Holocaust scholars slam EU for backing Nazi-Communist comparison
Researches call comparison 'gravest threat to preserving the memory of the Holocaust.'
By Cnaan Liphshiz Tags: Holocaust EU Israel newsWARSAW - Leading Holocaust researchers have criticized European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek ahead of his speech at Auschwitz Tuesday, for endorsing the equalization of the Nazi genocide with Communist brutal oppression.
Some scholars call this growing trend "the gravest threat to preserving the memory of the Holocaust," suggesting it serves to exculpate populations complicit in the extermination of their Jewish minorities. "It is inconceivable that the ceremony at Auschwitz will feature an address by a parliament president who entertains initiatives meant to efface and obfuscate the Holocaust," said Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's director for international relations. Samuels was referring to a recent speech by Buzek - a former Polish prime minister - in which he lauded members of the European Parliament for "recognizing that the mass deportations, murders and enslavements committed ... by Stalinism and Nazism fall into the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity."
In April, more than 400 members of the European Parliament voted in favor of naming August 23 "European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism," as suggested in the controversial 2008 Prague Declaration, at the end of an international forum on commemoration.
Efraim Zuroff, who heads the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office, said Buzek's statement was part of efforts to "create a historical and intellectual infrastructure to undermine and eventually cancel the current status of the Shoah as a unique case of genocide."
Professor Yehuda Bauer of the Hebrew University called equation attempts "campaigns to marginalize the Holocaust."
Despite the support that equation received in Strasburg, August 23 has not yet been declared as a memorial for both categories of victims. Buzek will speak Tuesday at a ceremony for International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the former Nazi camp of Auschwitz in Poland. Buzek's spokesperson Inga Rosinska said: "The Shoah is unique and the most tragic case of genocide in the history of mankind. There is no comparison. The idea of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism (23 August) - is to remember the victims of the communist occupation of Central and Eastern Europe which followed the end of World War II. Those living on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain were unfortunate to wait for their freedom another half century."
According to a number of leading Holocaust scholars, the state-sponsored equation of Nazi crimes with Communist brutality in Eastern Europe is the most serious threat to preserving the memory of the Holocaust. Samuels said the ongoing growth in the power of rightist parties in the European Parliament is fueling the equation campaign.
This phenomenon is especially prevalent in Lithuania, for obvious reasons, says Dr. Laurence Weinbaum of the World Jewish Congress, a historian specializing in Polish-Jewish relations, but in certain circles it is also manifested in Poland. Artur Hofman, spokesperson for one of the main bodies of Polish Jewry, confirmed this, saying this was "the most worrying trend" connected to the prominent role that Jews, acting as individuals, had in Poland's Soviet-controlled Communist regime. Weinbaum agreed with this assertion. "In the Baltic states, especially Lithuania and Latvia, the campaign to consign the victims of the Holocaust and of Communism to the same basket is a transparent attempt to blur Baltic societies' wholesale complicity in the murder of their Jewish populations," he said.
In August, the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania signed a joint declaration supporting a call to make Aug. 23 a European day of commemoration for victims of both Stalinism and Nazism.
"In Lithuania, equalizing Stalinism and Nazism is a ruse to delete the stain of massive collaboration," Professor Dovid Katz, a Vilnius-based researcher of Yiddish, told Haaretz. "Instead of facing the past, the state deletes the Holocaust as a category and buries it in another paradigm."
The Lithuanian foreign ministry did not reply to a query on this issue.
Weinbaum noted that while "there is a tendency to try and 'contextualize' - as he defines it - the cases in which Poles participated in the annihilation of the Jews in Poland. "Polish society as a whole cannot be seen as a perpetrator-nation, as can be the Lithuanians," he said. While some Poles were complicit in the murder and despoliation of Jews, he noted, "others rescued them."
He said that in Poland, some circles, especially Polish Holocaust scholars, "vociferously oppose" a combined commemoration date. Others support it for nationalistic reasons. "To be sure, no one can or should minimize the untold suffering caused by Communist tyranny, of which Jews were also victims, but common commemoration will only serve to disfigure memory and history," Weinbaum concluded.
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Did you rally take a homeless stranger home for several years, fed him and clothed him, knowing perfectly well that if he's discovered then your whole family will be murdered? I assume you did, if you can cast judgement on people who didn't. You are truly a hero!
You are aware that Stalin starved 7 million, mostly Ukranian, in the 1930s? There were more than one million children in that group.
Yes it is true that many Jews were Bolsheviks!! But they were not really jews they were ex-jews who had changed their last names. So the jewish people should not be blamed for the excesses of a few non-jewish ex-jews. In the same way, but backwards, it is ok to lump all the Poles and christians together and assign guilt to them for the holocaust, since they never changed their names or renounced their faith when they were committing all these heinous acts. I hope that clears everything up for you.
I was taught in school that the Bolsheveiks were primarily Jewish. Is that true?
'While some Poles were complicit in the murder and despoliation of Jews, he noted, "others rescued them." ' Nae doot. However, the fact remains that in at least some areas of Poland, there was the phenomenon of Jewish fugitives turning themselves in and asking to be shot. They had discovered that there was no chance that anyone would give them shelter.
'Zero.' First, Stalin sentenced children as young as twelve for up to 25 years for 'crimes' like gleaning grain. Secondly, children of those condemned were also sent to the Gulag. Third, whole PEOPLES were sent -- which necessarily implies a few hundred thousand children. Finally, several million children seem to have died in the artificially-induced Ukrainian famine of the Thirties. So you're wrong.
The idea of communism came from a Jewish person yes . But Jewish by birth he hated religion and was more atheist than Jewish in beliefs. As were most of the communist leaders. Also the vast majority of communists were not jewish and Stalin certainly wasn't jewish. My relatives were murdered by the communists and guess what they were Jewish as were mnay others.Also many learned Jews were sent to Siberia just because they were Jewish.Many peop[le suffered under communism and i can assure you the jews suffered on both sides asd did many non Jews.As for the holocaust nothing in history can compare to the systamatic way that the Nzis tried to rid the world of the Jews.It was planned and executed in such a way that was unique in history.I will not try and explain there isnt room on here but all the information is there for anyone to read.The Nazis even documented it in detail they also used the line that Jews were communist does that sound familiar.The same old lies being bnrought up aga
leads to de sensitising. The typical response is to simply say. Yeah, yeah Yeah. Much like celebrating Xmas every day--ooops sorry, was that an anti semitic comparison???.
the holocaust was the culmination of 1800 years of catholic/orthodox church anti semitism ! all of this anti semitism was political religious , and the inherent poisons cannot be flushed away ;reading these talkbacks proves it empirically!!
which has resulted in the impact of The Holocaust been eroded, and now compared with the genocides that occured under communism. With The Holocaust no longer been seen as a seperate 'special' event but as part of the wider machinations that occured in Europe during the 20th Century a vital revenue stream for Israel is under threat. Hence the desperate attempts by Israel to get Planet Earth back on the 'official' take on the Holocaust. Obviously if Israel fails to get Europe back on the 'official' story, then Israel can severe all ties with Europe. But The Holocaust is not the only genocide to happen in Europe in the 20th century and is in fact the culmianation of a struggle between left and right wing ideologies. By understanding this, we will prevent it occuring again. Communism afterall was a Jewish invention.
(especially leninist-stalinist ones) and extent of nazi crimes are absolutely correct. This political game of who is more, who is less, makes no sense and only has potential to inflame more bad emotions. Both systems aimed to kill and killed millions, tens of millions people. The ethnicity-versus-class difference does not change this fact. Krzysztof from Warsaw, currently in HD.
i agree that the two cannot be compared...they were indeed different instances with different motives and goals. nor should their commemoration ever be combined, because doing so WOULD tend to rob each of their tragic distinction in the world's collective memory...especially now that the generations who experienced them, and/or witnessed them, are beginning to fade away. they each need to remain distinct in order for their historical lesson to remain intact.
Okay, the E.U. and U.S. concede that Jews win the Guinness World Book Record for the most picked upon group in the entire history of mankind. Mow can we all move on?
Zero. How many Jewish children were sent by Hitler to the gas chambers? About a million.