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

Understanding Clashes Between Historians and Roma Activists, by David Gaunt. 2016. Baltic Worlds 9(3)37-48

Romani Genocide is Just as Marginalized as All the Other Non-Jewish Genocides

This article focuses on the genocide of the Roma peoples at the hands of the Nazi Germans during WWII. I expand it in order to consider all genocides.

HOLOCAUST SUPREMACY SILENCES THE PAST FOR ALL NON-JEWISH GENOCIDES

The following, stated by historian David Gaunt, is true of not only the Roma genocide but is true of all non-Jewish genocides. He writes, “The dispute with historians revolves around what the anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot terms ‘Silencing the past’, that is, the facts that history is produced in a series of unequal power relationships and that the voices of some groups are in the end simply excluded from the making of history. This is certainly true in the case of the Roma in very few countries do they have a public voice, and where they do, it is weak.” (p. 38).

It is also very true of the Poles, and for the same reasons.

JEWISH INFLUENCE IN MEDIA AND PUBLIC EDUCATION ENSURES THE MARGINALIZATION OF NON-JEWISH GENOCIDES

The author recounts why the Romani genocide is little known, “In most countries the Roma have little influence over the schools and textbooks, national museums, TV, radio, and other major media — all of which are essential for creating, disseminating, and repeating any official version of the past.” (p. 41).

Exactly right, and Roma are not the only ones in this regard. Poles also have little influence, in public life, in the West, which is why the genocide of Poles (Polocaust) is little known. By contrast, the Jews’ Holocaust dominates much of the West, and this did not happen because of some freak accident. It’s a no-brainer.

And yes, in terms of practical matters, this is a zero-sum game. Common sense alone dictates that we pay a lot of attention to what is considered important (the Holocaust), and little or no attention to that which is considered unimportant (non-Jewish genocides).

JEWS MONOPOLIZE THE TERM HOLOCAUST: THE ROLE OF THE USHMM

What of the fact that the Jews’ Genocide gets a special, proprietary term (Holocaust, or Shoah), and other genocides do not (except for arcane terms that no one has ever heard of)? This is no accident. Gaunt comments, “The debate about the wider applicability of the term Holocaust grew out of the planning committee discussions leading up to the establishment of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington. That museum opened in 1993 after preparations dating back to 1978. Conflict arose over whether the institution would focus solely on the Jewish Holocaust or whether other genocides could be included,” (p. 42).

Many Jews are well aware of the victimhood hierarchy that they have created, and they continue to do their best to maintain it. Gaunt alludes to this, “On the one side were those who argued the ‘uniqueness of the Jewish Holocaust’ and maintained that its integrity would be impaired by being placed beside other genocides.” (p. 43). He adds that, “The Jewish activists, who already dominated the narrative of the Holocaust, acted as if they believed that if other genocides were acknowledged, then their own trauma would automatically get less attention.” (p. 43). Of course, and it also works the other way. Since the Holocaust gets nearly all the attention, it follows that all other genocides will get much less attention.

There are no Master Races. So why is there a Master Genocide?

WHY THE SIX MILLION FIGURE IS PROTECTED BY LAW IN MANY NATIONS

Laws against Holocaust denial are a bit ironic, because no other genocide has a high specific victim-number toll that must be affirmed at the risk of breaking the law. The following statement by David Gaunt makes it clear why this is so:

“However, the logic of the politics of genocide recognition appears to demand ever increasing numbers of martyrs. In a politicized context, a hierarchy of pain and suffering emerges in which a high number of victims is used as a way of drawing attention and sympathy.” (p. 42).

ATTEMPTS TO ACTIVELY MARGINALIZE THE ROMANI GENOCIDE

Some leading Jews were not content to just passively marginalize the non-Jewish genocides. They actively promoted the presumed inferiority of non-Jewish genocides. Gaunt notes, “Established Holocaust scholars initially responded negatively to Romani claims that the genocide was comparable with any other, and that the treatment of Roma lay closest to that of the Jews.” (p. 45). Gaunt specifically mentions philosopher Emil Fackenheim and Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer in this regard.