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My Policy on the Discussion of the Holocaust
by Scott Creighton
I’m going too say this about the Holocaust and that is it. And for the record, let’s not turn every thread into a chat about how “true” the holocaust was, shall we?
Many Jewish people ended up in the forced labor camps. Probably more than any other single religion and yes, they were selected because they were Jewish.
But WHY is the question and the answer is simple… because back then, Jews were by and large a left leaning religion who were by a disproportionate rate, teachers, lawyers, doctors and writers.
They were influential. Left leaning “thought” and community leaders. So of course they were targeted by the fascist regime.
But they weren’t the first targeted which is an important distinction in terms of historical understanding and current events.
The communists, the socialists, the disabled, union leaders… they were the first shipped off to labor camps. Not the Jews. And the proof of that you can find in the Holocaust Museum itself, which, if you bother to browse their online facility, you will find a rather rational and somewhat objective (by comparison at least) accounting of these FACTS that I have just laid out for you.
One of the most well known non-Jew in the work camps went there in ’37. He was German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) and he gave a speech about the German intellectual class ignoring the horrors that were unfolding around them in Nazi Germany which, one variation of the poem about the speech goes something like this:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
There are variations on the speech, this one is a poem from the 50s based on this part of his speech in ’48
When Pastor Niemöller was put in a concentration camp we wrote the year 1937; when the concentration camp was opened we wrote the year 1933, and the people who were put in the camps then were Communists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers.
Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians – “should I be my brother’s keeper?”
Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. – I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it’s right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn’t it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? — Only then did the church as such take note. Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public. Can we say, we aren’t guilty/responsible? The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated the occupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers
I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa! We can talk ourselves out of it with the excuse that it would have cost me my head if I had spoken out.
Niemoller did speak out and he was sent to a work camp for it.
There is absolutely no doubt, the records bare it out, that Jews were sent in large numbers to these slave labor camps and in fact many died in them horrific, pitiful deaths. Perhaps millions did perish. But so did millions of socialists, communists and disabled people and in fact, they were selected for these camps and rounded up well before people of Jewish faith.
And again, you can find the evidence off all of that right there in the Holocaust Museum if you wish to take a peek.
Are the numbers inflated? Yes. By Israelis and Jews living in the rest of the world? Sometimes, yes. Are they inflated by others to make it LOOK like the holocaust was all about a crazy man’s irrational hatred of a particular religion? Yes.
Why?
Because we are a fascist country and the LAST thing our glorious leaders want us to know is that Nazi Germany was nothing more than an extreme version of what is happening in this country right now.
- What is one of the first things Reagan did when he took office in 81? Went after the disabled. In 2013 under the Obama administration, they did something very similar when they set out to kick millions of disabled off disability which will force them back into the workforce, if they can find someone who will hire them knowing they are sick (which is unlikely) and prevent them from receiving care (which will eventually kill them). And if you don’t believe that, I can tell you all about it…
- What is going on right now in this country, even on the left? The demonization of Russian sympathizers which is eerily similar to the far-right wingers demonization of the dreaded socialist and communists.
- The right has been demonizing the trade unions for some time now right?
- And the fake left does what in terms of their own ranks? They talk about “purity tests” and demonize anyone who “lets the perfect be the enemy of the good” and scream about how the “far left” kept Hillary Clinton out of the White House.
- And who have we replaced the Jews with? A religion that teaches that interest charged on loans is evil and is therefore banned in Muslim countries. In our culture, usury is expected… kinda like “campaign contributions” coming from major corporations we legally call “persons” with all the constitutional rights you as a citizen USED to enjoy. The Muslims don’t adhere to that ideology… much like the Jews didn’t adhere to the ideology of fascism all those years ago.
See a pattern?
I do not prohibit discussions of the holocaust or the subsequent inflation of numbers of victims. But I do strongly suggest you get it right when you discuss it.
I do not want to see the suffering of any people minimized across the world.
That’s why I write this blog.
I expose the cruelty of empire and globalization and neoliberal economic ideology and that has been the mainstay of this website since it’s inception. From Palestinians to Koreans to Chileans to Syrians to Libyans to Americans… I try to expose the wrongs done to people across the world and sometimes across history.
To that end, I will not tolerate the dismissing of the suffering of Jewish people, disabled people, socialist people and people of all other sorts who were cruelly and methodically rounded up by fascists and used as slave labor to support the industry and the military industrial complex of Nazi Germany.
I don’t tolerate anyone dismissing the suffering of the Palestinians today any more than I will that of the Jewish people in the 30s.
Source: https://willyloman.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/my-policy-on-the-discussion-of-the-holocaust/
