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

Holocaust/Shoah, by Dan Michman and Matthias Weber (eds.) 2016. Remembrance and Solidarity Studies in 20^th Century European History No. 5. Warszawa, Poland

Holocaustbabble and The Continued Elevation of the Holocaust and the Marginalization of All Other Genocides

Holocaust racism is alive and well. If anyone thinks that Holocaust supremacy more-or-less died decades ago with Elie Wiesel, think again. Holocaustbabble fills the air.  Read on:

HIGHFALUTIN HOLOCAUSTSPEAK THAT IS NEVER SAID OF ANY GENOCIDE OF NON-JEWS

George Orwell must be turning over in his grave. Michman and Weber make these transparently racist statements, “The persecution and systematic murder of the Jews throughout Europe and beyond during the National Socialist regime in Germany (1933-45) – now known as the Holocaust or Shoah – is a turning point in history in many ways and has aptly been called a crisis of civilization [Zivilisationsbruch]. More than seven decades after the end of the Second World War, study and reflection on this unprecedented crime is still a vital issue for historical learning in Europe and worldwide.” (p. 7. Emphasis added).

Holocaust self-importance is crystal-clear. When was it ever said that the Armenian genocide was a “turning point in history”? When was it ever said that the genocide of Poles (Polokaust) was a Zivilisationsbruch? When was it said that the Ukrainian genocide was an “unprecedented crime”?  And whoever said that the Gypsy genocide was particularly a “vital issue for historical learning?” None of the genocides of the non-Jewish untermenschen count for much.

HOLOCAUSTBABBLE: THE UNIVERSALIZATION TRAP

Marek Kucia repeats the canned complaints that the Holocaust, in Poland, used to be presented alongside Nazi German crimes against other people. Oh, dear!

He then comments, “The universalist idea of ‘the Holocaust as the ultimate evil‘ that highlights the Jewish dimension of a war crime helped overcome the universalization, internationalization and nationalization of the Jewish victims characteristic of many Central and East European war memorials from communist times.” (p. 182. Emphasis added). Notice the racist implications: The genocides of Poles, Ukrainians, Gypsies, Armenians, and all non-Jewish genocides, are not quite as evil as the genocide of the Jews.

The so-called “universalization” of the Holocaust is a two-faced construct. Insofar as it de-emphasizes the Jewishness of the victims, it is something bad. But when it is used to make the Holocaust a “stand-in” for all genocides, or self-appointed “representative” of all genocides, done in order to promote a more subtle and palatable form of Holocaust supremacism, then it is something good.

MORE HOLOCAUSTBABBLE. GERMAN GUILT DILUTION: BLAMING THE LOCALS. ANOTHER SWIPE AT POLAND’S “HEROIC NARRATIVE””

Heidemarie Uhl writes, “Jewish victims of the Nazi extermination policy only played a minor role in the heroic master narrative of post-war myths. The question of guilt and responsibility was projected onto Germany, or the Federal Republic, while the murder of Jews was not brought to the fore.” (p. 231). Here we go again: Exempt the Germans from the blame that they rightfully deserve, and then repeat the complaint that the Jews did not always get the spotlight.

WWII MEMORY BEFORE THE ADVENT OF HOLOCAUST SUPREMACISM

Uhl continues, “Numerous studies have focused in recent years on the question of how the Holocaust returned from the periphery of historical perception – as a sideshow of the Second World War and as a part of the history of Nazi Germany – to the center of a global memory. The murder of Jews did not play a primary role at the Nuremberg trials of German war crimes and crimes against humanity.” (p. 232. Emphasis added). Indeed! And now no non-Jewish genocide is ever called “the center of global memory”. Evidently, the death of a goy is not as significant as the death of a Jew.

So what happened a few decades after WWII? Let’s call it a Judaization of the memory of WWII.

HOLOCAUSTBABBLE: THE USHMM AS A MAJOR PLAYER IN ADVANCING THE SUPREMACY OF THE HOLOCAUST

Uhl comments, “A key stimulus for the re-evaluation of the Holocaust as a singular crime against humanity was generated by the founding of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, which was initiated by President Carter in 1978.” (p. 233. Emphasis added). Note the Holocaustspeak once again: No non-Jewish genocide is ever called “a singular crime against humanity”.

HOLOCAUST SUPREMACY AND THE TRIVIALIZATION OF THE CRIMES OF COMMUNISM

Uhl remarks, “In the post-communist societies of Europe, public or official memory oriented itself naturally towards those forms of identity formation through the externalization of dark sides of the past. These – similarly to Tony Judt’s term of ‘post-war myths’ – can be described as the political myths of post-communism: the notion of one’s own society as an innocent victim of communism presented as imposed foreign rule, the issue of blame projected on ‘others’, that is the Soviet Union. The involvement of one’s own society in communist rule is negated. The Iron Curtain has been history since 1989, but it has remained as a dividing line in the sense of history and the morality of the history of post-2004 Europe. (p. 240).

So now we learn the amazing fact that the Soviet Union did not impose Communism on Poland, and that Poles are responsible for being persecuted. What a farce! It is blaming the victim to the ultimate. Has Holocaust scholarship really degenerated to this point?

In other words, on Uhl’s Judeocentric planet, the Soviet Union did not impose Communism upon Poland and other central European nations. Talk about denialism and revisionism!

HOLOCAUST RACISM: THE CORNERSTONE HOLOCAUST SUPREMACIST TALKING POINT YET AGAIN

Uhl concludes, “Diner’s main point of criticism targets the equating of the Holocaust and Stalinist crimes as the leitmotif of [Snyder’s] Bloodlands. Diner points to the fundamental difference: Poland and Ukraine fell victim to both occupation regimes, but were not threatened by collective extermination.” (p. 244). Fundamental difference? Or a technicality? And since when is an inferred total genocide one iota more significant than “only” a partial genocide?

Besides, this stale “all Jews were to be exterminated” Holocaust supremacist talking point is untrue. See my review:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/holocaust-supremacism-a-zero-sum-game-churchill/

HOLOCAUSTBABBLE: THE ONLY REMEDY

Many genocides–Don’t you know?

Holocaust Supremacy has got to go!

Hey, Hollywood! Get a clue

Polish lives matter too!

All genocides take a bow

Genocide-recognition equality NOW!