazis had benign views of all the non-Jews they murdered. Quite an amazing people, those Nazis.

Back to reality. The Nazi approach to Jews was not qualitatively different from the Nazi approach to Gypsies and Poles. For details, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/nazis-saw-jews-and-poles-similarly-smith/