Holocaust Memorial Day

Tom

I personally think Holocaust Memorial Day is a gallant, but flawed expercise. In my school it was simply an excuse to be told of 'awful' old lies about Jews whilst similarly being fed just as bad new lies about Israel. In my entire time there, I never heard the term 'Jew' used as perjoratively. My sister (4 years younger) however said it became the insult of choice in the years following that. A chilling though to chew on; has Holocaust Memorial Day increased resentment of Jewish people? I think so - I'd be interested to see if others agree? And what is the solution? The essential problem, in my opinion, is that the Left, which is obsessed with victimhood, cannot view the Jewish people as trumping their victim status. If the left hate anything, it is self-reliance. They also hate the particular. Hence, the Holocaust is frequently described as an assault against the entire 'rainbow' of victims; gay rights groups, women's rights groups, other religious groups, disability rights group and so on. This escapes the fact that anyone remotely acquainted with the history of the Holocaust will know that the desire for an Aryan race has been over-stated to fit in with this discourse (whereby the Nazi contempt for a Jew over a black haired person would be analytically denied). This is simply not true. The Holocaust was not a pursuit designed to realise the Aryan race, but a pursuit designed to destroy the Jews.

Adam B.

The Guardian's Comment is Free posts have in recent months degenerated into an antisemitic and anti-American orgy. It says a lot about the Guardian and its readership. This ugly hatred is visceral. It's beyond belief... what is happening to the UK?

Marcus

Holocaust Memorial Days (and here in America "Memorial Weeks") are a perfect example of the messed up priorities of Western nations. Devoting so much time and energy to highlight a genocide of the past, takes away focus from the genocides and massacres of the present. Schools and institutions should take efforts to inform the citzenry about the crisis in Darfur, the near-civil war in Kenya, and the bloodsheds in Iraq and Palestine. We cant change the past, but we can take steps in the present to change the future.

Max Kaye

I agree with Tom.

Michael N

Marcus - what a fantastic idea. One hardly *ever* hears bad news about bloodshed in Iraq (that war which evil Jews pushed Bush to start, in which mass-murders committed by America's enemies are morally lumped at America's door), and the media silence regarding the plight of the poor, innocent, long-suffering, massacred-yet-peace-loving Palestinians is highly suspicious. Why is their plight so universally ignored??? Maybe more attention would be paid to these two conflicts if we could just forget about remembering and learning from the past, and about the genocide of Europe's Jews in particular.

Dhimmier&Dhimmierer

I am sick of the Holocaust and of the way it's exploited to push a politically correct, anti-racist, anti-white agenda. Members of every race, including Jews, have committed atrocities at some time or another and will do so again. The best way to ensure that we have more atrocities on British soil is mass immigration, but guess what's invoked to stifle opposition to mass immigration? The Holocaust. Being a victim does not make you morally pure or supremely wise. It can do the reverse, particularly when vengefulness and self-pity make you feel that any action in your own interests is justified.

Joshua

"It can do the reverse, particularly when vengefulness and self-pity make you feel that any action in your own interests is justified." - Had Britain suffered the kind of losses we sustained in the Holocaust, she would not have survived. In the face of such a tragedy no people could have been more merciful to their European gentile enemies than the Jews; no people could have displayed more spirit or contributed more to the world. Indeed, in terms of our achievements, our best years have come since the Holocaust.

Lee Jakeman

Joshua: "Had Britain suffered the kind of losses we sustained in the Holocaust, she would not have survived." What qualifies you to make that judgment?

Adam B.

Marcus, how does remembering the past stop one from acting now? (unless you can't think of two things at once). And your equivalence of the Holocaust with Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict is obscene. It may interest you to know that the main obstacles to doing something about the real genocide in Darfur are the Arab League and China, who have done everything they can to block action to stop the mass killing. Neither holds Holocaust Memorial days, but you keep blaming the West if it makes you feel better.

Dhimmier&Dhimmierer

Adam -- If you're worried about "blaming the West", you should oppose Holocaust Memorial Day, which is central to the lie that the West is uniquely racist and malevolent. Joshua -- "Had Britain suffered the kind of losses we sustained in the Holocaust, she would not have survived." That's debatable. What's not debatable is that Jews survived only because Britain and other gentile nations fought to defeat Hitler. "In the face of such a tragedy no people could have been more merciful to their European gentile enemies than the Jews;..." Do you mean all European gentiles were enemies of the Jews? If so, how did you survive at all? Either way, how have you demonstrated mercy? Are you supporting the anti-semitic lie that Jews had control of the Allied armies and could have wiped out the Axis populations if they had chosen to do so? "...no people could have displayed more spirit or contributed more to the world. Indeed, in terms of our achievements, our best years have come since the Holocaust." Yes, but that doesn't address my point: that the Holocaust is exploited to push a politically correct, anti-racist, anti-white agenda and is invoked to stifle opposition to mass immigration by unrelated groups -- which Israel wisely rejects, knowing where it would inevitably lead.