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Daily Trojan (University of Southern California Student Newspaper)
Jan 19 2005
Genocide still part of our world
Yehuda Bauer, a professor from Hebrew University, compares Rwanda to
the Sudan to the Holocaust.
By Steven Chen
It is a banal statement to label the 20th century as a century of
genocide, said Yehuda Bauer Tuesday in Doheny Memorial Library in a
lecture commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz.
Bauer, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, visited USC to
discuss the topic, "Is Comparing Genocide a Purely Academic
Endeavor?"
The event was sponsored by the USC College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences, the Information Services Division and the Shoah Foundation,
established by Steven Spielberg to create an archive of videotaped
testimonies of various Holocaust survivors.
About 80 students, faculty and members of the Shoah Foundation
attended the event.
Various incidents around the world in the past century, including the
Holocaust and killings in Rwanda, southern Sudan and Armenia have
caused debate about the definition of genocide.
"No two academics agree on a definition of genocide," Bauer said.
Despite the lack of consensus in a definition, Bauer said that the
United Nations currently states that genocide is the intent to
annihilate a group of people as defined as religious, ethnic,
national or racial.
He also talked about the recent events in Sudan, where over 70,000
people have died and 2 million people were displaced due to a civil
war between Muslims and Christians.
"If you define something as a genocide, you are not free to choose
what to do. You are obligated to prevent genocide before it happens,"
Bauer said.
He questioned the audience about why the U.N. does not use force,
either economically or militarily, to stop the government of Sudan
that has been killing citizens in the country.
During the lecture, Bauer argued that genocide was not a phenomenon
of the 20th century, as many academics claim. Instead, he said that
humans are the only mammals that murder each other in large
quantities, and historical events such as the destruction of Carthage
and the Spanish-Portuguese invasion of Mesoamerica were also forms of
genocide.
"We refuse to teach children about the horrors of humanity to protect
them," Bauer said. "This is nonsense."
Instead, Bauer argued that ignoring the atrocities of humanity
through censorship is only allowing them to recur.
In the last part of the lecture, Bauer said that the Holocaust was
not an inexplicable, unique or indescribable event in history.
"People say that the Holocaust cannot be understood, but you can
understand (the Holocaust), just like other genocides," Bauer said.
For the audience, Bauer's argument was surprising.
"The issue for uniqueness of the Holocaust will be controversial with
the Jewish community," said Rabbi Susan Laemmle, dean of Religious
Life at USC.
"Dr. Bauer was realistic without being cynical."
But Bauer highlighted five elements of the Holocaust that was
unprecedented in history: totality, as everybody the Nazis defined as
Jews were murdered; universalism, as Jews everywhere in the world
were targeted; ideology, where Jews were targeted because of a
perception that they wanted to take over the world; ideology based on
race; and finally, the persecution of Jews as a race instead of a
culture. Bauer is one of the preeminent historians of the Holocaust
and was elected as a member of the Israeli Academy of Science in
2001.
He has also published nearly 80 articles and written 12 books about
the topic. His most recent book was "Rethinking the Holocaust," which
was published in 2001.
Some students in the audience said they were impressed with Bauer's
credentials and his experience and knowledge.
"When you hear Yehuda Bauer speak, you're hearing from somebody who
is really educated," said Nicholas Polk, a freshman majoring in
broadcast journalism and history. "I'm very glad that I came. I think
it's really important to be able to hear and understand that genocide
is not unique to the Holocaust. Similar things have happened in the
past and are still going on today in the Sudan region."
Jan 19 2005
Genocide still part of our world
Yehuda Bauer, a professor from Hebrew University, compares Rwanda to
the Sudan to the Holocaust.
By Steven Chen
It is a banal statement to label the 20th century as a century of
genocide, said Yehuda Bauer Tuesday in Doheny Memorial Library in a
lecture commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz.
Bauer, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, visited USC to
discuss the topic, "Is Comparing Genocide a Purely Academic
Endeavor?"
The event was sponsored by the USC College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences, the Information Services Division and the Shoah Foundation,
established by Steven Spielberg to create an archive of videotaped
testimonies of various Holocaust survivors.
About 80 students, faculty and members of the Shoah Foundation
attended the event.
Various incidents around the world in the past century, including the
Holocaust and killings in Rwanda, southern Sudan and Armenia have
caused debate about the definition of genocide.
"No two academics agree on a definition of genocide," Bauer said.
Despite the lack of consensus in a definition, Bauer said that the
United Nations currently states that genocide is the intent to
annihilate a group of people as defined as religious, ethnic,
national or racial.
He also talked about the recent events in Sudan, where over 70,000
people have died and 2 million people were displaced due to a civil
war between Muslims and Christians.
"If you define something as a genocide, you are not free to choose
what to do. You are obligated to prevent genocide before it happens,"
Bauer said.
He questioned the audience about why the U.N. does not use force,
either economically or militarily, to stop the government of Sudan
that has been killing citizens in the country.
During the lecture, Bauer argued that genocide was not a phenomenon
of the 20th century, as many academics claim. Instead, he said that
humans are the only mammals that murder each other in large
quantities, and historical events such as the destruction of Carthage
and the Spanish-Portuguese invasion of Mesoamerica were also forms of
genocide.
"We refuse to teach children about the horrors of humanity to protect
them," Bauer said. "This is nonsense."
Instead, Bauer argued that ignoring the atrocities of humanity
through censorship is only allowing them to recur.
In the last part of the lecture, Bauer said that the Holocaust was
not an inexplicable, unique or indescribable event in history.
"People say that the Holocaust cannot be understood, but you can
understand (the Holocaust), just like other genocides," Bauer said.
For the audience, Bauer's argument was surprising.
"The issue for uniqueness of the Holocaust will be controversial with
the Jewish community," said Rabbi Susan Laemmle, dean of Religious
Life at USC.
"Dr. Bauer was realistic without being cynical."
But Bauer highlighted five elements of the Holocaust that was
unprecedented in history: totality, as everybody the Nazis defined as
Jews were murdered; universalism, as Jews everywhere in the world
were targeted; ideology, where Jews were targeted because of a
perception that they wanted to take over the world; ideology based on
race; and finally, the persecution of Jews as a race instead of a
culture. Bauer is one of the preeminent historians of the Holocaust
and was elected as a member of the Israeli Academy of Science in
2001.
He has also published nearly 80 articles and written 12 books about
the topic. His most recent book was "Rethinking the Holocaust," which
was published in 2001.
Some students in the audience said they were impressed with Bauer's
credentials and his experience and knowledge.
"When you hear Yehuda Bauer speak, you're hearing from somebody who
is really educated," said Nicholas Polk, a freshman majoring in
broadcast journalism and history. "I'm very glad that I came. I think
it's really important to be able to hear and understand that genocide
is not unique to the Holocaust. Similar things have happened in the
past and are still going on today in the Sudan region."