Religion & Beliefs
Jewish Mythbusters: Yom HaShoah is Exclusive to Jews
By Tamar Fox / May 2, 2008
On Holocaust Remembrance Day we tend to focus on the six million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis. We read from Night, sing that song by Hannah Szenes, and light six Memorial candles for the nearly two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population who were systematically wiped out by the Nazis. It’s important to remember that Jews bore the brunt of the Nazis wrath, but also that they were far from the only group singled out. 
Homosexuals, Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Romani Gypsies, blacks, and all kinds of political dissidents were also sent to concentration camps and murdered in large numbers. In total, an estimated 5 million non-Jews were killed by the Nazis. Civilian deaths in Europe add many more millions to that number. A lot of Jewish discourse about the Holocaust rightly focuses on the great Jewish suffering and loss. The other groups who were persecuted, put in camps and executed are generally glossed over, an after-thought to our own grief. It’s natural that we should focus on the community that is closest to us, and that we would fixate on our own families and the stories of those we are familiar with. But the five million others who died deserve more than lip service, more than a footnote.
Related: Third Generation Descendants of Holocaust Survivors and the Future of Remembering
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Do you know the percentages of the jewish that were murdered in world war 2, per country?
We are often told, mostly by anti-Israel propagandists that
Zionists' attitude toward the indigenous Arab population in
Palestine was laden with ignorance, naivete, denial, arrogance,
abuse and outright oppression.
The slogans "Land without a people to people without land" and
"Palestinians? Who?", continue to be quoted today by enemies of
coexistence as a proof of Zionism's ingrained and irredeemable
disrespect for Arabs, both as people and as a nation.
This is sheer nonsense. On Israel's 60th birthday,
it is time we set the record straight.
My "History of Zionism" bookshelf is loaded with books and
pamphlets, apparently unavailable in English, which document a
history of understanding, respect and persistent attempts at
reaching mutual recognition. Here are a few illuminating glimpses.
In November 1930, about a year after the Arab riots that led to the
Hebron massacre, David Ben Gurion delivered a keynote speech "The
Foreign Policy of the Hebrew Nation" at the First Congress of Hebrew
Workers, later published in his first book "Anachnu U'Shcheneinu,
(We and Our Neighbors) Tel Aviv, 1931.
On page 257 of that book, we find the following: "There is in the
world a principle called "the right for self determination." We have
always and everywhere been its worshipers and champions. We have
defended that right for every nation, every part of a nation, and
every collective of people.
"There is no doubt whatsoever that the Arab people in Erets Israel
has this right. And this right is not limited by or conditional upon
the result of its influence on us and our interests. We ought not to
diminish the Arabs' freedom for self determination for fear that it
would present difficulties to our own mission.
"The entire moral core encapsulated in the Zionist idea is the
notion that a nation — every nation — is its own purpose and not a
tool for the purposes of other nations. And in the same way that we
want the Jewish people to be its own master, capable of determining
its historical destiny without being dependent on the will — even
good will — of other nations, so too we must seek for the Arabs."
(My translation -JP)
Naivete, denial or disrespect? HARDLY. We rarely hear such bold
speeches from the Israeli left today.
This article is by no means an isolated document of Zionism's
consistent commitment to co-existence and reconciliation. On page 13
of that same book, Ben Gurion advances the theory (first published
in 1917) that the Palestinians are none others but our lost brethren
- descendants of Jews who remained in Eretz Israel after the Roman
expulsion and forcefully converted to Islam after the Muslim
conquest (638 CE).
Zev Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion's main rival and by far the most radical
Zionist leader of the time, expressed essentially the same respect
for Arab nationalism, and further explained, and identified with
Arab's fears of reciprocating (See his book Medina Ivrit, Tel Aviv,
1937, pages 71-79)
In this historical week of Israel's 60th birthday, it is most
fitting that we remind ourselves of the principles of reciprocity
and mutual respect on which the state of Israel was founded.
May those principles light our path today, and may they tame,
however lightly, our colleagues' calls for Israel's demise.
This is another one of those ridiculous ploys to promote multiculturalism and decentralize Jewish identity and nationalist pride because of how the world liberal elite views Israel and its on-going war with radical Islam. We aren't being allowed to make the single most horrific event in our recent history to be ours alone. Yet, there are enough guilt ridden and hand wringing Jews among us that let it happen.Â
I am appalled at those that pretend to fault Tamar for not doing her research -obviously those commenters are the ones whose research is inexistent. The inclusion of non-Jews in the Yom HaShoah commemorations can be polemical (see e.g.: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Modern_Holidays/Yom_Hashoah/Greenberg_Observances.htm); however to my knowledge there is no special provision restricting the commemoration to Jewish victims of the Shoah in the Israeli law (since that’s what some of you are using as a reference, apparently) establishing this commemoration -please correct me if I’m wrong.
Tamar’s post seemed to me to be eminently non-controversial: she even wrote “It’s natural that we should focus on the community that is closest to us, and that we would fixate on our own families and the stories of those we are familiar with.”
This post seemed to me to be a decent memorial -I am quite shocked that the comments have defaced it.
To find historically accurate information about non-Jews targeted by the Nazis check out http://www.ushmm.org – the holocaust encyclopedia. Many of the new records obtained (International Tracing Service Archive) have information about non-Jews.Â
You're shedding a tear because Communists were killed during the Holocaust? Are you kidding?
 http://meetdavidblack.blogspot.comÂ
Weren't the severely disabled eliminated even before the Communists? In any event, that target should be included among the others you've listed, as it's in their case that the value difference is so great — we think "Kol ham'kayyem nefesh ahat" applies to them also.
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