Posted on 02/01/2010 2:44:43 AM PST by lizol
Holocaust scholars slam EU for backing Nazi-Communist comparison
By Cnaan Liphshiz
WARSAW - Leading Holocaust researchers have criticized European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek ahead of his speech at Auschwitz Tuesday, for endorsing the equalization of the Nazi genocide with Communist brutal oppression.
Some scholars call this growing trend "the gravest threat to preserving the memory of the Holocaust," suggesting it serves to exculpate populations complicit in the extermination of their Jewish minorities. "It is inconceivable that the ceremony at Auschwitz will feature an address by a parliament president who entertains initiatives meant to efface and obfuscate the Holocaust," said Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's director for international relations. Samuels was referring to a recent speech by Buzek - a former Polish prime minister - in which he lauded members of the European Parliament for "recognizing that the mass deportations, murders and enslavements committed ... by Stalinism and Nazism fall into the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity."
In April, more than 400 members of the European Parliament voted in favor of naming August 23 "European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism," as suggested in the controversial 2008 Prague Declaration, at the end of an international forum on commemoration. Advertisement
Efraim Zuroff, who heads the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office, said Buzek's statement was part of efforts to "create a historical and intellectual infrastructure to undermine and eventually cancel the current status of the Shoah as a unique case of genocide."
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Pure, whining stupidity. Buzek is correct, of course. Can’t change history, no matter how much you mewl about another girl showing up to the party in the same dress as yours.
all were victims of the same socialist mentality — cant see the issue tbh
But, but, but...one was good socialism, the other was bad socialism. Cantcha see the difference, you dolt? </sarc>
Communists have 100,000,000 reasons to be criticized and compared with the Nazis.
Do these people (POS actually) listen to themselves, or is it that Euro-trash Bolsheviks’ can’t handle the truth or maybe it is just about them! I guess they seemed to not mind when Stalin was doin’ has dance on Eastern Europe.
rooskies killed more people than nazis did
Shoah is not unique... It’s actually somewhere in the top-middle of the list. Stalin killed more (Holodomir and others) and Mao, as the man whose “immortal” remains are still in proud and loving display in a mausoleum, smack dab in the capital of a country that is everyone’s number one trading partner, did worse than Hitler on sterorids.
All holocausts need to be remembered and studied (starting with the French Revolution’s “enlightened” slaughter of Vendée) and of course the Armenian hecatomb.
But overall I’d say that the Holocaust is well known, whereas the Holodomir (except for Glenn Beck’s recent shows) gets no media, no movies, no museums, no documentaries... and Mao even gets praised by Obama politicans for being inspirational. Other mass murderers (Che) even become fashion statements.
Comparing Fascism and Communism is like comparing rotten meat with rotten fish. But one thing is certain, Communism has more blood on its hands... and yet look at all the Communist Parties still thriving in places like Europe. Italy’s President (mostly a ceremonial position) was a Stalinist in his younger days, a man who - for example - defended the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956.
What we really need to study is why and how Communism got a cultural pass. We know a lot about Hitler’s rise to power, some of the causes (the crippling Versaille treaty after the German defeat in WW1), hyperinflation, Prussian militarism, and even certain homo-erotic elements that came with a generalized breakdown of Judeo-Christian morals.
Why did Communism get a pass? My guess is it’s because it’s more “intelligent”, that is to say theoretic, “scientific.”
Another obvious entry is because it was an erstwhile victorious ally.
Another guess, and believe me, I’m no fan of stormfront, is the Jewish influence in the media and entertainment businesses, as well as the heavy Atheist-Jewish involvement in the Russian revolution and Frankfurt School.
There are skeletons in the closet and keeping them hidden instead of frank and open discussion will only feed the conspiracists. I don’t see the need for any sort of reticence when calling Trotsky a Jew is like calling Hitler a Catholic. Or is it?
Take your pick and add some more, but it is indeed a sobering fact that our biggest trading partner (and one for whom we have shed millions of jobs and whose military industrial complex we are indirectly bolstering) still venerates the biggest mass murderer in the history of humanity, whereas the likes of a Geert Wilder gets put on trial for “Fascism”... and Muslims are absurdly likened to the Jews of old Europe under Hitler.
Lenin, Stalin and Mao made Hitler look like a choir boy.
“Some scholars call this growing trend “the gravest threat to preserving the memory of the Holocaust,” “
That’s code for “the gravest threat to the glorification of Soviet Socialism”.
WTF? Stalin killed far more people than Hitler. If anyone should be complaining about this comparison it should be the families of Stalin’s victims.
If we gave the Holocaust the same treatment as we do the slaughters that took place under Communism, then kids today would be wearing shirts with swastikas instead of hammers and sickles.
Both deserve equal condemnation from everyone.
Good POint, Road Test!
The BOTH commies and nazis have killed millions.
The truth is commies have killed more.
HOWEVER, the holocaust MUST remain a separate commemoration because of the genocidal nature of the killings.
There are TWO lessons for us.
Communism is deadly
Ethnic hatred is deadly
BOTH are wrong. I think the tens of millions killed warrant at least TWO days to commemorate them.
Democide is the wholesale destruction of civilian populations. It includes genocide as a subset.
Eisenhower was smart to take pictures, and for the reason he gave.
I've been long perplexed by that very question myself, and I like the possible answers you pose. Communism seems a very seductive ideology to academics. Another reason I might add is that it made inroads into western societies during the economic troubles of the 20th century. There was a genuine loss of faith in our capitalist system which leftists exploited. There were also many in politics and communications who deliberately covered communism's backside. To this day it maddens me how villains in movies etc. are still frequently Nazi's, but almost never communists.
Ciao agere_contra,
“The Shoah was a unique act of genocide - but only because the Holdomir and many, many others were acts of democide, not genocide.
Democide is the wholesale destruction of civilian populations. It includes genocide as a subset.”
What you say may even be logically true and a fine intellectual exercise... If you look at any wholesale slaughter there will always be something to set it apart.
Instead, I see what unites them: cold, detached rational purpose. Rational in the methods for achieving certain ends. “Rational” as sucide bombers are “rationally” used by the enablers.
Then if those slaughtered are in this category or in that (racial, class, eyeglass wearers, tribals or what have you) well that’s just intellectual hair-splitting.
The Holodomir and Mao’s Cultural revolution (and famines), were planned and executed in similar fashion as the Shoah. They were done cold and carefully (as opposed to popular riots). And in that - being akin to first degree (premeditated) murder on a vast scale - they are identical. THAT is the only real category that matters and not Genocide versus Democide. Not the racial, political, economic, tribal nature of the victims.
Ciao agere_contra,
“The Shoah was a unique act of genocide - but only because the Holdomir and many, many others were acts of democide, not genocide.
Democide is the wholesale destruction of civilian populations. It includes genocide as a subset.”
What you say may even be logically true and a fine intellectual exercise... If you look at any wholesale slaughter there will always be something to set it apart.
Instead, I see what unites them: cold, detached rational purpose. Rational in the methods for achieving certain ends. “Rational” as sucide bombers are “rationally” used by the enablers.
Then if those slaughtered are in this category or in that (racial, class, eyeglass wearers, tribals or what have you) well that’s just intellectual hair-splitting.
The Holodomir and Mao’s Cultural revolution (and famines), were planned and executed in similar fashion as the Shoah. They were done cold and carefully (as opposed to popular riots). And in that - being akin to first degree (premeditated) murder on a vast scale - they are identical. THAT is the only real category that matters and not Genocide versus Democide. Not the racial, political, economic, tribal nature of the victims.
What are the comparative numbers of those murdered by the Nazi and Communist tyrannies?
Seems simple to me.
I am genuinely perplexed at this tendency to want to deny that any other group of people is deserving of recognition as victims of genocide.
Communism’s death toll exceeded that of Hitler’s. It’s just the fact of the matter. Are those victims any LESS DEAD because were murdered for reasons of political oppression rather than religion?
And yet to this day, it is still apparently acceptable to hold elective office in Europe and Russia as a Communist, while Nazism is (rightly) illegal. Germans are pretty uniformly ashamed of Hitler, while Putin regularly waxes nostalgic about the Soviet Union. It just makes no sense.
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