[Lazamataz]

Maybe it's because I'm Jewish and the child of two Holocaust survivors, but I can't give Sobran a pass on this or anything else.

I'm a Conservative Joo, and my grandfather father escaped Stalin's Kulak farmer purge of the early 30's. That is another Holocaust, one we don't hear much about.

[anotherview]

There have been many examples of genocide in the 20th century, from Pol Pot and the "killing fields" of Cambodia to the near extermination of the Jews of Ethiopia by the Marxist rebels (now the government) there to Stalinist purges. I can name many others if you like and if you have a strong stomach.

What makes the Holocaust different is that the German people were leaders in the arts, science, culture, etc... They were as civilized as any people on the face of the earth. The genocide of the Jews, Roma (gypsies), and anyone else the Nazis decided to eliminate was systematic, mechanized, and meticulously organized and recorded. That, it seems to me, is different than any other genocide in history. We tend to think of genocide as barbarism, but the Holocaust happened with all the elements of modern civilized society in place. That, I believe, is unique.