The Gentile Holocaust

Foundation for Catholic Reform ^ | 1998 | Thomas Craughwell

[Sam Cree]

"But why do Jews ignore the horrific numbers killed by the Nazis?"

They don't.

But when your entire people has been singled out for extermination, it kind of gets your attention. Especially considering that the effort met with considerable success.

[NYer]

Blessed EDITH STEIN

Born on October 12, 1891, of Jewish parents, Siegried Stein and Auguste Courant, in Breslau, Germany, Edith Stein from her earliest years showed a great aptitude for learning, and by the time of the outbreak of World War I, she had studied philology and philosophy at the universities of Breslau and Goettingen.

In the midst of all her studies, Edith Stein was searching not only for the truth, but for Truth itself and she found both in the Catholic Church, after reading the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila. She was baptized on New Year’s Day, 1922.

It was not until the Nazi persecution of the Jews brought her public activities and her influence in the Catholic world to a sudden close that her Benedictine spiritual director gave his approval to her entering the Discalced Carmelie Nuns’ cloistered community at Cologne-Lindenthal on 14 October 1933. The following April, Edith received the Habit of Carmel and the religious name of "Teresia Benedicta ac Cruce," and on Easter Sunday, 21 April 1935, she made her Profession of Vows.

When the Jewish persecution increased in violence and fanaticism, Sister Teresa Benedicta soon realized the danger that her presence was to the Cologne Carmel, and she asked and received permission to transfer to a foreign monastery. On the night of 31 December 1938, she secretly crossed the border into Holland where she was warmly received in the Carmel of Echt. There she wrote her last work, The Science of the Cross.

Her own Cross was just ahead of her, for the Nazis had invaded neutral Holland, and when the Dutch bishops issued a pastoral letter protesting the deportation of the Jews and the expulsion of Jewish children from the Catholic school system, the Nazis arrested all Catholics of Jewish extraction in Holland. Edith was taken from the Echt Carmel on 2 August 1942, and transported by cattle train to the death camp of Auschwitz, the conditions in the box cars being so inhuman that many died or went insane on the four day trip. She died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz on 9 August 1942.

[Sam Cree]

And I think one difference between the "gentile" holocaust and the Jewish one is that the effort was not to *exterminate* all gentiles, but more to purify them.

[SauronOfMordor]

But the simple fact remains: Jews by race, focus and number were the largest single group targeted and killed by the Nazis

The Jewish death toll from a Nazis was about 6 million. The death toll of Ukranians from Stalin's deliberate genocide-famine campaign in 1932-33 was between 6 and 7 million. The total Soviet murder statistics dwarf the Nazis.

The bottom line is that murder-by-government in Europe in the first half of the 20th Century was huge by any historical measure. It was not exclusively all about the Jews

[VOA]

But the simple fact remains: Jews by race, focus and number were the largest
single group targeted and killed by the Nazis.

I think, at least here in the USA, we are moving to a better telling of what the
heck the Nazis conceived and executed, with the help of all their fellow travelers
(average German in the German Army, volunteers from a score of other countries/regions).

One of the better tellings I've seen was "Stories to Remember" this spring on
PBS (KCET/Los Angeles). It was funded by some foundation via a university center
(I can't remember which one; I think it was somewhere on the East Coast).

It did center mostly on the suffering of European Jews who survived WWII, whether
through camps, living in the wild, or traveling with partisans.
AND the show included personal testimony from captured American military personnel who
saw some of the camp guards torture their fellow troops.
AND an interview with a fellow who'd been a sold-out-for-Adolph Hitler Jugend
(too young for combat, I think), and him eloquently admitting his shame at his
former identity.

I don't blame the Jews at large for bringing up the topic all the time...if I'd been
among the Jewish survivors, I'd have been tempted to do the same.
However, it sure seems that there is a move to admit the totality of the suffering
of the innocents in WWII.
Like Michael Medved says, Jews should not repeat the tales so often that
people eventually stop listening. And my naive advice would be to tell the story
of all the persecuted innocents...reaching out to other groups won't damage the truth
of what happened to the Jews in WWII.

I just wonder when Hollywood will come clean and tell similar truths on the
movie screens about the other Evil Empire.

[RobbyS]

You mean that it is not in their interest to call the world's attention to the fact that the Nazis killed more Slavs than Jews? If they care so little about these other peoples, why should non-Jews care about them?

[evilC]

>>>
The bottom line is that murder-by-government in Europe in the first half of the 20th Century was huge by any historical measure. It was not exclusively all about the Jews
<<<

That is the danger of focusing solely on the Jewish Holocaust. It makes it seem like mass murder by government was just a strange and terrible one-off event and not a recurring part of history (and indeed, the present).

Sadly, I think the Holocaust has become almost a fetish; with Holocaust Museums, Parks, countless movies, and other displays all focusing on one event as if it was the only case of vicious evil government.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Interesting to note that the Jews have established Holocaust museums and memorials, determined that "we must never forget!

Never forgive, never forget. The total antithesis of the Sermon on the Mount.

[RobbyS]

Has the Rape of Nanking been depicted on film? Probably the worst example of what an army can do if it is unleased on a city.

[A. Pole]

Remembering the Millions of Gentiles Murdered by the Nazis

Remeber TENS of millions of Christians murdered by the militant Soviet atheists.

[A. Pole]

I think the key issue is that the Jewish Holocaust was the first one that we SAW the results of in something approximating real life (photographic records, bureucratic records, et cetera), the sheer senselessness of it,

Unfinished Extirpation of Irish Catholics under Cromwell was very well organised.

The most successful was extermination of Tasmanians (none are left).

[Chi-townChief]

They seem to miss the larger Soviet half of the Holocaust story.

[Sam Cree]

"You mean that it is not in their interest to call the world's attention to the fact that the Nazis killed more Slavs than Jews?"

I don't mean that, nor do I understand how you drew such an inference from my post to you. There is no instance that I know of where Jews have suppressed such knowledge. I, for one, remember learning it in high school, and have long thought it common knowledge.

"If they care so little about these other peoples, why should non-Jews care about them?"

IMO, your description of Jews caring "so little" for others is totally erroneous. However your point that non-Jews care little for Jews has historically been true. One would hope that that is changing these days, at least in the U.S.

[A. Pole]

IMO, your description of Jews caring "so little" for others is totally erroneous. However your point that non-Jews care little for Jews has historically been true.

Or maybe it is symetrical? Also dividing mankind into Jews and non-Jews is not very healthy. What would you think if Armenians focused on comparing who cares more - Armenians for non-Armenians or non-Armenians for Armenians.

[DmBarch]

But why do Jews ignore the horrific numbers killed by the Nazis?

It is not that it is ignored or unknown. In my Jewish Sunday School textbook, from 1970, it stated that revised estimates showed 5.4 million Jews died in Nazi extermination operations, as well as about six million non-Jews.

Germany in the late 1930's established racial purity laws and administration to ban Jews from daily life and sight. The death operations and concentration camps were set up to rid Germany and conquered areas of Jews and other "troublemakers".

We regret the loss of all innocent life. Losing almost half of all Jews on earth in five years is so horrible to contemplate - the worst tragedy in our history. It is, I guess, for other (non-Jewish) scholars to provide more information about the other unfornutates who perished in the fields, woods and camps. One posible problem in the past was that most of the people killed came from areas that soon came under Communist control. Deaths of Christian activists or leaders would not have been in the Reds' best interest to highlight.

[Sam Cree]

"Or maybe it is symetrical?"

No, I hardly think it's symetrical.

But I am with you that it could be nice if we didn't concentrate on our differences so much.

"What would you think if Armenians focused on comparing who cares more - Armenians for non-Armenians or non-Armenians for Armenians."

I'd think that would be silly. I don't think Jews do that either, nor anyone else I know.

Seems I am destined to not make myself be understood on this thread.

[MatthewViti]

Temple classes? Are you Jewish? After reading your bio I'm a bit confused.

[RobbyS]

It would not be so bad if some Jews had not recently sought to scapegoat Pius XII for the actions of the Nazis and to say that he held back from condemning Hitler because he was anti-semitic or because he preferred the Nazis over the Communists. I think it should be clear by now that Hitler had a terrible grip on the throat of most people in Europe, not just the Jews. Furthermore, Hitler also had his supporters in every country, so to oppose him was not only to face a small clique but a considerable body of his followers. Thank God that we killed most of the SS forces and that his popular support in Germany and elsewhere melted away after his destruction.

[evilC]

>>>
Has the Rape of Nanking been depicted on film? Probably the worst example of what an army can do if it is unleased on a city.
<<<

I don't think so. However given that Iris Chang's book sold well a future film is possible.

[Sam Cree]

"One posible problem in the past was that most of the people killed came from areas that soon came under Communist control. Deaths of Christian activists or leaders would not have been in the Reds' best interest to highlight."

Yeah, good point, I think. Certainly Jews are blameless in the matter of how much notoriety may have been attached to the executions by Nazis of Poles or Russians.