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Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis

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According to Michael Berenbaum (pp. 20-22), there are two definitions of the Holocaust: Simon Wiesenthal's one that includes 5 million gentile victims of the Nazis along with the 6 million Jews, and Elie Wiesel's one that restricts the term Holocaust to Jews only. The latter definition is called by Berenbaum (p. 21, 33) the Judeo-centric (or Judeocentric) one, a term also used by this writer in many of his reviews. Thoughout this book, fears are repeatedly stated that any departure from the Judeocentric definition of the Holocaust will cause Jewish deaths to be forgotten. This is unbelievable! After all, the west has been awash, in the last few decades, in a vast quantity of strongly Judeocentric educational and media materials. Tokenism aside (such as this book), it is the deaths of non-Jews at the hands of the Germans that have virtually been forgotten!

Robert Jay Lifton has the following take on the implementation of German genocidal policies against Jews: "There is still considerable confusion among historians who are authorities on this issue as to whether Hitler ever issued a clear-cut written order or any order at all for the killing of Jews. There probably was an order, but it was not a clear-cut written order. The bureaucratic back-and-forth process was very much a part of the killing process."(pp. 227-228).

Oft-repeated statements (e. g., Israel Gutman, p. 98) about 90%/10% death rates of Polish Jews and Polish gentiles, respectively, are disingenuous. To begin with, they would only make sense if Polish Jews were the world's only Jews. Factoring all Jewish deaths against the global Jewish population, the figure drops to 33%. However, since there were far more Poles than Jews, percentages are not very informative in any case. As an extreme example, note that the 60 million Chinese murdered by Mao Zedong, a colossal death toll that would have been sufficient to exterminate all the world's Poles and Jews multiple times over, represents less than 6% of the Chinese population.

The Judeocentric definition of the Holocaust has long been buttressed by the rationalization of unique Jewish victimhood. This rationalization is here repeated by Carol Ritter (p. xii), Michael Berenbaum (p. 32-33), and Israel (Yisrael) Gutman (pp. 98-99). In actuality, as elaborated in the next two paragraphs of this review, the killing of all Jews is not factual, either in the short-term or the long-term.

To begin with, can it seriously be supposed that exterminatory German attitudes and tactics would have been the same had there existed a few hundred million European Jews but only a few million Slavs? Indeed, arguments about the imminence of Jewish deaths ignore the realities of German priorities, relative population sizes, and the time available to the Nazis. Any Pole, no less than any Jew, could be killed at any time for any reason or for no reason at all. And, while some Poles (e. g. captured guerillas) and some Jews (e. g. captured fugitives from the ghettos) were indeed killed at once, most Poles and Jews were "safe" until the Germans decided that it was their turn to die. The killing of Polish intellectuals actually took priority over the killing of Jews, which in turn took priority over the extermination of the remaining Poles. Ironically, had the war ended much sooner, and were the media objective and balanced, the Nazis would forever have been known as Pole-killers more than as Jew-killers! To compound the irony further, much the same would have also been the case had the Germans won the war. Owing to the fact that the war ended when it actually did, plus the fact that there were far more Poles than Jews, the turn for some Jews and most Poles never came.

The "Not all of the Victims of the Nazis were Jews, but all Jews were victims of the Nazis" argument is fallacious in other ways. To begin with, nearly 2/3rds of the world's Jews were out of Germany's reach and, short of literally conquering the world, neither Hitler nor his successors could possible have killed all the world's Jews. In contrast, nearly all ethnic Poles were at Germany's complete mercy. Moreover, far from all accessible Jews were targeted while Nazi Germany existed (1933-1945). Finland's (Germany's ally) Jews were never molested, and Bulgaria's Jews were only pursued halfheartedly. The neutrality of Switzerland and Sweden was consistently respected despite their Jewish populations (notably the famous escaped Danish Jews sheltered by the latter). Known Jewish Allied POWs were spared. Thousands of European Jews were used by Germany for forced labor and, with some exceptions, were not killed in the latest days of the war. As for permanent acceptance of known Jews by the Nazis, thousands of full-blooded German Jews were arbitrarily declared Aryans, and thereby spared (the Schutzjuden).

It is sobering to realize that Polish forced laborers were forced to wear an identification patch before the Jews were required to do so! (Edward Homze, p. 39). As for the future, Richard C. Lukas (pp. 88-95) presents strong evidence, from German sources, that the Poles and other Slavs were targeted for eventual extermination. Further evidence of this is provided by Taras Hunczak (pp. 117-118). These facts refute the denial of Poles' genocide by Berenbaum (p. 32-33), and the frankly ridiculous assertion by Israel (Yisrael) Gutman (p. 98) that the Poles had some sort of "right to remain alive."

Among other articles in this book, John S. Conway provides a good rebuttal against common attacks against the conduct of the German Catholic Church relative to the Nazis and their policies.

One of the greatest tragedies of the Holocaust besides the event itself, is the disremebering of five million non-Jewish Holocaust victims. Killed in the same camps, using the same vile methods of extermination and for the same profane reasons, these forgoten sufferers have been reduced to a cipher at the footnote of this event. The Nazis called for the TOTAL anhililation of Europe's Gypsies in two writen decrees, making claims of Jewish exclusivity to Holocaust suffering indefensible and dishonest. It is imperative that we speak of 11 million Holocaust victims if we are to do justice to truth. This book is a candle in the darkness. I can only hope it's flame gets brighter.

One of the greatest tragedies of the Holocaust besides the event itself, is the disremebering of five million non-Jewish Holocaust victims. Killed in the same camps, using the same vile methods of extermination and for the same profane reasons, these forgoten sufferers have been reduced to a cipher at the footnote of this event. The Nazis called for the TOTAL anhililation of Europe's Gypsies in two writen decrees, making claims of Jewish exclusivity to Holocaust suffering indefensible and dishonest. It is imperative that we speak of 11 million Holocaust victims if we are to do justice to truth. This book is a candle in the darkness. I can only hope it's flame gets brighter.