Holocaust and genocide discussion

We all struggle to fit the events of the Holocaust into some kind of worldview, to try to find some kind of meaning in the death and suffering of so many. Such attempts may be doomed to failure, but nevertheless the search for meaning is part of what makes us human.

This need to make sense of things is particularly poignant for religious Jews, not so much because the Shoah doesn't fit into the Jewish theological narrative, but because it does. It was spoken of, written about, and argued over some 2,000 years before it happened. And yet we, living after the events, are just as mystified about it all as the rabbis of the Talmud, who gave thanks that they would not have to live through it.

One of the great modern Jewish thinkers, Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo once wrote: "It is time to stop justifying God. Morally, His ways are sometimes inexcusable. Allowing a Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed in the cruelest ways imaginable, causing unbearable pain to innocent children, is morally intolerable....Any attempt to justify these deeds of God is to profane His holy name."

Now, Rabbi Cardozo has written a thought-provoking and insightful Foreword to A Damaged Mirror. This week, a stand-alone Kindle version of the Foreword is free on Amazon!

Excerpt:

Isaiah’s words, “the earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer cover her slain,” are eerily appropriate to the phenomenon described in this book: a memory from beyond the grave takes form and substance, and stands in accusation against the murderers. In fact, this is not as rare a phenomenon as we might think. Perhaps this is simply the natural response of a people to sudden and traumatic loss of the memory of individuals—the memory must find another route to reach the next generation. Perhaps we are taking note of it now only because the magnitude of the catastrophe makes it impossible to ignore.

Perhaps. But perhaps this is something that we haven’t seen before, something different not only in degree but in substance.

Whichever is correct, we are led to ask a more pertinent question: could this phenomenon be the fulfillment of the prophetic vision?

Download the Foreword here:
http://www.amazon.com/Foreword-Damage...

Yael, Thanks for these intelligent heartfelt words.

As a Holocaust survivor, I tried for decades to make sense of my traumatic experiences. I wrestled for years with the question of "Why?"
I came to the conclusion many years ago that there is no answer to this question.

There are many scholars who tried to answer this question. As for me, the final answer is, I will never forget and will will never forgive.

Peter

Nations Have the Right to Kill: Hitler, the Holocaust and War

The Holocaust makes no sense--from a Jewish point of view. But it made a lot of sense to Hitler and the Nazis.

If one wishes to understand the "meaning" of the Holocaust, one needs to comprehend what it meant TO THE NAZIS.

I am pretty tired of putting the blame for everything on "The NAZIS." The War ended on May 8, 1945. On May 9 the Germans started perpetuating the myth that all German war crimes were perpetuated exclusively by the Nazis; and once the latter disappeared, only "us good Germans" remained. Millions of Germans clung to the comforting belied that just a small clique of criminals bore the sole responsibility for the Holocaust.

This myth has been thoroughly discredited. See the seminal book by Daniel Goldhagen, "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust."

When Hitler blamed all the ills of the world on the Jews, the Germans simply loved it. Jews were murdered by ordinary German military conscripts; by the German Police; by Germans from every walk of life. The concentration camps themselves were run by the SS, all of whom were proud volunteers. They considered it an honor to be accepted into the SS. Then there were the German manufacturing firms who were supporters of Hitler's war effort. For these firms the SS established slaver labor camps whose prisoners were worked to death.

Once again let me state firmly: these were all just ordinary Germans. Some may have been members of the so-called Nazi party, but this made no difference whatever.

"Blame" is not a serious word--from a social scientific point of view. The objective is explanation.

During the period 1933-1945, there was no separation between "Nazis" and "Germans." Nazi culture completely dominated German society. Every German was a Nazi--to one degree or another.

There is no distinction between "ordinary" Germans and Nazis. Of course, every Nazi was also an "ordinary Germany"--until they became imbued with Nazi ideology.

The term "Nazi" is meaningless. German society was imbued entirely with Nazi ideology. Every child was indoctrinated into Nazism. Every ordinary German was a Nazi.

The Nazis were not a "small clique." The Nazis were not separate from the German people.

The SS men were Nazis. Everyone was an ordinary German, until them became imbued with Nazi ideology.

Goldhagen's point is that many Germans embraced Nazi ideology, which is obvious if one studies the history of the Nazi period.

I don't see where the term "ordinary" lends clarity, since it was very ordinary to be a Nazi, and to embrace Nazi ideology. During the period 1933-1945, German society WAS NAZI CULTURE.

Nazi Culture: Intellectual, Cultural and Social Life in the Third Reich

Here is the definitive book on this topic.

Richard,

Well, we are just splitting hair. I think you and I are in agreement, even if you dislike the word "blame." I think the latter is a pretty basic English, homogeneous word. But I will be quite happy to let you have the last word.

All I am interested in are verifiable historical facts.

Peter wrote: "I am pretty tired of putting the blame for everything on "The NAZIS." '


Yes! In fact, I recall one of the early readers of Mirror objecting to Ovadya's use of the phrase "the Germans" rather than "the Nazis". I tried to explain that to a 17 year-old Jew from Saloniki, there were no "Nazis"--only German soldiers and their allies among the civilian populations of surrounding countries.

But there is more. If we allow our enemies to define the "meaning" (to the extent that any meaning can be found) of these events, then we also allow them to define the meaning of the lives that we have somehow salvaged from their grip. To do so would be to relinquish our right to define who and what we are. We are more than the roles our persecutors would choose for us. We are more than our suffering, more than our deaths.

Indeed, if the phenomenon of third generation memory proves nothing else, it proves that we are far, far more than our deaths. So in the end, only we can determine what meaning we give to all this. if we are true to our Jewish heritage, we will give it meaning through life, in whatever way we choose to live it.

Yael,

Thank you. To a Holocaust survivor like me, it was always about the Germans. There was, in fact, no such thing as the Nazi army. During WWII, there was the American army, the British army, the Russian army -- all three of them fighting the German army.

You have an impressive way with the English language.

Peter