hol.o.caust n. 1. Great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life, especially by fire. 2. [Middle English, burnt offering, from Old French holocauste, from Latin holocaustum, from Greek holokauston, from neuter of holokaustos, burnt whole : holo-, holo- + kaustos, burnt (from kaiein, to burn).]
I just finished reading an involved, wonderfully mesmerizing review of Lajos Koltai's Fateless: Death and the Children by Alan Dale.
Something I read there caught my eye and lingered in my mind long after I finished reading that review. He wrote: The Holocaust, a crime of historic proportions, is simply greater than any heroic ordeal out of conventional romance — it calls for a new approach to character and narrative.
Forget entire human history: even our recent history is replete with what we call crimes against peace, humanity and genocide.
Consider these:
Roma (Gypsy) Holocaust Deaths: Determining the percentage or number of Roma (Gypsies) who died in the Holocaust (called the Porrajmos, "paw-RYE-mos" in Romani, a word which means "the Devouring") is not easy. The latest (1997) figure from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Research Institute in Washington puts the number of Romani lives lost by 1945 at "between a half and one and a half million."Armenian Genocide: The official Ottoman statistics compiled for the period between 1915 to 1917-18 were of 800,000 (Armenians) killed, which suggests that possibly over a million perished. This figure originates from Djemal's bureau’s compilation statistics. The results have been published in the official Ottoman gazette.
A report provided that as soon as February 1916, 1.5 million Armenians were destroyed. A report in May 27, 1916, by Foreign Office Intelligence Director Erzberger provided the same figure, as did an October 4, 1916, report by the German Interim Ambassador to Turkey, Radowitz, again with 1.5 million as the estimate of Armenian's having perished. It seems that the generally cited 1.5 million figure had originated from those German sources. What might be considered by many one of the most balanced German account is those of the German major Endres, who served in the Turkish army, and who has estimated the number of Armenians having lost their lives during the war to be 1.2 million.
Tartar Cleansing: "We have never denied the Armenian crime of genocide inflicted upon 2.5 million Muslim people between 1914 and 1920." Agop Zahoryan, 'Voices of Agonies', p. 91.
Massacre in Cambodia: Estimates of the number of people who perished under the Khmer Rouge vary tremendously, even within the present Cambodian government. A figure of three million deaths between 1975 and 1979 was given by the Vietnamese-sponsored Phnom Penh regime, the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK). Father Ponchaud suggested 2.3 million; the Yale Cambodian Genocide Project estimated 1.7 million; Amnesty International estimated 1.4 million; and the United States Department of State, 1.2 million. Khieu Samphan and Pol Pot cited figures of 1 million and 800,000, respectively
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mark Schannon
I don't think your article makes you anti-semitic at all. The story of the 20th century will be one dominated by human deprivation and ugliness, of the worst sides of homo sapiens again and again rising to the surface to rip away the thin veneer we call civilization.
Jews want to reserve the word "holocaust" for Nazi extermination, and, as a Jew, I understand that need, but it's dangerous because it inadvertently and I believe unintentionally minimizes the lack of humanity in humanity.
In Jameson Veritas
2 - Bryan McKay
A very interesting piece, temporal. I can understand the hesitancy to open up the common meaning of "holocaust" to include other genocides around the world - people may be under the mistaken impression that allowing other genocides to fall under the banner of "holocaust" will allow the impact of the Nazi Holocaust to be lessened. This is not so. We should acknowledge all of these crimes against humanity equally.
And I must echo Mark Schannon's sentiment that you do not come across at all anti-semitic. I must admit that I was skeptical upon viewing the title of your piece because I too instantly associated "holocaust" with the Nazi Holocaust, but upon reading your article I knew that my conclusion had been wrong. Good work.
3 - nehad ismail
The Nazi holocaust was an unspeakble crime. It took place because the world stood silent and allowed it to happen.
The human race has not learnt a lesson from the holocaust. Recent history has shown more and more atrocities in Rowanda and Burundi,and the Congo, in Bosnia, East Timor, Afghanistan and the indiscriminate killing in Iraq of Muslims by other Muslims.
But my question to the author, why the Palestinians were signled out to pay the price of the holocaust. The Jews are victims of the Nazis, and the Palestinians are victims of the victims. The sad irony, is that the world is silent at the suffering of the Palestinians. Are we waiting for a new major catastrophe to happen before action is taken to force both sides to settle their territorial differences and establish permanent peace. This can be achieved, but it needs courage from the super powers mainly the US.
We must not confuse legitimate criticism of the behaviour of Israel with anti-semitism. It is the behaviour of Israel as a state, not the race, religion or the people. It is the short-sighted political establishment.
nehad ismail
camberley, england
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Temporal,
Nothing you write above should be construed as anti-Semitic. The reason we Jews are so associated with the horrible acts of the Nazis is that they made it so utterly clear what they intended to do. European Jews didn't listen, and only after the conflict ended in 1945 did people realize the enormity of what had happened.
Jews like to think they have learned the essential lesson of the Nazi death camps, but they haven't. They still lust after goyisher ideas, deny their G-d and refuse to come home to Israel.
That said, the big question is - has the world learned from the murders Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tze Tung perpetrated? The answer is clear from your article above - NO. Genocide is still with us today in Darfur.
5 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
My question to Nehad Ismail is - have Arabs learned to treat their brothers as bothers? The answer is NO!! Arabs in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt have deliberately allowed their brothers to rot in filthy camps, discriminating against south Syrian Arab refugees as though they were garbage. This is how the Qur'an says you should treat a brother? I think not. And on top of that they have the unmitigated gall to blame us Jews for their own failings in their own responisbilities to their brothers!!
This behavior is despicable snd pathetic. There is not a single Egyptian, Lebanese or Syrian Arab who does not share in the responsibility for failing to care for their brothers.
Israel has built universities for Arabs in Judea and Samaria, and provides free electricity and water for the Arabs in Gaza. Arabs in Judea and Samaria use an Israeli health system, the best in the Middle East. We do not deny this to Arabs. After all the murder and hate Arabs have directed at us, all they deserve is poison and death. But we Jews are just too damned civilized for our good.
ARABS, ANSWER FOR YOUR OWN SINS BEFORE YOU DARE POINT A FINGER OF BLAME AT US!!
6 - Purple Tigress
Just a small point that I once had a yelling match over (because copy editors can get passionate about such things). In some dictionaries, Holocaust with a capital H is considered to refer to the Nazi extermination plan. Otherwise, holocaust with a lower case refers to others.
What the Nazis did to the Jews, gypsies, communists and homosexuals wasn't new. What the Japanese did to the Chinese wasn't new either. The ideology of superiority wasn't new either. What was new was the usage of technology and efficiency.
Unfortunately what also wasn't new was that so many stood by and did nothing.
To truly understand what happened then and what happens now, it would be better in my opinion to look at all holocausts because religion and culture are not the cause. There are some horrific universals about human culture that need to be explored before we can find our way to peace.
7 - Nicholas Stix
"Forget entire human history: even our recent history is replete with what we call crimes against peace, humanity and genocide.
"By maintaining our silence on all the holocausts perpetrated by us on some of us are we not culpable?"
Not only is the author no friend to grammar or spelling ("Bosniaks"?), he's no friend to logic or morality, either. His essay is about genocide, but he muddies his stream with irrelevant references to "crimes against peace" and "humanity." What, pray tell, is a crime against "peace" or "humanity"?
As in the Loner Ranger joke, where Tonto says "Who is 'we,' Kimosabe," who is the "us" that has "perpetrated" Holocausts? Maybe the author has, but I know I haven't perpetrated any holocausts. And I have a news flash for him: It is impossible to be retroactively "culpable" for anything.
8 - chantal stone
let us not forget the estimated 400,000 people who have been slaughtered within the last 3 years in Sudan, and the killings have not yet stopped.......again, the world stands by and does nothing.
9 - jamal
“The feedback by Israelis and their Zionist sympathizers across the world that can be viewed on Haazretz and other Israeli news outlets online concerning the attempted genocide of 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza proves to me that they are aware of this crime against humanity - and revel in it.
Starving your enemy is a legitimate strategy, some write while others have grown tired of reading about the starving people of Gaza. I have read dozens and dozens of comments along these lines since the blockade began - and even worse long before concerning the IDF killing children and other atrocities so commonly committed against the Palestinians.
Not only have Israelis stolen Palestinian land and property, they now seek an end to their lives by withholding food (water) and basic medicines. The whole world sympathized with the Jews regarding the wrongs committed against them during WW II - but even people like me who once believed in all things Jewish find Israeli political views regarding Arabs to be among the basest on the planet. Israel has a stone cold heart and practices sadism as if it were a matter of national pride.
Though there are wonderful exceptions to the rule such as Uri Avnery and others I met last year in a trip to Israel - on the whole the Zionist philosophy has demonstrated over and over again that it is on a par with Nazism.”
Nazism and Zionism
Attempted Genocide of 1.4 Million Palestinians By Israel on a Par with Nazism
10 - temporal
Thank you Mark, Bryan, nehad, Ruvy, Purple, chantal and jamal for your comments and views.
Nicholas:
Not only is the author no friend to grammar or spelling ...("Bosniaks"?)...
The country is a homeland of three ethnic constituent peoples: Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats.
…. he's no friend to logic or morality, either. His essay is about genocide,…
I’ll plead the fifth for both logic and morality… and speaking of the former…this is not an essay on genocide:)
….." What, pray tell, is a crime against "peace" or "humanity"?
crime against peace
crime against humanity
…It is impossible to be retroactively "culpable" for anything.
I did not uses culpable in a legal sense… but even in law under some jurisdictions there are crimes for which statute of limitations does not apply
rgds
t
11 - Mark
Another holocaust which has gone largely unnoticed is that being perpetrated against the unborn. Interestingly enough I didnt see any mention of it here either. One of the interesting things about holocausts is that they are largely a result of hindsight. People turn a blind eye to them for years until they are over and the damage has been done. Its truely horrible since we know for certain that not a single one of those unborn children had ever done anything to merit their deaths. They were completely sinnless, while those who have fallen victim to the holocausts you've mentioned , while they didnt deserve their deaths, might have done something in their lives for which they concievably should have been punished.
12 - RedTard
I don't think aborted fetuses will ever get the same response in the public. Our response to the genocides is related to how much fear it illicits in us.
We are all past the fetal stage so we can't empathize with those victims. The thousands or millions of baby girls killed in China also fail to spark our fear response for similiar reason. Next up are political massacres and that sort. In those cases you would have some control and might be able to outsmart the authorities or avoid detection, still pretty scary.
Racial things seem to bring up the most fear, perhaps because they are not under your control. When we see Africans commit genocide it's not really that bad though, behind our PC colorblind outward personas we just sort of expect that sort of thing to come out of Africa and we don't feel it could really happen to 'us'. (starving kids and machete massacres in Denmark would get quite a different response I believe)
What's ultimately scary is the slaughter of some pretty white looking people right in the middle of Europe based on things beyond their control. Now that is terrifying, that's the sort of thing that could happen to me or you and it really sticks in our minds. (those sick concentration camp photos don't hurt either)
13 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Jamal,
The fellow who commented at your own blog-site said enough. But I'll say more. You have not aswered my question. You've merely tossed a name. Little children who have no answers to hard questions call names. The fact that it is an adult name does not change it from a child's tactic or improve it.
The fact still stands that Arabs born here and their children and grandchildren are denied citzenship and employment in Lebanon. they are treated worse than Jews were in Pilsudski's Poland. They are treated about as well as Jews were treated in Germany in the mid 1930's.
The fact still stands that the Arabic translations of Mein Kampf, the Nazi program for Germany, is a big seller in the bookstores of Cairo, and that Jew hatred is spewed conmtinually from the mouths of imams and kadis throughout the Arab world and Europe, and that three Israelis who sought to be "ice-breakers" for peace were denied entry to Libya. So much for Aerabs who wasnt peace. Their actions belie their lies. More taqqiya! And finally Arabs have not taken in their own brother refugees.
Now let's explore that question, young man.
In the 1920's the Turks expelled Greeks from Ionia, where they had lived for 3,000 years, and Greeks expelled Turks from Greece, where they had lived for 400 years. Each nation took in their brothers. In 1940, after the Russians had defeated the Finns and stolen 10% of their country, the resident Fins left. They had no desire to live under Stalin. The Finns took in their brother Finns. After WWII, Poles were expelled from western Ukraine and White Russia. Poles took in their brother Poles. Germans were expelled from Silesia. Germans trook in their brother Germans. When the Indian Empire achieved independence from Britain, the country split and the new nations of Pakistian and India each took in expellees from territories where they had lived. Israel took in the expellees and refugees of the displaced persons camps in Europe, Jews tossed out of many places in Europe. In addition, this country absorbed refugees from Arab persecution in Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, as well as refugees from Morocco.
Now.
How is it that you Arabs do not have an obligation to take in your brothers when Greeeks, Turks, Finns, Germans, Poles, Indians, Pakistanis and Israelis do?
How is it that you get to toss your refugees on the world stage and cry injustice when everyone else takes care of their own? Does your shit not stink? Are you a superrace not bounden by the rules of common decency that bind the rest of humanity? Who the hell do you think you all are anyway?
The greatest practices of slavery are found in Arab countries. Today it is Arabs who practice genocide in Sudan. It is standard procedure to practice female genital mutilation upon young Moslem girls in Arab lands.
With blood on your hands, you have NO call to cry injustice or whine before the world.
14 - Christopher Rose
Ruvy, it might be prudent to back off on the moral outrage at a time when the current Israeli government is starving the Palestinians as a pre-election gimmick.
That really is starting to become a matter of serious and legitimate concern to any sane human of any moral or ethical persuasion...
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
The current Israeli government, whatever evil it is now perpertrating, will have to be overthown - either by Jews like me (there are many of us) or by the Hand of G-d. Look over my coverage of Israel elections. You'll note my continuing contempt for the pigs who run this country.
I'm entitled to the moral outrage - I'm right.
If the actions of the Olmert (Eau le Merde) régime concerns you, it should. It is only perpetrating evil upon Arabs the way they have already perpetrated evil upon Jews. When this evil was perpetrated upon Jews, like expelling them from their homes in Gush Katif and Amona, none of you gave a damn. Now that it is Arabs who might suffer the evil of evil men, this is "really is starting to become a matter of serious and legitimate concern to any sane human of any moral or ethical persuasion..."
Where was your serious and legitimate concern then, Chris?.
16 - Christopher Rose
The action of the Israeli government concerns me in so far as it seems to believe starvation is an election tactic. I find it (another) outrageous act against a group of humans who have very little ability to protect themselves.
I assume you are not seriously considering starving people to be the same as relocating people against their will?
Particularly when the first act is by one group of people against others far more vulnerable whilst the second was, rightly or wrongly, an internal Israeli political matter...
My serious and legitimate concern is for people. Your arguments are coming more and more to sound like simple me first elitism, Ruvy, and that will never be accepted by most folk.
17 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
The starvation of an enemy waging war against us concerns you, but the continuous acts of terror that these people commit doesn't appear to, Chris.
You sound like the typical left leaning Brit with the intellectual phrases just dripping off the page. That may not be what you are - far be it from me to cast labels on someone whose situation I don't rightly know - but you make the right noises for one.
This blockade of Gaza ought to have taken place 5½ years ago, in the autumn of 2000, when it would have done some good. A similar blockadew on the Arab town of Judea and Samaria would have been in order then, as well, along with the execution of the leaders of Al Fateh, Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Now, it is a worthless gesture of evil men looking for votes.
Frankly, I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. The people who control Olmert and his crew of pigs will tell them when to lighten up, and they will. They have neither spine nor backbone and are traitors of the worst kind.
If you call my views élitist, then I know for sure that I am right in holding them.
If calling Arabs on their own negligence against their brethren bothers you, too bad. Someone has to get on his hind legs and scream. It might as well be me.
18 - troll
Semites - stop your bickering
put aside your petty differences and stand together against your common foes
you've been bamboozled...divided and conquered
since reason doesn't seem to work in your corner of the world right now unite in the name of race and religion
then...leave everybody else alone
troll
19 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Troll, I was awaiting your comments. I'd prefer to work with my fellow Semites to build peace. But if someone ignores his brother left stranded or down on his luck and blames you in front of the world, what would you do?
20 - troll
help your brothers Ruvy
align with them not against them
jobs...food...education...trade...hope
teach by the example of your empathy and religious conviction
troll
ps I agree that the camps were used cynically and despicably by fellow Semites to radicalize the refugees...time to get beyond that issue and improve the lot of the people
21 - troll
oh and I forgot list Israel's largest contribution to any coalition - security
troll
22 - Christopher Rose
Ruvy, I don't mind your perspective and you're most certainly entitled to it but please don't use the kind of distorting tactics found so commonly on this subject.
I'm certain that you already know that I don't condone terrorism and your bringing that particular remark into a distinct conversation really reveals something about your self.
I'm really getting tired of confirming that I am neither a socialist or left-leaning. What with you on the one hand and Dave Nalle on the other, I'm struggling to tell you apart!
For the avoidance of any possible future confusion, I don't believe in party politics or dogma of any kind. I believe in the cold hard truth of a matter and not all the partial or prejudiced solutions churned out on auto-pilot by people with fixed agendas.
The acts of terror or resistance by the Palestinians to the far superior Israeli forces ranged against them are of course awful but then the whole issue could be solved in a few days if your country actually wanted peace.
There is nothing uniquely or essentially different about the troubles in the region than the Irish or Basque problems that currently trouble us in Europe. Eventually, the political process must prevail.
I suspect this is something Israel and probably other players in the region are deeply opposed to, for if a spirit of truthfulness and openness did take root in the region, a whole lot more financial, moral and political corruption than anyone currently imagines would come into common view.
It is very clear to me that Israel does not currently want peace and is skillfully manipulating the entire political game.
Your hoped for scenario, as you've been laying out for us over recent times, may possibly hold out a little more sanity than the current disgusting and reprehensible status quo but seems highly unlikely.
Meanwhile, women and children are slowly starving for want of basic food staples like bread. I don't see how any good person could feel comfortable with that and anyone who does frankly disgusts me.
That some untrue deist-theory cult could value its "views" over simple human decency and compassion merely demonstrates the huge hypocrisy and nauseating "piety" lurking at the heart of all three strands of it.
Finally, I didn't say your views were elitist, I said they sounded like me first-ism. Remarks like "If you call my views élitist, then I know for sure that I am right in holding them" simply prove my point. The sheer arrogance displayed is breathtaking!
23 - Jet in Columbus
Christopher, As I've commented elsewhere, If you were to print out Dave Nalle's (who by coincodence happens to be the politics editor for this site) and set the stack on the left side of the desk, they'd lean over until they fell off the right side of the desk!
24 - Christopher Rose
Jet: as far as I am aware, my colleague Mr Nalle does not allow his prejudices to overtly interfere with his editing duties, which he performs with energy and dedication.
All bloggers are welcome to join the BC carnival so, if you feel the force, you can join us too.
25 - Dave Nalle
Jet, if you think I'm a typical right winger you haven't been reading my articles. If you stacked my articles on either side of the desk they'd spread out to cover the whole desk in a nice even jumble.
Dave