The Gentile Holocaust

Foundation for Catholic Reform ^ | 1998 | Thomas Craughwell

[cyborg]

The way history is taught you would think only Jews died in Germany. I do not agree with revisionism on any side, or downgrading one group's role to build up someone else's.

[txzman]

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

[cyborg]

I am going to disagree with you respecfully. There were many holocausts in the last 20th century. What makes the Jewish holocaust so special? I remember hearing 'never again' repeated ad nauseum but we all know that's crap. How many people have been killed in wars in Africa? What about what the Japanese did to the Chinese? Armenian holocaust...on and on.

[Poohbah]

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, the fact that many Americans were descended from RECENT immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe (and could say, "Holy cow, how could my kith and kin do or abide something as evil as THAT?"), the ONLY one where we actually managed to punish the perps, and that it set the tone for later Holocausts.

Just my humble opinion.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP

[cyborg]

You are right. It is in recent memory. I suppose the reason why people do not pay more attention to things going on in Africa is because Africans do not have the same presence in this country. When I was visiting England, the BBC covered African news extensively while the American coverage is paltry. You can watch BET channel but you only get the liberal POV.

I just wonder why there is not the same zeal for other causes. Maybe it's because there are not any films, pictures, or extensive in your face coverage.

[tet68]

Perhaps the difference is that the jews were the first targets of INDUSTRIAL extermination.

[Poohbah]

The only books I ever saw on the Rwandan holocaust were (a) a short policy-wonk book of essays by a journalist who'd been there that maybe sold ten copies nationwide, and (b) the novel Peacemaker by Gordon Kent (a naval techno/espionage thriller written by a father/son writing team--they've published four novels under the "Gordon Kent pseudonym, I've read three, they're all DAMN good writing) used it as one of the important settings.

The former did not sell. The latter sold respectably well, but not Tom Clancy levels.

IIRC, Bruce Willis' movie Tears of the Sun featured Rwanda as its setting.

I think a LOT of why the Holocaust remained big was that GI Joe saw the remains with his own eyes and said, in a very somber anticipation of mhking, "Just damn." When GI Joe came home, he wanted to understand it.

[Poohbah]

Another fine point. Germany--the home of such great thinkers as Schiller, Kant, and Goethe--actually set out to industrialize the killing of their fellows. It's not just that Hitler said, "Make it happen," it's that a bunch of industrial engineers said, "Okey-dokey."

[cyborg]

That is what I was taught in temple classes, but I wonder if we have really learned much. Maybe I am just having a cynical day, or PMS.

[cyborg]

Even Tears of the Sun got criticized because Bruce Willis was protrayed as the great white savior of Africa. I did not see the movie, but that never occured to me. I've read many holocaust biographies of German Jews seeing black people (US soldiers) for the first time. I doubt that the soldiers' color mattered much then. Doesn't it make you wonder what the effect did seeing the camps have on soldiers returning home? Especially with Americans own racial issues... I wonder if that's why segregation and racism disappeared so fast after thar WW2 generation.

[NYer]

When the Mass concluded, the priests sang the hymn which became their anthem in Dachau, Christus vincit!

Thank you for a most fascinating history lesson. Interesting to note that the Jews have established Holocaust museums and memorials, determined that "we must never forget!". Christians, it would seem, have chosen to put this brutal period of history behind them and move on.

CHRISTUS VINCIT
Christ King of Glory

Acclamations VIII Cent.
Ambrosian Chant (Variant)

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!
Exaudi, Christe. Ecclesiae Sanctae Dei salus perpetua.
Redemptor mundi, Tu illam adjuva!

Christ Lord of glory, Christ Prince of nations, Christ our King of kings!
Christ Jesus, hear us. Perpetual safety and welfare to the Church of God. Redeemer, Savior.
Assist and strengthen her.

1. Sancta Maria: Tu illam adjuva!
O Mary blessed Mother. Assist and strengthen her.

2. Sancte Joseph: Tu illam adjuva!
Joseph holy guardian. Assist and strengthen her.

3. Sancte Michael Tu illam adjuva!
Blessed Michael patron Assist and strengthen her.

Optional (Sancte Patricii: Tu illam adjuva!)
Blessed Saint Patrick: Assist and strengthen her.

All repeat: Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

Exaudi, Christe. Pio summo Pontifici et universali
Papae vita! Salvator mundi, Tu illum adjuva!

Christ Jesus hear us.
Life and health and blessings to Pope Pius our Holy Father.
Redeemer Savior, Assist and strengthen him.

1. Sancte Petre, Tu illum adjuva! 1. Rex regum!
Blessed Peter, Assist and strengthen him. King of kings.

2. Sancte Paule, Tu illum adjuva!
2. Rex noster!
Blessed Paul, assist and strengthen him. Christ our King

3. Spes nostra!
Christ our hope.

Repeat: Christus Vincit! etc.

Gloria nostra, Misericordia nostra! Auxilium nostrum!
Fortitudo nostra, Ar ma nostra invictissima!
Murus noster inexpugnabilis! Defensio et exaltatio nostra!

Lux, Via, et Vita nostra! Ipsi soli imperium, Laus et
jubilatio per infinita saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Jesus our glory, Fountain of grace and all mercy.
Source of all our blessing. Defender in battle, Strong arm of our God invincible.
Our stronghold and our exaltation.
Our captain leader who has won our salvation.

Christ Jesus, our life and light eternal. To Him only is victory all praise and jubilation.
Through all the endless ages of eternity. Amen.

Tempora bona veniant! Pax Christi veniat! Redemptis Sanguine Christi: Feliciter!
Regnum Christi veniat! Deo Gratias! Amen.

Abundance of good things be ours. The peace of Christ be ours.
Redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Proclaim our joy.
May His holy kingdom come. Praise be to our God Amen.

[Ancesthntr]

There are a couple of differences between the mass murder of Jews and non-Jews. One is the sheer vitriolic hatred of the Nazis for the Jews, and the fact that such hatred did not just arise spontaneously - it is the end product of a couple thousand years of Anti-Semitism. The Nazis harvested an evil crop that had been planted hundreds of years before in very fertile soil. Another difference is that for many of the non-Jewish victims, their murder was related to something that they had voluntarily chosen, like a profession or an action. If a particular person was not a priest, for example, then they wouldn't have been taken away, but since that person was in a position to harm the Nazis (due to their actual or implied leadership role), they became targets. Jews, on the other hand, couldn't even escape the gas chambers if their grandparents had converted to Christianity. Yet another difference is the sheer scale of the slaughter: nearly 50% of all Jews living on the continent of Europe in August of 1939 (and 1/3 of all Jews anywhere), did not live to see June of 1945. No other group suffered such grievous losses.

At the same time as I hold the views noted above, I as a human being and a Jew do not minimize the deliberate murder of non-Jews or the monstrous crimes that the Nazis committed in murdering them. Included among the victims of the Nazis must also be those in all nations who perished directly fighting the war started by them (i.e. soldiers) and the many millions of civilians who were the "collateral damage" of that era. But for Hitler and his followers, upwards of 45 million people would have lived normal lifespans. Their descendants would likely number 100-200 million today, and untold billions in the centuries to come. The extent of such evil is beyond comprehension.

[Poohbah]

And who knows what one of those 100-200 million people alive today would have done?

Cured cancer?

Discovered some previously unknown law of physics?

Had an idea that became an engineering marvel?

Written a play, or a novel, or a poem that touched deeply on the eternal questions of life?

Burrowed through dusty archives and brought up new information and perspectives on history?

[RobbyS]

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

[Trailerpark Badass]

Perhaps the difference is that the jews were the first targets of INDUSTRIAL extermination.

And it was not tribal in nature, as in the case of Rwanda, nor strictly ethnic. Jews were targeted in Nazi Germany as much for the position they occupied in German society as they were for their ethnicity. An analogy would be a pogrom by blacks against Korean shopowners, auslanders who prosper while the locals fail. In an odd way, it may be possible to look at it like a Marxist revolution, with the propaganda far outstripping the reality.

[RobbyS]

To this you can add: we have never see the evidence of Societ and Chinese slaughter first hand, and somehow even the slaughter in Cambodia--which we did see--is discounted by people who refuse to see that the "killing fields" have a connection with marxism.

[NYer]

ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
Kolbe is the patron saint of our difficult century.

Arrested with several of his brothers on 19 September 1939 following the Nazi invasion of Poland. Others at the monastery were briefly exiled, but the prisoners were released on 8 December 1939, and the men returned to their work. Back at Niepokalanow he continued his priestly ministry, The brothers housed 3,000 Polish refugees, two-thirds of whom were Jewish, and continued their publication work, including materials considered anti-Nazi. For this work the presses were shut down, the congregation suppressed, the brothers dispersed, and Maximilian was imprisoned in Pawiak prison, Warsaw, Poland on 17 February 1941.

On 28 May 1941 he was transferred to Auschwitz and branded as prisoner 16670. He was assigned to a special work group staffed by priests and supervised by especially vicious and abusive guards. His calm dedication to the faith brought him the worst jobs available, and more beatings than anyone else. At one point he was beaten, lashed, and left for dead. The prisoners managed to smuggle him into the camp hospital where he spent his recovery time hearing confessions. When he returned to the camp, Maximilian ministered to other prisoners, including conducting Mass and delivering communion using smuggled bread and wine.

In July 1941 there was an escape from the camp. Camp protocol, designed to make the prisoners guard each other, required that ten men be slaughtered in retribution for each escaped prisoner. Francis Gajowniczek, a married man with young children was chosen to die for the escape. Maximilian volunteered to take his place, and died as he had always wished - in service.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

What do you mean "thats crap"?

Please elaborate.