There are some very strong reasons, morally, ethically and even philosophically why The Holocaust term belongs exclusively to the Jewish People. Specifically, there are 6,000,000 reasons. But this is not an accounting as Adolf Eichmann might have suggested but as Simon Wiesenthal would have us ensure that these 6,000,000 Jews were as us, Human Beings who were systematically sought out to be destroyed by Adolf Hitler. I am well aware that many Jews, particularly some Survivors, who do not wish an almost religious significance attributed or given to their definite catastrophe, but in assigning such a term, the Jewish People, Humanity, the World and History have a reference point in time. I understand that a seeming Biblical phenomena is not what Hitler sought for those Jews he urged those who followed him to bring to bear on innocent human beings, simply because they were Jews!
But, there are so many Jews who do not have that reference point which might even suggest where their loved ones are interred. Some might think it is Belzec! Some might consider it to be Babi Yar! But what is clear is that while the World looked the other way, The Holocaust term must focus all attention on what happened to 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, why it happened and even more accusingly, why it was allowed to happen. There has been this constant drip feeding of irreverence for this solid case to ensure 6,000,000 Jews are The Holocaust. So if the dilution of the term itself is allowed to continue, will the ‘Shoah’ become as equally diluted by a Worlds intention to deny further the Jews departed space which overcame the Jewish living space!
So if we commence with the inconceivable premise that nothing happened without Hitler’s expressed or insinuated approval and we end with The Holocaust, it is totally conceivable the intervening period was constructed so as to consign even more Jews to its confining space. It is also reasonable to assess that all these matters centred around the progression of the Jewish People toward their eventual annihilation. There is no ambiguity in that assessment as History can clearly testify to its far reaching consequences. What some see as omitted, either in crossed t’s or dotted i’s is visually present in intention, demand and the expressed certainty of a rhetoric which never diminished. In this regard, a concealed page that was never to be written had been intimated.
“..first and foremost perpetrator was Adolf Hitler. ..without him it would have been inconceivable.” Raul Hilberg.
We have gone further back in History to lend the term, which Raphael Lemkin titled as Genocide, to what was happening to the Jews of Europe under Hitler. Lemkin, a Polish Jew, who had arrived in the United States in April 1941, was already well versed in the types and scale of mass Murder which Hitler was waging against the Jewish People, and other peoples. Lemkin, clearly engrossed in what was happening to his own People, which Hitler had always so clearly verbalised and would not remain purely as a rhetorical process, became wholly the Destruction of the Jewish People. There were more than 3,000,000 reasons why Poland had been scoured so as to set as an example of what was to occur.
Half of all Jews who were Murdered in The Holocaust would be Polish Jews and this was not lost on Hitler. At the conception of, or even the inauguration of his planned Final Solution became focused and fixed, Lebensraum ensured many would make way for the few. We can go all the way back to Hitler’s rise to power to see Jewish Destruction emerge as a inestimable target. We can see with the Book Burning of May 10th. 1933, when ten’s of thousands of Books are burned on the Unter den Linden, Berlin and across much of Germany, a confronting with Jewish Culture and Civilising ways was being stressed. This, the conflagration of the written word allowed for The Holocaust term to enter into the vernacular of Nazi aims. The book burning was aimed against Jewish Writers amongst many, and we are now mindful of what Heinrich Heine had already stated:
“..Those who begin by burning Books end by burning People.” Heinrich Heine.
On March 13th. 1938 with Austria absorbed into the Reich, by means of the ‘Anschluss’, the Jewish People face a more real threat. Along with the systematic larceny of Jewish assets, all is set in motion within Austria for Jewish removal elsewhere. The presence of Adolf Eichmann, who was here and on hand to ensure that the Jewish People would be singled out from the rest of their Community, has become a defining marker in the progress of Hitler’s Final resolve for the Jews of Europe was largely coincidental. What followed under Eichmann’s direct administering, would reverberate through the last 80 years to damn all who perpetrated, participated in or stood idly by and watched the atrocity unfold.
” ..at ..reunion ..Austria with ..German Reich ..Heydrich gave ..order ..set ..Jewish emigration in motion from Vienna.” Adolf Eichmann.
History now speaks of the destruction of more than 40,000 of Austria’s Jewish People, and amidst the terms of reference, which qualify the Jewish People as particular to The Holocaust itself, Abraham Brill saw its effects from afar. Brill’s observation was clearly in relation to those Jews of Europe now caught up in Hitler’s demands for Vienna, and those of all Austria. But he saw this terrible news in relation to Sigmund Freud and his Family in particular:
“..we have been startled by ..terrible news that ..Nazi Holocaust has suddenly encircled Vienna and in ..hands of civilisation’s greatest scourge.” Abraham Arden Brill.
Then we can evidence Kristallnacht as what was coming as November 9th. 1938 was orchestrated throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. Here, where some 267 synagogues are ransacked and destroyed, with 7,500 Jewish Shops looted and over 50,000 Jews who are removed to Concentration Camps at Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, there is an apparent escalation toward Jewish maltreatment. Also, and with over 240 Jews who are killed, this is more commensurate with what is set to become The Holocaust for all 6,000,000 of The Jews of Europe.
“..we know what happened yesterday. We do not know what tomorrow holds. However ..we have experienced what happened today. Outside ..synagogue burns. That is also a house of God.” Father Bernhard Lichtenberg.
As the ink was clearly settling upon grandiose schemes for settlements East and with Hitler’s endorsement of the so called Madagaskar Plan given a feasibility study, soon annihilation would emerge as the opportune goal. Once T4’s Euthanasia programme was circulated on August 18th. 1939 with the Reich Interior Ministry ‘Euthanasia’ paper, a rubicon had been crossed. The T4 expertise would later re-emerge in the Death Camps, once Hitler had become the witness to what could be achieved. We then see, on the day after Hitler sought to wage War in Poland, 30 Jews of Piotrkow were Murdered, September 2nd. 1939. What would eventually emerge is The Holocaust of the Jewish People as Hitler now convinced would be achievable.
What we know as far back as August 1941, when Winston Churchill was merely alluding to, and Churchill was not only hinting at the emerging destruction within what became known as The Holocaust. He knew of its exact progression. Churchill knew the emergence of the mass murder and its very exacting detail from the offset. Both British and US ‘intelligence’ sources had clearly gained the information from the official communications relayed from der Einsatzgruppe to Hitler’s door. Clearly, what that acknowledged what was a marked destiny for the Jews of Europe and it was fully exterminatory.
Sunday August 24th. 1941. “..aggressor retaliates by ..most frightful cruelties. As his Armies advance ..whole districts are being exterminated. Scores of 1,000’s ..literally scores of 1,000’s ..executions in cold blood are being perpetrated by ..German Police Troops upon ..Russian patriots who defend their native soil. Since ..Mongol invasions of Europe in ..16th. Century ..there has never been methodical ..merciless butchery on such a scale ..or approaching such a scale. And this is but ..beginning. Famine and pestilence have yet to follow in ..bloody ruts of Hitler’s tanks. We are in ..presence of a crime without a name. ” Winston Churchill.
A little over 6 weeks prior to this statement, British cryptographers had deciphered the ‘enigma code’, which der Einsatzgruppe thought would deliver their Operational Situation Reports directly to Hitler, and in secret. However, what Winston Churchill called the German Police Troops were in fact the 3,000 members of those mobile killing units, der Einsatzgruppe. Here, barely 3 weeks after the commencement of Barbarossa, we knew Hitler’s unfolding account of ‘The Final Solution of The Jewish Question’, and it was a clearly Jewish resolve Hitler had engendered and engineered. The very detail and exacting accounting of the Slaughter would be laid out before Churchill for him to peruse and withhold from the public domain.
In cold relief, these wires were to be seen as to the systematic nature of the Slaughter of ALL Jews. I will borrow here from Elie Wiesel when I state that while Hitler’s aktionen was personally directed, and while not all victims were Jews, the Slaughter was waged against ALL the Jewish People. Here, the unmasking of Hitler as a cold and calculating Mass Murderer was already withheld from the public domain, and though somewhat intelligently contained or detained, whichever allows for a morally accepting view, History knows the deeds of those who allowed for perpetration to prosper. But then, after the knowledge fully emerged of what had happened to the 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, it seemed appropriate that Raphael Lemkin had come up with the right name, that of Genocide.
For Lemkin to express his clear view and horror at what had happened and what was still happening to his own People, the incredulity of the World is a marked accusation. From that point in was borne the reference point in History we have ever since called The Holocaust Slaughter of The Jews of Europe.
Saturday December 5th. 1942. “..Holocaust ..Nothing else in Hitler’s record is comparable to his treatment of ..Jews. ..word has gone forth that ..Jewish peoples are to be exterminated. ..conscience of humanity stands aghast.” British News Chronicle.
Terms like The Holocaust can have no meaning if we are prepared to lose sight of the detailed tragedy contained within its grasp. If we then allow for this assessment, that has been made in order that 6,000,000 Jews of Europe who perished are given newer meaning to its reach, the Jewish People confined within its terminology must never become a secondary consideration. Lately too, the dilution of the term must be seen as a dishonourable way to remove the Jewish presence from the catastrophe. For these 6,000,000 Jewish People, we owe them the right to belong to a term we have given over to them. But if the term is anything less than the expression of the unparalleled and unprecedented assault upon the Jewish People, its misuse becomes a further slur even on all of Humanity.
Sunday December 27th. 1942 “..here ..where comfort lures people into ..camp of ..mighty ..it is of no interest to history. ..Holocaust will steal its way into world history.” Zelig Kalmanovich.
Zelig Kalmanovich writes from the depths of the Vilna Ghetto, which is still struggling to remain viable. In the midst of this particular maelstrom, the Germans are determined to ensure that the Jews from here are totally obliterated and their presence is no longer to be felt in the World. But history has been told of these events and The Holocaust has presented to the World the worst of what Man can do to his fellow Jew. To this day the Jews prevail and we make strenuous efforts to Remember them and stand stoically to accuse those who perpetrated these crimes against them.
Sunday December 27th. 1942 “..History will cherish your memory ..people of ..ghetto. Your last expression will be studied ..your struggle for human dignity will inspire.” Zelig Kalmanovich.
Of course we know that there are those like Zelig Kalmanovich who adopted such a term to ensure we were Always to Remember and Never to Forget, and not just these Jews of Vilna, but all 6,000,000 Jews of Europe. So while Raphael Lemkin lent the word ‘Genocide’ to the Destruction of any Peoples, and while he was enabling us to appreciate what was happening to 3,000,000 Polish Jews and the subsequent Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, can the Jewish Murdered be denied their space in a term after being denied their space in Life? In Lemkin’s Book on Axis Rule in Europe, Raphael Lemkin did far more in stating the intention of what Churchill obviously knew, but only alluded to, when he prefaced the term on November 15th. 1943.
However, Raphael Lemkin had now introduced his new word after what Churchill had merely suggested that:
“..We are in ..presence of a crime without a name.”
and while Lemkin himself was adamant that Hitler was systematically Slaughtering his people en-masse, Raphael gave that certainty to a name, ‘Genocide’ which gave rise to The Holocaust term for the Destruction of His Jewish People. Unmistakably, we cannot then reduce the term to invalidate its clear emergence as Lemkin sought to signify what Hitler was doing, achieving and establishing against the Jewish People. To simply dilute the term, to add reference to former ‘Genocide’s, present ‘Genocide’s or future ‘Genocide’s is to seek to lessen the impact the atrocity against 6,000,000 Jewish People should bear down upon Civilisation, Humanity and even History!
Perhaps that is the intention of History then, to deny the Jewish 6,000,000 their rightful place, as the pointer to what extreme intolerance’s means for People when confronted by abject duplicity or indifference to their struggle. So while we are all too well aware that 6,000,000 Jewish People are no more, and maybe this is such a conservative estimate, Humanity is still reeling from its ramifications and realisation. Should we then lessen its impact by not allowing for its exclusively Jewish identity! I think not! I have 6,000,000 reasons to state this case and no other good reason to avoid stating it. Are we in need of the expressions of Wannsee to secure that Fact that The Holocaust belongs to the Jewish People. The Jews were not randomly sampled for death. The Jewish People were systematically chosen before, prior and immediately upon sight for their total elimination.
That x6 Death Camps were established by Hitler within Poland speaks for the very specific detail to be brought to bear on those Jews there and those Jews yet to be transported there. Treblinka, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor or even Auschwitz and Birkenau all resonate with a Jewish presence which is no more. We already have the hidden evidence of der Einsatzgruppe activities to explain The Holocaust as a Jewish Detail. The Death Camps too were detailed for the Slaughter of The Jewish People on a previously incomprehensibly mechanised and industrial scale. That does not dismiss the fact that many other peoples of various nations or creeds were done to death, even in these Death Camps.
But the non-Jews were always subsequent to the specific detail which had already identified 11,293,300 Jews for Destruction. The genesis of The Holocaust is neither in the function which Hitler’s desire to annihilate the Jewish People fully delivered and nor is it in that intention which delivered 6,000,000 Jews to the Slaughter. But with a combined effort of all that Hitler imagined could be achieved and which would be finalised within The Holocaust term, the World knows the truth of what Hitler stage managed and achieved.
“..If of 10,300,000 we had killed 10,300,000 I would be satisfied and say ..Good. We have exterminated an enemy.” SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Adolf Eichmann.
