Holocaust Remembrance

60 Years ago this week, the Nazi deathcamp Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army. So in commemoration of this event and in the spirit of "Never Again" a number of ceremonies are being held around the world, and even at the UN. In today's Boston Globe, James Carroll draws attention to the initial reporting, in the New York Times and others, of the liberation.

The identities of the victims were given as "more than 4,000,000 citizens" of a list of European nations -- Poland, Hungary, Netherlands, France. But what is most remarkable about the Times story -- apart from the fact that it was buried on page 12 -- is that in defining the identities of those victims, the story never used the word "Jew."

He goes on to say

What gives the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz its special gravity is that this crime, while committed by Nazis -- and the particular guilt of the perpetrators must always be insisted upon -- could not have occurred but for the religiously and culturally justified anti-Semitism that both spawned the crime and then enabled it nearly to succeed.

Yet in writing about the "culturally justified anti-Semitism" of the Nazis he completely neglects the new "culturally justified anti-Semitism" of the Arab world, and specifically of the Palestinians. One need only to read MEMRI to see this. Or to listen to Natan Sharansky.

It is important to document this phenomenon, he said, because many people view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as centered on political issues, when the Palestinians have tied redemption to killing Jews. "It's not connected to borders, it's not connected to compromise, and no compromise will be reached [once] it's a battle of God against the Jews."

"As in Nazi Germany, there is an entire 'culture of hatred' in Palestinian society today, from textbooks to crossword puzzles, from day camps to TV music videos," Sharansky charged in a statement issued by his office ahead of the press conference. "Calling for the murder of Jews, as Jews, is the end result."

Carroll, and other writers continue to ignore what the Arabs say, and continue to attribute the terrorism against Israel to "the occupation". And in so doing, encourage the continuing belief among Arabs that at some point they will be able to destroy the State of Israel and all the Jews, and Europe won't do a damn about it.

Remembering the Holocaust simply for the sake of remembering the people killed is important, but that is not the point of "Never Again". If we dismiss the genocidal impulses and utterings of the Arab world, or ignore the slaughter going on in Darfur, or the ethnic cleansing that occurred in the Balkans just a few years ago, then all the commemorations and remembrances are worthless. "Never Again" is a call for action to prevent genocide, not another self-righteous throwaway phrase of the "seriousness of the international community" to do this or that without ever doing anything.

UPDATE: In another excellent article, Mark Steyn shows what the remembrance of the Holocaust has become in today's Europe.