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Attempts to Diminish the Genocides of Non-Jews,
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This review is from: Genocide: Critical Issues of the Holocaust : A Companion to the Film Genocide (Paperback)
Much information is presented, some of it being superficial. Space limitations allow comment on only some of it.Although author Henry L Feingold denies that such is the intent (p. 397), it becomes obvious that the Holocaust-uniqueness approach advocated in this book does in fact diminish the genocides of non-Jews, and not only in a passive sense. Alex Grobman engages in an ACTIVE attempt to marginalize Polish deaths: "When the Nazis murdered approximately 10,000 Polish intelligentsia, in 1939-1940, and Polish Catholic priesthood in western Poland, for example, they were trying to prevent these groups from becoming a political and spiritual force that could unite the country against them. Similarly, when the Nazis murdered over two and one-half million Soviet prisoners of war, they were killing a military force that had fought against them on the field of battle." (p. 3). But notice that the German killings were not limited to those Polish intelligentsia or priests who were advocating resistance against the Germans! As had been the case with the Jews, an ENTIRE GROUP was targeted for extermination because of the actual or potential actions of some of its members against Nazi Germany. And, as pointed out by Raphael Lemkin, who Grobman mentions but misrepresents (p. 4), the destruction of Poland's intelligentsia and clergy were not just ends in themselves. They were but the first steps in the eventual genocidal extermination of the Polish people. Once disarmed, the Soviet soldiers were no less defenseless than Jewish civilians. And, exceptions aside, the Germans did not murder western POWs despite the fact that these had ALSO fought against them. Clearly, Grobman's reasoning is self-refuting. Without intending to, some of the authors in this volume actually provide implicit evidence against the uniqueness of Jewish deaths. Yisrael Gutman writes: "As far as is known, there is no document extant which shows who decided, when and how, to commence the total extermination of European Jews. Many historians believe that no such order was ever set down in writing." (p. 119). So how can it be maintained that "all" literally meant ALL when the exact nature of the order is unknown? Jane Gerber discusses the Nazi persecution of Tunisian Jews (p. 132). But the unanswered question is obvious: If the Germans were out to kill every last possible Jew within grasp, as Holocaust-uniqueness advocates claim, then why did the German forces not shoot all of the Tunisian Jews before retreating back into Europe? Even more telling is the fate of Jewish POWs: "Allied soldiers captured in the West, even Jews, were treated more or less as provided by the Geneva Convention. Allied soldiers captured in the East, however, did not receive any protection from international agreements." (Henry Friedlander, p. 227). It is sobering to realize that the Nazis respected the lives of British and American Jewish POWs more than those of Soviet gentile POWs! The Germans had obviously placed observance of the Geneva Convention over the extermination of Jews. In view of the fact that some Nazis (e. g. Goebbels) were seriously considering the abrogation of the Geneva Convention for unrelated reasons (killing of captive Allies in retaliation for German civilians killed by Allied bombings), this takes on further significance. In two articles, John T. Pawlikowski more or less accepts the premise that Christian leaders did not do enough to stop the Holocaust, and that traditional Christian teachings about Jews prepared for the way for the extermination of Jews. If so, then why did the Pope not stop the extermination of 2-3 million Polish Catholics (including thousands of Catholic priests) by the Germans? And to what traditional Christian teachings would Pawlikowski attribute the centuries-old German desire to destroy the Polish nation? There is a variety of seldom-mentioned information in this volume. For instance, and in agreement with many Polish authors, Steven M. Lowenstein recognizes the fact that official prewar Polish actions against Jews were not based on religious or racial hatreds, but on economic self-interest: "In contrast to Russia, Jewish communal life was left relatively free, but great economic and political pressure was put on the Jews. The Poles found it intolerable that the majority of merchants in Poland were Jews, and to change the situation they implemented tax policies and created monopolies which excluded Jews." (p. 26). Lowenstein is also candid about the Soviet Zydokomuna (Jewish Communism): "On the one hand, the Red leadership contained many persons of Jewish origin, and Jews as a group had been supporters of the new regime. On the other hand, much of the policy of the Communists was bound to work against the Jews." (p. 24). The much-celebrated Danish rescue efforts of Jews are placed in proper perspective by Gutman: "The various conquered peoples were allowed different degrees of self-government. The Poles, for example, had no self-government, while the Danes retained relatively wide powers." (p. 121). And, in discussing the postwar hostility of many gentiles to surviving Jews, Joel S. Fishman comments: "Displeasure at their return was reported even in Denmark, where the population had helped save its Jewish citizens." (p. 338). The means by which Simon Wiesenthal's wife survived the Holocaust is recounted by Abraham Cooper: "It exacted a heavy toll on the Wiesenthal family--eighty-nine members perished without a trace. Simon Wiesenthal arranged for the Polish underground to spirit his wife, Celia, out of the camp in the fall of 1942. For two years, the blonde woman passed as an Aryan in Warsaw." (p. 384). The postwar use of ex-Nazis by the US government was a two-way street: "No one, to this day, knows how many Nazis the Communists used (and may still be using) in their military research programs." (Martin Mendelsohn, p. 390).
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