Yesterday was Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Memorial Day - which is a day to remember an event that many in this world still deny even happened. They deny that ~ 6,000,000 Jews were brutally murdered for no other reason than that they were Jewish. As a Jew, the day bears special significance to me because one of my great grandfathers was from Poland and, while he managed to move to Canada prior to WWII starting, many in his family were not so lucky. Thus, I too suffer the fate of having members of my family lost to the brutality of Hitler's racist actions.
I'd like to address a few concerns about the Holocaust from my perspective that I've heard in the lead-up to yesterday, and indeed every year in regard to this...
Firstly, that Jews need to "get over it." Now, in some regard, I believe some Jews have taken matters too far in regard to some aspects of the Holocaust, namely the continued animosity toward Germany. Many Jews refuse to travel to Germany, buy German cars or even any German-made or originated products and consider Germany synonomous with hatred and racism. I believe that this is unneccesary as Germany has accepted full responsibility for its history and taken steps to ensure it doesn't happen again. Nazi symbols, even those used in historical context, are banned, as is goose-stepping or any images linked to Hitler. And every year around this time, the leader of Germany offers a heartfelt apology to all of those affected by the Holocaust. Modern Germany is not to blame for the Holocaust anymore than the modern United States is to blame for the Trail of Tears.
However, I believe that the yearly apology from Germany and the continued reading of the names, around the world, of those who died during the Holocaust is important. It's important that we never forget what happened before and during the Holocaust. We must never forget the 6,000,000 Jews who died. We must never forget what Adolf Hitler did to my family and the families of every Jew who lost somebody. We must never forget, because if we forget, then it may happen again.
Secondly, the concern that Jews are not the only ones who Hitler killed. Yes, it is true that Jews were not the only ones who died in the camps. Jehovah's Witnesses died, Masons died, Quakers died, homosexuals died. Basically, anybody who didn't fit into Hitler's mold of what a person should look and act like stood the chance of being rounded up and slaughtered. However, one cannot deny that the biggest target of the Holocaust - the original target of the Final Solution - were the Jews.
Thirdly, that too much attention is put on the events during WWII regarding the Holocaust, that we forget that other Holocausts happened and are happening in the world. A person once asked me why they should care about the Holocaust that killed 6,000,000 Jews, when the world doesn't have a special day to remember the Tutsi who were killed during the Rwandan genocide? Or, indeed, the continued genocide that happens in Darfur?
Without seeming callous, I'd like to respond by stating that the German Holocaust was more significant, at least in the eyes of the world, in that it happened in a Western nation that was considered civilized. Other reasons abound, I'm sure, but I don't believe it's any less significant, really, and the world should be ashamed of themselves for allowing it to happen in the world then and now. Just because it's in Africa, it doesn't make it any less important!
Over 6,000,000 Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, and even many more millions of Jews suffered from persecution short-of-death from the Nazis. Approximately 5,000,000 "Non-Jews" were also slaughtered by the Nazis, including 100,000 homosexuals, 200,000 gypsies, and 200,000 disabled persons.
ReplyDeleteCompare those "millions" of victims with the "handful" of Jehovah's Witnesses. There were only approximately 6000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany during the 1930s-40s. While many of those 6000 German JWs were repeatedly arrested during the 1930s and 1940s, only a fraction were jailed or imprisoned for any significant length of time. Only about 200-300 German JWs lost their lives, and the majority of those died from any number of causes other than having been executed. Approximately 1000 JWs from other European countries lost their lives while incarcerated by the Nazis.
During that same time period, there were more Jehovah's Witnesses arrested and jailed in the United States than in Germany. In fact, from 1941 until 1945, approximately 4500 American Jehovah's Witnesses "elected" to go to prison rather than serve in the U.S. Military and go fight against those same Nazis who were committing those atrocities.
Approximately 3000 of those 4500 American JWs were even offered "conscientious objector" status, in which they were offered "non-combatant" work as a substitute, but 99% of those JWs refused to even help out that much.
In fact, it is an insult to mention Jehovah's Witnesses alongside Jewish Holocaust victims given that Jehovah's Witnesses view the Jews much as did the Nazis.
The WatchTower Society teaches its own version of "replacement theology", which says that GOD rejected the Jews as His "chosen people", and replaced them with today's "Jehovah's Witnesses". In fact, the title "Jehovah's Witnesses" was originally applied to the Jews by the Prophet Isaiah, and is even quoted on the wall at the entrance to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.
The WatchTower Society, in calling its own members "Jehovah's Witnesses" is attempting to steal that designation away from the Jews. The WatchTower Society even teaches that all of the Bible's promises of restoration for the Jewish people now belongs to the followers of the WatchTower Society.