ALEXANDER KIMEL - HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR
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ALEXANDER KIMEL - HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR |
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 MAIN - SITE MAGAZINE-SITE HLC. INFERNO Inferno Children Survivors Forgotten Memor. The Last Sermon The Jumper Lovers & Enemies Shlojme Balagule The Fall of Sevast.
MEMOIRS -SURV.Autobiogr. Notes The Shtejtl World Collapses The Russians. Shtejtl survives First Kaddish. Out of the Grave Yom Kippur Action The Baby Bunker Building Bunker Collapses I Almost Killed ... Ghetto Escape In Hiding The Liberation.
POETRYPoetry Prayers Survivor Creed Archivist Poetry
HLC. EDUCATI0NFinal Solution What Happened? The Killings Why Jews? Organizers Collaborators War against Jews Anti-Semitism Victims of Antisem The Worst Camp Nazi Methods Hitler - Syphilitic Hitler the Man Hitler & Jews Perpetrators Himmler Heydrich Goebbels The Victims Hlc. Syndrome The Rescuers Jewish Resistance Church Silence Nazi Revolution Jews Abandoned Other Genocides Schindler. Courageous Christians Remebr. Day
POST-HLC . ISSUESHlc. Legacy Revisionism Jews & Germans Jews & Poles Other Victims Research Topics
MISCELLANEOUSHlc. Sites Links Our Mail & Press Bibliography
HLC. PLAYSThe Verdict
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HOLOCAUST - GUILT & RESPONSIBILITY - PART 3.by Alexander KimelRudy R. wrote: This is my reponse to the posts regarding the uniqueness of the Holocaust, the occurrence of other genocides, the guilt of the parties, and so on. The following facts bear on this, although their interpretation is, of course, an individual thing. 1. History has many examples of root and branch genocides, such as the Holocaust. For example, the Mongols tried to totally eliminate (where ever found) the Tanguts. In 1904 the Germans tried to totally eliminate the Hereon tribe in Africa, ultimately killing about 55,000, and I believe there are other cases where in remote areas one tribe or group was subject to total genocide, as were whole civilizations in ancient times. However, except for the Holocaust, in no case in modern times has there been another attempt by a regime to achieve a root and branch extermination of an ethnic/religious group. Rwanda may seem to come close, but the genocide there was in its extent and comprehensiveness not an act of state, but of killing initiated by those in power that spread as a contagion to random killing of Tutus. Nor was the mass murder of Armenians by the Turks during and after WWI similar to the Holocaust. Although planned at the center--a policy of state--and systematically administered, its purpose was to largely purge Turkey of this "troublesome" minority. Pockets of Armenians were allowed to survive, as in the capitol, and when turkey invaded Armenia the genocide of Armenians was limited. So, if one wants to claim uniqueness for the Holocaust, which I do, then that must rest on sheer number of Jews to be killed off and the central planning involved. Both elements are unique in our time. 2. In this century about 39 million people have been murdered in genocides, including the Holocaust. This includes genocides in China, USSR, Cambodia, Vietnam, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, South Africa, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, and so on. Thus, if one is to be consistent about the guilt of the parties involved and their descendents, then there is much guilt for genocide to spread around. 3. Bearing on generalizations to be gained about genocide from the Holocaust, we must note this. If one counts mass murder by governments beyond genocide, such as of POWs, or political opponents, or counterrevolutionaries, or nationalists, or landlords, or dissidents, or you name it, then in total about 141 million MORE people have been murdered than in genocide in this century. The Holocaust has been one of many genocides and in terms of the dead, a small percent of the total thus killed in all genocides. It is even a much smaller percent of those murdered in one way or another or for one reason or another in this century (even in the time span involved, while the Holocaust was going on the Soviets were murdering about 10 million people--not in combat, not in war, but as a war against its own people; beyond the Jews, Hitler was murdering an additional 16 million people, including non-Jewish Germans, Yugoslavs, Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Frenchman, Czechs). 4. As to the horror involved, nothing said about the horrors others suffered can equal that actually felt by survivors of whatever mass murder. Moreover, I believe it is morally wrong to compare genocides as to which were more barbaric, inhumane, cruel, or savage. Mass murder is mass MURDER. People were deprived of their lives for no other reason than who or what they were, and that is the horror the equates all genocides and trumps any genocide technique. But even if we want to weigh the way people were killed, the Holocaust is not exceptional in the pain involved. It must be said that from one genocide to another people have been murdered in all the ways the human mind can invent and inflict, from skinning people alive to forcing them to eat their own body parts or driving stakes up their anus. 5. Although it seems obvious that German antisemitism is responsible for the Holocaust, this explanation must surmount the much greater antisemitism that existed in Poland, other Eastern European nations, and Russia. It also may be that antisemitism in France was greater than in Germany. Then why the Holocaust? It is the regime. In particular, rabid antisemitism with absolute power to achieve their will, regardless of what their subjects thought or wanted, took over Germany. That is, in general it is power at the center that makes the difference and explains one genocide and mass murder or another. There is virtually a perfect correlation here. The more absolute the power, the more likely the mass murder or genocide. Democratic regimes rarely murder their own citizens (indeed, if a democratic regime is found to have murdered one person, that will not only bring about the downfall of the government, but those responsible will be imprisoned). Totalitarian regimes murder their citizens in the tens of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions (e.g., Mao, Stalin, Hitler). 6. What lesson can we learn from the Holocaust, other genocides, and all those murdered by governments for other reasons than their group membership. The answer, backed up by diverse case studies and quantitative analyses, is to promote democracy. The more democratic a regime (note that this is a continuum), the more secure people are in their lives--regardless of who and what they are. My reply is as follows: According to the statistics compiled by Prof. R., in this century alone, 170 million of people died a violent death. The above figure includes victims of Democides (132 million), Genocides (38 millions), and victims of the Holocausts (7 million). Victims of "legitimate" warfare were not included. Those appalling figures indicate a very violent civilization, bent on self-destruction. To find a remedy let's define the killings and their causes: DEMOCIDES: It is the deliberate murder of civilians, by their own governments, for political cleansing or mass terror. For example Stalin's killing of 20 million of Russians, the Ukrainian famine that claimed the lives of about 4 million of Ukrainians, Mao's cultural revolution, Poll Pot's Cambodian massacres, Hitler's political victims. etc. GENOCIDES: Are defined as mass murder of people because of their race, religion, nationality or tribal origin. Examples: Armenian Genocide by the Turks, Tribal killings in Rwanda, Ethnic Cleansing in Serbia, killing of about 600,000 Serbs by the Croatians during W.W.I, massacres in Somalia, Kosovo, etc... HOLOCAUSTS: Indiscriminate killing of all Jews and Gypsies, men, women and children in an effort ot remove those people from the face of the earth. GRADUATION OF EVIL Although all murders are abhorrent, there is a distinctive graduation of evil, which can be measured by the genre discrimination, intensity of cruelty and extinction of life. There is a big difference between Stalin's political purges, Stalin's inducement of an artificial famine in the Ukraine and Hitler's Holocaust crimes. The litmus test of those crimes is the killing of babies. REMEDIES -CULTURAL REVOLUTION. One universal remedy pertaining to Democides, Genocides and Holocausts alike, is the reinforcing the moral backbone of the individuals and religious institutions, to increase their resistance to the evil actions of the dictators and the states. If all the people had the moral integrity and courage of the Jehovah's Witnesses all wars and killings would be historical relics. I believe that this a definite possibility that we can create a civilization conforming to the requirements of the Ten Commandments. There should be no forgiveness for killers. No Peace for the Wicked (Isaiah). DEMOCIDES Dealing with tyrants and dictators is a difficult political problem as long as we adhere to the obsolete notion of national sovereignty. One man like Saddam Hussein, can keep at bay almost the whole world. Modern communications shrunk the world, made it an interdependent village. It is possible to create economic democratic trading blocks, in which all nations will pledge to maintain legitimate, democratic forms of government, in exchange of economic advantages. With the passing of the aging dictators more and more people will recognize the advantages of belonging to the group of free people. It might work, democides can be stopped. UNDERSTANDING OF THE HOLOCAUST Although the Holocaust amounted to a crucifixion of the Jewish people, understanding of this tragedy is not paramount with beautification of the victims. The Holocaust comprises all the elements of Democides and Genocides. It is a complex tragedy with many participants: victims, perpetrators, bystanders, and observers. We all failed and we all can benefit from insights. It is not that the Jewish blood is reddier, it is the fact the rives of Jewish blood that flowed through Europe, changed permanently the landscape, exposing a dangerous fault line of the prevailing Judeo Christian culture. We have to recognize the Holocaust as a WARNINNG TO MANKIND.
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