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Three thoughts For Holocaust Day

Yesterday marked Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day.  The day is a national holiday in Israel and observed around the world.

1. In 1983 Marek Edelman, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising was invited by the Polish communist government to sponsor and partake in a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the uprising. Edelman declined, writing:

“40 years ago we fought not only for our lives, but for life in dignity and freedom. To observe our anniversary here, where enslavement and humiliation are now the lot of the entire society, where words and gestures have become nothing but lies, would betray the spirit of our struggle. It would mean participating in something totally the opposite. It would be an act of cynicism and contempt.

I shall not be a party to this, nor can I condone the participation of others, regardless of where they come from and whom they speak for.

The true memory of the victims and heroes, of the eternal human striving for truth and freedom, will be preserved in the silence of graves and hearts, are far from manipulated commemorations. “

Edelman’s words in Poland, 1983, are no less relevant in Israel 2012, where the memory of the victims was co-opted in order to wage war and justify war-crimes, and the survivors live in disgraceful poverty, while their names are used to gain diplomatic victories. In a country which builds ghettos and walls and dabs that security, in a country in which statement such as “Don’t rent your apartments to Palestinians”, “Don’t let your daughter mingle with Arabs”, “Refugees will infect your children with illnesses and disease”, are thrown casually into the air by common people and state officials, in a country in which the Other isn’t safe, but persecuted, marking Holocaust day is an act of cynicism and hypocrisy, because its main lessons have most clearly gone amiss.

2.

“Sog nit keyn mol as du geyst dem letzten Weg,
Chotsch Himmeln blayene farstelen bloye Teg.
Kumen wet noch unser oyesgebenkte Schoh-
S´vet a poyk ton undzer trot- mir zaynen do!”

I’ve learnt my lessons from the Holocaust. I’ve learnt them from the partisans who fought in the forests, and from the Resistance movements in cities, villages in towns. I’ve learnt it from those who uprose in ghettos and concentration camps against all odds. I’ve learnt it from the farmer who hid Jews in his cellar, and from the nun, who hid them in her monastery. I’ve learnt them from those that offered a bowl of soup, a loaf of bread, or a pot of tea, which made the difference between life and death. I’ve learnt them from the Danish fisherman, and from the White Rose. I’ve learned from those who died for others to live, and those who refused to remain silent.

I’ve learnt my lesson from the Holocaust. I’ve learnt never to follow orders blindly, to disobey. I’ve learnt to fight fascism, and to oppose oppression whenever I encounter it. I’ve learnt to speak out against injustice, and not to be silent. I’ve learnt to stand up and resist. I’ve learnt my lessons from the holocaust – to be an activist, an anti-fascist, a conscientious objector.

3. “Never again” shouldn’t mean never again to Jews. It must be never again, to anyone!

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Perfect summary of all that needs to be said on the subject of Holocaust Remembrance Day. I wouldn’t be caught dead at such a cynical event. “Manipulated commemorations”, indeed.

Thanks for this, Leehee.

How many different holocaust rememberance days are there and why isn’t there a rememberance day for the Armenian genocide, or one for the Nakba, or one for the other Europeans that died in the extermination camps? Why is there a UN remembrance day (Jan 27th) for the Jews and none at the UN for the other people of the world when the UN is supposed to be for all the nations of the world? There used to be the one minute of silence at 11 am on November 11th for the victims of world wars but not much else.

It’s sad how little of of was actually paid for holocaust victims and survivors actually reached these people. It sure was good for Israel but not that good for the survivors.

RE: “I’ve learnt my lessons from the Holocaust. I’ve learnt them from the partisans who fought in the forests, and from the Resistance movements in cities, villages in towns… I’ve learnt it from the farmer who hid Jews in his cellar…” ~ Leehee Rothschild

A RELATED DOCUMENTARY: Hiding and Seeking, 2004, NR, 84 minutes
In this compelling documentary from the directors of the just-as-riveting A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, a father [from the U.S.] takes his grown-up [Israeli] Orthodox Jewish sons to Poland to teach them about the perils of putting up walls to keep those they deem dangerous outside.
After he introduces them to the Polish family who helped [hide] their grandfather during the Holocaust, they discover the value in building bridges.

Directors: Menachem Daum, Oren Rudavsky
Availability: Streaming and DVD
• NETFLIX LISTING – http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Hiding_and_Seeking/60034534
Hiding and Seeking Official Film Trailer (05:57) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB2JE0AbBCM

* e.g., “infiltrators”, “inciters”, etc. (to borrow from Avigdor Lieberman)

2 nights ago on “open call”, los angeles’ public broadcasting station kcet showed a holocaust remembrance film produced privately by relatives of holocaust survivors. it featured a 2011 revisit to krakow during passover, with musical events, lectures, and with as many as 10,000 (mostly poles) in attendance at outdoor concerts. what really got my attention were photographs and a few brief film clips which revealed a bit of what it was like for those in the grip of the nazi killing machine; particularly, the brief glimpses of jews trapped in ghettos and awaiting what for them had to be the inevitable only way out. always the same, such pictures, usually with jews either sitting on the ground alone, or aimlessly walking about, but always with that unmistakeable blank expression of hopelessness written on their face, in their posture, their gait. occasionally there’d be someone who appeared to be frantically walking back and forth, perhaps a recent arrival who hadn’t yet given up all hope.

having been to palestine, visited the wb (bethlehem, ramallah) & jerusalem (during intifada I), as well as beirut during the ’82 u.s.-backed israeli invasion of lebanon, also baghdad a couple years post gulf I, in my mind i tried to compare life for a palestinian under the israeli boot with life for a jew under the nazis. seemed to me that one major difference, aside from the slow motion genocide in gaza (compared to the mass produced extermination by the nazis) was the expressions of hopelessness among jews, whether held in ghettos or in concentration camps, something that i can’t recall sensing when among palestinians, be it in occupied palestine, lebanon, iraq or here in the u.s. of a., i can’t recall even one palestinian who had the tell-tale look of hopelessness and defeat so easily discerned in the faces of hitler’s concentration camp victims. perhaps in gaza there’s that look now (my visit was in ’88), but more likely there’s the defiance, a sense of unity and the will to prevail. perhaps, too, the jewish genocide was so rapid and devastating that it didn’t allow for the organizational efforts that a mass resistance requires. even so, towards the end in the warsaw ghetto, the jewish resistance did materialize and held off the nazis for several weeks.