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Forward, NY
May 11 2005
Genocidal Threats Demand More Than Just Memorializing
By Yehuda Bauer
May 13, 2005
The recent opening of Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of
Europe and of Yad Vashem's new museum in Jerusalem are important and
welcome developments. But we must go beyond our singular focus on
memorializing the Holocaust. We must help people realize that
genocidal violence is a threat to all people. We must demand of the
political world - in our own interest, and the interest of the wider
community - to finally put actions behind its pledge to "never
forget."
Any examination of the Holocaust must involve an examination of the
general phenomenon of genocide. The internationally recognized legal
definition delineated by the Genocide Convention of 1948 is
unsatisfactory, but any attempt to change it is all but politically
impossible. This is the definition of genocide with which we must
work, but every effort should be made to expand our understanding of
what it should imply.
Political mass murder, ethnic cleansing designed to annihilate a
group and global genocidal ideologies such as radical Islam very
much fit the concept of genocide, in spirit if not in letter. These
are genocidal threats, and as such they should be added to the
convention's definition that genocide is the intent to annihilate
ethnic, national, racial and religious groups. The genocide of the
Jewish people - inaccurately known as the Holocaust - is, as far as
we know, the most extreme case of genocide to date.
Each and every genocide has targeted a specific group of people. In
order to understand genocide, therefore, one has to deal with the
specific group targeted. Jews were not transported to extermination
camps because they were humans; humans were transported because they
were Jews. The Young Turks did not randomly kill masses of humans;
they killed Armenians. The same is true for the Tutsi in Rwanda, and
for the ethnic Africans being murdered in Darfur by Arab Janjaweed
militias.
Each genocide is different, but it would be a mistake to dismiss the
similarities. Foremost among them is the suffering of the victims.
There is no better or worse genocide, just as there is no better or
worse murder, no better or worse torture. There is no scale to
measure suffering. Jews, Armenians or Poles who were martyred and
murdered all suffered the same. Another characteristic common to all
genocides is that the "civilized" world was unable to prevent them,
or to make a serious effort to stop them. There are, tragically, few
exceptions.
The argument that the Holocaust was the most extreme form of genocide
is based on the fact that a modern nation state committed itself to
the total and universal annihilation of individuals belonging to a
particular group of humans. The Nazi ideology that motivated the
murder was unprecedented in its lack of pragmatism: The Nazis
murdered Jewish slave workers while they produced materials essential
for the German war effort, and killed experts whom they could have
used. Nazi ideology related to the Jews as mythical beings - Satans
or supposed rulers of the world that had to be destroyed - a marked
contrast to other genocides that were motivated by economic or
political considerations. True, Jewish property was confiscated and
used - but that was not the reason for persecuting and murdering the
Jews; it was the result.
The Holocaust was not unique, because that would mean that it could
never happen again, to anyone, Jewish or otherwise. This is simply
not true. The Holocaust was perpetrated by humans, for human reasons,
and anything done by humans can be repeated - not in exactly the same
form, but in similar or parallel ways.
>From 1900 to 1987, according to Rudolph Rummel, an estimated 169
million civilians were murdered by governments and by other political
bodies. Of that number, some 38 million of these victims were
murdered in genocides as defined by the convention. Today, Darfur is
the scene of genocide, and again the international community has, so
far, proved itself unable to stop the killing. To be fair, more is
now being written about genocidal threats, and more people and even
politicians seem to care about genocide than before. Nonetheless, the
killing continues.
Today, genocidal threats are present everywhere. For the Jewish
people, the main genocidal threat does not lie with European
antisemitism, but with the radical Islamist version. It is a serious
error to view the murderous language of radical Islamists as mere
talk: We have learned that when people are ideologically committed to
murderous action, they will act accordingly if given the chance.
Therefore, Jews should be actively involved in all attempts to
prevent genocidal murders of any kind. In most cases, including the
radical Islamic one, it is largely from within the group that
potential perpetrators are recruited. In the effort to combat the
genocidal threat, then, Jews and others must seek out allies in the
nonradical Islamic world, which still makes up the vast majority of
Islam's 1.3 billion adherents. That means that we must view Muslims
as brothers, as equals, as potential allies and as bearers of one of
the great civilizations of the world - and as those who are the first
to be threatened by the radicals in their midst.
Yehuda Bauer is the scientific adviser to Yad Vashem, a professor of
Holocaust studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a member of the
Israel Academy of Science and the author of "Rethinking the
Holocaust" (Yale University Press, 2001).
May 11 2005
Genocidal Threats Demand More Than Just Memorializing
By Yehuda Bauer
May 13, 2005
The recent opening of Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of
Europe and of Yad Vashem's new museum in Jerusalem are important and
welcome developments. But we must go beyond our singular focus on
memorializing the Holocaust. We must help people realize that
genocidal violence is a threat to all people. We must demand of the
political world - in our own interest, and the interest of the wider
community - to finally put actions behind its pledge to "never
forget."
Any examination of the Holocaust must involve an examination of the
general phenomenon of genocide. The internationally recognized legal
definition delineated by the Genocide Convention of 1948 is
unsatisfactory, but any attempt to change it is all but politically
impossible. This is the definition of genocide with which we must
work, but every effort should be made to expand our understanding of
what it should imply.
Political mass murder, ethnic cleansing designed to annihilate a
group and global genocidal ideologies such as radical Islam very
much fit the concept of genocide, in spirit if not in letter. These
are genocidal threats, and as such they should be added to the
convention's definition that genocide is the intent to annihilate
ethnic, national, racial and religious groups. The genocide of the
Jewish people - inaccurately known as the Holocaust - is, as far as
we know, the most extreme case of genocide to date.
Each and every genocide has targeted a specific group of people. In
order to understand genocide, therefore, one has to deal with the
specific group targeted. Jews were not transported to extermination
camps because they were humans; humans were transported because they
were Jews. The Young Turks did not randomly kill masses of humans;
they killed Armenians. The same is true for the Tutsi in Rwanda, and
for the ethnic Africans being murdered in Darfur by Arab Janjaweed
militias.
Each genocide is different, but it would be a mistake to dismiss the
similarities. Foremost among them is the suffering of the victims.
There is no better or worse genocide, just as there is no better or
worse murder, no better or worse torture. There is no scale to
measure suffering. Jews, Armenians or Poles who were martyred and
murdered all suffered the same. Another characteristic common to all
genocides is that the "civilized" world was unable to prevent them,
or to make a serious effort to stop them. There are, tragically, few
exceptions.
The argument that the Holocaust was the most extreme form of genocide
is based on the fact that a modern nation state committed itself to
the total and universal annihilation of individuals belonging to a
particular group of humans. The Nazi ideology that motivated the
murder was unprecedented in its lack of pragmatism: The Nazis
murdered Jewish slave workers while they produced materials essential
for the German war effort, and killed experts whom they could have
used. Nazi ideology related to the Jews as mythical beings - Satans
or supposed rulers of the world that had to be destroyed - a marked
contrast to other genocides that were motivated by economic or
political considerations. True, Jewish property was confiscated and
used - but that was not the reason for persecuting and murdering the
Jews; it was the result.
The Holocaust was not unique, because that would mean that it could
never happen again, to anyone, Jewish or otherwise. This is simply
not true. The Holocaust was perpetrated by humans, for human reasons,
and anything done by humans can be repeated - not in exactly the same
form, but in similar or parallel ways.
>From 1900 to 1987, according to Rudolph Rummel, an estimated 169
million civilians were murdered by governments and by other political
bodies. Of that number, some 38 million of these victims were
murdered in genocides as defined by the convention. Today, Darfur is
the scene of genocide, and again the international community has, so
far, proved itself unable to stop the killing. To be fair, more is
now being written about genocidal threats, and more people and even
politicians seem to care about genocide than before. Nonetheless, the
killing continues.
Today, genocidal threats are present everywhere. For the Jewish
people, the main genocidal threat does not lie with European
antisemitism, but with the radical Islamist version. It is a serious
error to view the murderous language of radical Islamists as mere
talk: We have learned that when people are ideologically committed to
murderous action, they will act accordingly if given the chance.
Therefore, Jews should be actively involved in all attempts to
prevent genocidal murders of any kind. In most cases, including the
radical Islamic one, it is largely from within the group that
potential perpetrators are recruited. In the effort to combat the
genocidal threat, then, Jews and others must seek out allies in the
nonradical Islamic world, which still makes up the vast majority of
Islam's 1.3 billion adherents. That means that we must view Muslims
as brothers, as equals, as potential allies and as bearers of one of
the great civilizations of the world - and as those who are the first
to be threatened by the radicals in their midst.
Yehuda Bauer is the scientific adviser to Yad Vashem, a professor of
Holocaust studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a member of the
Israel Academy of Science and the author of "Rethinking the
Holocaust" (Yale University Press, 2001).