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Last update - 23:30 17/04/2007
Holocaust denial begins at home
By Bradley Burston

The photograph is arresting. Names, rank on rank of names, tens of thousands of names of victims of the World War II Nazi Holocaust, engraved on a tall black monolith on a memorial in Miami Beach. And then one name added at the bottom, added this week, to mark Yom Hashoa, the Holocaust remembrance day: Daniel Pearl.

I grieved and grieve the death of Daniel Pearl, murdered with hideous brutality five years ago, executed, his radical Islamist captors indicated, for having been an American and a Jew. He was a gifted, unusually humane journalist and an estimable human being. He deserves to be remembered and mourned as such.

But not this way.

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"Daniel really died for basically one reason, and basically the same reason 6 million others did, and that was for the crime of being a Jew." said Norman Braman of the Holocaust memorial committee in Miami, adding that organizers of the commemoration felt it appropriate to place Pearl's name on the wall.

"There wasn't one individual that was in opposition,"

Perhaps there should have been.

My heart goes out to Daniel Pearl's widow Mariane, his son Adam, born three months after the murder, and to Judea and Ruth Pearl, Daniel's parents. I can certainly understand Judea Pearl when the Miami Herald asked him about the memorial. "Of course he was not a victim of the Holocaust," he said. Still, he said, "the same forces that killed my grandparents in Auschwitz, the forces of hatred, are still operating in our world in the 21st century - and Danny is one of the victims."

During the Sunday commemoration, Judea Pearl told participants, "The forces of barbarity and evil are still active in our world. The Holocaust didn't finish in 1945."

Daniel Pearl deserves to be remembered fully and appropriately for how he lived and how he died. But his name should not have been added to the wall.

The killing of Daniel Pearl was an act of authentic evil, an expression of unspeakable hatred and cruelty. It was a tragedy and a heinous crime.

The forces operating were forces of hatred. They deserve to be hunted down and removed from this world. But they are not the Nazis, and their crimes are not the crimes of the Holocaust.

We are outraged, and should be, when the actions of Israel are compared to those of the Nazis. We declare, and are right to do so, that the Holocaust was an event without parallel in human history. We believe, with morality on our side, that to compare the Holocaust to contemporary events, to use the Holocaust to further a political agenda or shore up a cause, is to cheapen the significance of the Holocaust.

To compare Islamic terrorism to the Holocaust, even when the intention is acting in defense of the Jewish people, is, in effect, to deny the Holocaust.

____________


Take it from us, over here. We have spent so much passion and conscience comparing our Islamist enemies to the Nazis, that we have managed to blind ourselves to the grievous act of Holocaust denial that we have committed on our own.

It has taken us 60 years to develop this blindness, to accustom ourselves to it, to so pervert the memory of the Holocaust that we can deny its victims their right to something approaching normal life.

After all, what if there were a nation which denied the Holocaust so effectively that its bureaucrats could look needy concentration camp survivors in the eye and deny them - year after year after year - compensation payments Germany had sent to that country expressly to alleviate the plight of the survivors?

What if that nation denied the Holocaust with such success that hundreds of thousands of aging survivors lived there as full citizens, yet one of every three eked out lives in poverty, unable to afford proper food, shelter, heating and medical care.

What if that nation denied the Holocaust to the extent that some desperate German-born survivors managed to receive adequate assistance and health care only by returning to live in Germany.

What if a succession of prime ministers of that nation denied the Holocaust by failing to redress the situation, even if they were made fully aware of it?

Jewish organizations across the world would denounce that government as obscenely insensitive, an insult to the memory of the six million who perished in the Nazi genocide.

Unless the perpetrators were us.

We have pledged, as Jews in America and Israel both, never to forget the Holocaust.

In the process, what we have clearly forgotten, is how to remember it.

_______________


Recent blogs:

We like our Arabs to be traitors
Help free them. They could've been yours.
Next year in divided Jerusalem
A place at the table


__________________


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  1.   Israeli Shoah Survivors Living in Poverty 10:44  |  Esty 16/04/07
  2.   ONLY ONE REASON 11:04  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 16/04/07
  3.   Daniel Pearl 11:14  |  God 16/04/07
  4.   You`re right Bradley, but let the grieving grieve how they want 11:15  |  Michael 16/04/07
  5.   So they set up another committee 11:16  |  Yonatan 16/04/07
  6.   innocent + guilty 11:17  |  woody woodpecker 16/04/07
  7.   THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS 11:17  |  indrajaya 16/04/07
  8.   The Problem is post-holocaust Jewish behavior 11:23  |  AK 16/04/07
  9.   If the holocaust can be compared to "Islamic terrorism" then 11:48  |  Christian in Israel 16/04/07
  10.   #8, KA 12:02  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 16/04/07
  11.   Shalom Khalid #9 12:15  |  FOX 16/04/07
  12.   #9 CRAZY THINKING IS IT INDICATIVE OF RELIGION ?? 12:18  |  paul harris 16/04/07
  13.   In agreement with Burston 12:46  |  Daniel 16/04/07
  14.   Today I remember my dear friend 12:58  |  Lynn 16/04/07
  15.   Holocaust Remembrance 13:04  |  whodey 16/04/07
  16.   # 12 paul harris 13:20  |  Lynn 16/04/07
  17.   Also in agreement with Bradley 13:27  |  Nick Ferriman 16/04/07
  18.   The Mutating Left 13:31  |  FOX 16/04/07
  19.   today I remember my three uncles who were 13:40  |  KA 16/04/07
  20.   Fox -hypocrite 13:52  |  Baruch Nili 16/04/07
  21.   # 3 ungodly god in Beirut 13:59  |  ChanahS 16/04/07
  22.   No Problem 14:00  |  Johnny Weintraub 16/04/07
  23.   # 7 Indrajaya 14:02  |  ChanahS 16/04/07
  24.   Yom HaShoah yartzeit candle 14:02  |  akiva P 16/04/07
  25.   AK - Khaled 14:04  |  ChanahS 16/04/07
  26.   Mourne the death of PC 14:07  |  Niall 16/04/07
  27.   # 19, KA 14:16  |  indrajaya 16/04/07
  28.   # 22, CHANAHS 14:23  |  indrajaya 16/04/07
  29.   To Bradley Burston, a far huge mistake !!! 14:28  |  Alberto Cohen 16/04/07
  30.   The Zionists 14:56  |  Phillies Wright 16/04/07
  31.   # 28 Indrajaya 15:09  |  ChanahS 16/04/07
  32.   Cheapening the Holocaust 15:12  |  Tosefta 16/04/07
  33.   Holocaust - the extermination of Jews during WWII 15:24  |  Boris 16/04/07
  34.   Holocaust - the extermination of Jews during WWII 15:24  |  Boris 16/04/07
  35.   People Overboard 15:43  |  Ronnie Wolman 16/04/07
  36.   # 24 akiva P. WHILE I AGREE WITH CIPORA.TO A CERTAIN DEGREE.... 15:46  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  37.   Reading this article I feel ashamed to be man. 15:53  |  Karl 16/04/07
  38.   The ??? Faces of Khalid 15:57  |  Yonatan 16/04/07
  39.   holocaust 16:13  |  rose 16/04/07
  40.   Whoever added Daniel Pearl to the holocaust list is a damn moron 16:27  |  Steve Holden 16/04/07
  41.   There is a need for a new museum and a new list of names 16:33  |  Yonatan 16/04/07
  42.   Chanah..you continued living..by murdering 16:34  |  Khalid 16/04/07
  43.   THERE IS NOTHING UNHOLY ABOUT ADDING PEAR`S NAME 16:35  |  Meir Weinstein 16/04/07
  44.   KA 16:37  |  mandehu 16/04/07
  45.   Kath #36 16:37  |  GABE1 16/04/07
  46.   No. 40 16:45  |  Baruch Nili 16/04/07
  47.   # 42 Khaled 17:03  |  ChanahS 16/04/07
  48.   Khalid Amyrah (AK) is now going Freud on us 17:23  |  Jacob Blues 16/04/07
  49.   Kath #36 17:24  |  akiva P 16/04/07
  50.   Yonatan #41 17:27  |  Gabe1 16/04/07
  51.   Ronnie, Hi there! 17:33  |  akiva P 16/04/07
  52.   Adding Danny was correct. Others will unfortunately follow 17:34  |  Jason 16/04/07
  53.   Shoah Memorial 17:43  |  Moshe 16/04/07
  54.   Akiva will watch it later 17:54  |  Ronnie Wolman 16/04/07
  55.   Burston-The Holocaust is NOT Unique In Jewish History 18:05  |  Ben Israel 16/04/07
  56.   #54 Ronnie 18:06  |  abd 16/04/07
  57.   Ronnie, about those ulta cuckers in Florida... 18:16  |  akiva P 16/04/07
  58.   abd:Parking in Toronto on the sheep 18:26  |  Ronnie Wolman 16/04/07
  59.   Khalid #42-Haaretz STOP Censoring. 18:31  |  GABE1 16/04/07
  60.   This Conflict and the Holocaust 18:36  |  Ronnie Wolman 16/04/07
  61.   # 49 akiva P. I AM SORRY IF YOU MISUNDERSTOOD... 18:47  |  Kath` 16/04/07
  62.   #59 Gabe 1 - You need a course in reading comprehension 18:58  |  Yonatan 16/04/07
  63.   Phillies Wright - another "anti-Zionist" 19:02  |  Yonatan 16/04/07
  64.   Jonathan...if antiZIonism is anti-Semitism, I am 19:10  |  Human 16/04/07
  65.   Daniel Pearl 19:19  |  Carl 16/04/07
  66.   Buston is correct historically speaking - 2dn Attempt 19:20  |  Chick Corea 16/04/07
  67.   an anecdote -pt 1 19:21  |  ipse dixit 16/04/07
  68.   an anecdote pt 2 19:23  |  ipse dixit 16/04/07
  69.   Jews have to decide whether the Holocaust is universal 19:24  |  Michael 16/04/07
  70.   an anecdote pt 3 19:24  |  ipse dixit 16/04/07
  71.   #64 Inhuman 19:48  |  Yonatan 16/04/07
  72.   Burston is plain wrong 20:09  |  Wade 16/04/07
  73.   Holocaust Denial begins at home - Burston 20:13  |  Sharonelle 16/04/07
  74.   Yonatan #62 20:17  |  GABE1 16/04/07
  75.   Holocaust begins at home - to Burston 20:18  |  Sharonelle 16/04/07
  76.   #74 Gabe 1 - no problem 20:46  |  Yonatan 16/04/07
  77.   Yonatan #62 20:54  |  GABE1 16/04/07
  78.   Sharonelle # 73 20:55  |  ChanahS 16/04/07
  79.   Yonatan #76 21:17<