The forgotten Holocaust

Credit: The author; Holocaust Encyclopedia; Black Studies; Wiener Holocaust Library; National Library of Israel; Pariahs Among Pariahs (Aron Shneyer); Keine Kameraden (Christian Streit); The Extermination of the European Jews (Christian Gerlach); Hitlerland (Andrew Nagorski); New BlackFriars; Holocaust Studies

A great many human beings other than Jews were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust. The Jewish voice remains the most prominent because Jews were the most numerous. Only 200,000 Jews survived the concentration camps. The Jewish Holocaust is more accurate known as the Shoah. However, the stories of other victims of the Nazis have mostly been forgotten or was never recorded.

More than 1,000 concentration camps were built in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe between 1933 and 1945.

Concentration camps were prisons outside judicial review. Auschwitz, for example, included a detention camp, a forced labour camp and an extermination camp, built in 1941 and 1942, the year mass execution began. Auschwitz’ four gas chambers held 2,000 human beings. The Nazis could "process" 6,000 victims per day.

The aim of the Nazi extermination camps was to murder and annihilate all races deemed untermensch: ‘degenerate’. There were six camps for mass extermination, all in German-occupied Poland.

The Nazis captured six million Soviet POWs. 57%, 3.3 million, of them died in detention. Deaths among these Soviet prisoners of war have been called "one of the greatest crimes in military history", second in number only to those of civilian Jews.

The first ‘experiments’ using Zyklon B were on Soviet POWs. Soviet Jews, political commissars, and some officers, communists, intellectuals, Asians, and female combatants were systematically targeted for execution.

Not one single book or monograph was written about the Soviet genocide for 70 years.

600,000 Italians who refused to fight for the Axis were also interned, along with members of the Italian resistance. 50,000 did not survive.

Black camp inmates were viewed as subhuman. For Germany, this was nothing new—Black lives did not matter. Both the Nama and Herero people in present-day Namibia suffered genocide in 1907: ”some native tribes, just like some animals, must be destroyed".

During the international Olympic Games of in Berlin, 1936 saw Jewish athletes compete, including a delegation from Mandatory Palestine who marched under the Jewish flag, along with the Olympic rings and the Nazi swastika. Two weeks before the Games, German officials told Gretel Bergmann, a Jewish athlete who was a favorite in the high jump, that she had been denied a place on the German team.

The whitewash for international visitors was that “all signs prohibiting Jews from public places were removed. The Nazi daily Der Stürmer was suddenly unavailable at newsstands. The Hitler Youth were ordered not to sing their racist songs for the duration of the games. Homosexual bars and clubs which had been shut down were allowed to reopen, and the police were instructed not to harm Jews, gypsies, or homosexuals in public places.”

Europe’s cultural capital after World War I was indisputably Berlin. In the 1930s, Black jazz singer Josephine Baker, author Thomas Wolfe, athlete Jesse Owens, Black Marxist scholar W.E.B. DuBois, John F. Kennedy, Third Reich historian William Shirer were among Americans to visit Germany in the 1930s. Some observed persecution; others succumbed to the uninhibited atmosphere of Berlin’s nightlife. American foreign correspondent interviewed Hitler in 1931; she was expelled when the Nazis took power.

Along with the Germans living in proximity to the camps, internationally, the camps and extermination were an open secret. People knew...and no country stepped in to stop the slaughter.

1941’s Wannsee Conference was held to detail the mechanism for “the final solution” for Jews and others. The plan was to rid territories conquered in the war of 30 million people by starvation, called the Hunger Plan. Eventually, 4.2 million Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians were starved to death. Cities were intended to be razed and the land resettled by German civilians. There is, of course, a modern parallel.

Is the Holocaust to be considered a "Judaeocide" in which only the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution are counted, or is it a term that encompasses all those killed. Simon Wiesenthal supported this inclusive view comprising all victims in Holocaust historiography. The “others” deserve to be honoured and remembered, too.

As Catholic moral theologian and academic John M. Grondelski writes, "investing the Jewish Holocaust with such a singular status in fact runs the risk of destroying whatever lessons the Holocaust can teach. If the Jewish Holocaust is so unique, what relevance does it have for other peoples and other genocides?"

This article is not intended in any way to diminish Jewish suffering at the hands of the Nazis. But all human beings suffer the same way, no matter their skin colour, nationality or religion. This is recognition not justice.

Human beings are not triangles. Never again applies to them, too.

- “Asocials, work-shy”, alcoholics, drug addicts, lesbians, mentally ill and mentally disabled, pacifists, prostitutes, Sinti, unemployed, vagrants and beggars - Black

- Belgian resistance - Red with “B”

- Blacks & mixed race, Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans (primarily German East Africa, Togoland, Kamerun), African Americans - Black

- Dutch resistance - Red with “N” or “H”

- Foreign forced labourers, returning German emigrés, Spanish Republicans  - Blue

- French resistance - Red with “F”

- Homosexual men, rapists, paedophiles - Pink

- Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mennonites, pacifist religions, Quakers - Purple

- Jews - Yellow Star of David Jewish political prisoners had a red triangle superimposed on the Mogen David, green for Jewish criminals, blue for Jewish emigrants, purply for observant Jews, pink for Jewish homosexuals, black for “asocial” JewsTheir genocide was called the Shoah.

- Political prisoners, Catholics, Czech and Austrian anti-Nazis, communists and anarchists, Freemasons, Greek and Russian Orthodox, Italian refusers and resistance (“I” within the triangle), Polish intellectuals (“P” within the triangle), Protestant Confessing Church, Methodists, Baptists, resisters and saboteurs, social democrats, socialists, trade unionists  - Red

- “Professional criminals”- Green

- Roma, Yenish - Brown The Roma genocide had its own name, the Porajmos.

- Slavs - Red with “P” to indicate Poles

- Soviet POWs - Large yellow SU

Though they bore no triangles, it would be remiss not to mention the Aktion T4 slaughter of the handicapped and mentally disabled.

No argument on the history—it’s tragic. But this forum’s about Thailand. What’s the link?

Don't think this forum's solely about Thailand. It's a community pub, just like a real pub where you can talk about anything that leads you down the rabbithole.

Think of all those bars of soap. Truly a shame.

18 minutes ago, Nemises said:

No argument on the history—it’s tragic.

If American history is not what they say, then no history of any country is what they say.

You can only argue what you think you know.

25 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

If American history is not what they say, then no history of any country is what they say.

History is always written by the victors!

8 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

History is always written by the victors!

Part of the history of the victors is the history of the victims.

1 minute ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Part of the history of the victors is the history of the victims.

Only If they are alluded to in that history!

33 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

History is always written by the victors!

So did Hitler really shoot himself in the head or retire in Pattaya?

Ha ha ... trick question.

2 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

So did Hitler really shoot himself in the head or retire in Pattaya?

Ha ha ... trick question.

He did not win!

Try Churchill and the Bengal famine for a holocaust....(bet Lowe and Farage won't push to have that taught in their "English History must be taught" hissy fits).

Edited April 27Apr 27 by MIke B Bad

1 hour ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Don't think this forum's solely about Thailand. It's a community pub, just like a real pub where you can talk about anything that leads you down the rabbithole.

If it’s not Thailand-related, it’s probably better suited to the Pub forum—that’s exactly why it exists.

There is only 1 Holocaust .

Its unique .

30 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

There is only 1 Holocaust .

Its unique .

Not strictly true.

"The word 'holocaust' comes from ancient Greek and means 'burnt offering'. Even before the Second World War, the word was sometimes used to describe the death of a large group of people, but since 1945, it has become almost synonymous with the murder of the European Jews during the Second World War".

Source: https://www.annefrank.org

1 minute ago, RayC said:

Not strictly true.

"The word 'holocaust' comes from ancient Greek and means 'burnt offering'. Even before the Second World War, the word was sometimes used to describe the death of a large group of people, but since 1945, it has become almost synonymous with the murder of the European Jews during the Second World War".

Source: https://www.annefrank.org

Its used to describe Hitlers attempts to kill all the Jews , nothing else

3 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

Its used to describe Hitlers attempts to kill all the Jews , nothing else.

You are incorrect.

As the link from the Anne Frank related website stated, " ... since 1945, (the use of the word 'holocaust') has become almost synonymous with the murder of the European Jews during the Second World War", however, it is not correct to say that its' use was - or is - exclusively used to describe the Nazis murder of Jews.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Holocaust#:~:text=In%20the%20late%2019th%20century,of%20the%20First%20World%20War).

4 minutes ago, RayC said:

You are incorrect.

As the link from the Anne Frank related website stated, " ... since 1945, (the use of the word 'holocaust') has become almost synonymous with the murder of the European Jews during the Second World War", however, it is not correct to say that its' use was - or is - exclusively used to describe the Nazis murder of Jews.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Holocaust#:~:text=In%20the%20late%2019th%20century,of%20the%20First%20World%20War).

^ I know, you posted exactly the same thing a few minutes ago and I read it the first time you posted it .

How many holocausts are there then ?

4 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

^ I know, you posted exactly the same thing a few minutes ago and I read it the first time you posted it .

How many holocausts are there then ?

If you read the original article, why then insist that the word, 'holocaust', applies exclusively to the extermination of Jews in WW2?

Obviously I've no idea how many times the word, 'holocaust', has been used to describe mass murder but the section entitled, 'Names', in the Wikipedia page which I provided a link to offers a number of examples.

Edited April 27Apr 27 by RayC
Correction

4 hours ago, MIke B Bad said:

Try Churchill and the Bengal famine for a holocaust....(bet Lowe and Farage won't push to have that taught in their "English History must be taught" hissy fits).

Indeed. A catastrophe I didn't know about.

Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine during World War II in the Bengal Province and Orissa Province of British India. An estimated 800,000–3.8 million people died,^[A] in the Bengal region (present-day Bangladesh and West Bengal), from starvation, malaria and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions, poor British wartime policies, and lack of health care.

Of course, this famine was not intentional starvation. England forgot about India when it poured the exchequer into WWII.

If it makes any difference, we can call the near-extirpation of European Jews the Shoah, or Jewish Holocaust. Shoah means catastrophe, just like Nakba.

It may be more accurate to simply term them genocide and there have been many in history, including the current ones.

List of genocides (incomplete)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genocides

Indonesia’s left-wing genocide is forcefully presented the Joshua Oppenheimer’s films, The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014).

Jews don’t have any patent on Holocausts.

2 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

If it makes any difference, we can call the near-extirpation of European Jews the Shoah, or Jewish Holocaust. Shoah means catastrophe, just like Nakba.

It may be more accurate to simply term them genocide and there have been many in history, including the current ones.

"The Holocaust" is a proper noun that became the accepted English language equivalent of the Hebrew word "Shoah," which refers to a specific historical event: Nazi Germany's attempt to eliminate all European Jews between 1939 and 1945, the so-called Final Solution.

The lowercase word "holocaust" has several meanings, but usually indicates large-scale destruction or slaughter, often by fire. In that sense, it has been used in English for more than 800 years. It doesn't exclusively refer to acts of genocide. For example: "nuclear holocaust" or "the Great Fire of London was a holocaust."

It has been used to designate genocides or massive slaughter, such as the Armenian Holocaust and the African Holocaust (about slavery).

2 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Jews don’t have any patent on Holocausts.

That's certainly true, although strictly speaking, the term "the Holocaust" refers only to the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany.

Edited April 27Apr 27 by Evil Penevil

13 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Indeed. A catastrophe I didn't know about.

Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine during World War II in the Bengal Province and Orissa Province of British India. An estimated 800,000–3.8 million people died,^[A] in the Bengal region (present-day Bangladesh and West Bengal), from starvation, malaria and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions, poor British wartime policies, and lack of health care.

Of course, this famine was not intentional starvation. England forgot about India when it poured the exchequer into WWII.

Crops were intentionally destroyed in an attempt to prevent the expansion of Japanese forces into the region.....leaving the population to starve.

8 hours ago, Evil Penevil said:

"The Holocaust" is a proper noun that became the accepted English language equivalent of the Hebrew word "Shoah," which refers to a specific historical event: Nazi Germany's attempt to eliminate all European Jews between 1939 and 1945, the so-called Final Solution.

The lowercase word "holocaust" has several meanings, but usually indicates large-scale destruction or slaughter, often by fire. In that sense, it has been used in English for more than 800 years. It doesn't exclusively refer to acts of genocide. For example: "nuclear holocaust" or "the Great Fire of London was a holocaust."

It has been used to designate genocides or massive slaughter, such as the Armenian Holocaust and the African Holocaust (about slavery).

That's certainly true, although strictly speaking, the term "the Holocaust" refers only to the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany.

This is just semantics. What is antisemitism? What is the H/holocaust? Simon Wiesenthal, in proposing the inclusion of all who were killed, wrote of six million Jews and five million others.

In the opinion of most scholars, the second figure must be inflated. That the 'others' were not of one race, colour or religion is immaterial, in my mind, to the entire horror of the Holocaust. But the fact that these 'others' are scarcely spoken about is shameful.

How many books about the conscientious objectors, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet POWs and more? Almost none. Shameful.

There are 70k books on Amazon about WWII., probably a modest number. All of them include the Shoah; a very few glance at the 'other'.

A 1993 bibliography notes 20k unique books about the Shoah but this figure must be far too low as well. The 'others'? A sparse few.

Of course, the Jews deserve our sympathy. But they weren't alone. I am not accusing Jews of monopolising the Holocaust. But Jews need to remember they were not alone in the camps. These others need equal recognition.

Sidenote. I've just found a copy of Dick and Jane in Yiddish--great fun!