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May 24, 2012
Jeff Jacoby: The peace process battered Israel's reputation
Michael Muskal: 'Pro-choice' position hits record low, according to poll
Chris Farrell: Are We in a Tech Bubble?
The Kosher Gourmet by Penelope Wall: PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS --- hold the steak!
May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
Shaping the memory of evil
By
Suzanne Fields
The UN does something right for once
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The United Nations, which has not always been friendly to the Jews, will mark the first universal observance of victims of the Holocaust this week, with an International Day of Commemoration with the theme "Remembrance and Beyond." The date is Jan. 27, the day of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp 61 years ago.
The commemoration was long in coming, but it's never too late to confront the haters. David Irving, the notorious British war historian and Holocaust denier who once claimed the gas chambers at Auschwitz were a myth, now sits in a prison in Austria for denying facts about the Holocaust. Holocaust denial is against the law in Austria. He enjoys his infamy and notoriety, but even Deborah Lipstadt, who exposed Irving's fake "scholarship" and was sued for her trouble, says he should be left alone in the name of free speech. He gets more fame in prison than out and has become a martyr for neo-Nazis.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, is a different breed of pig. He not only says that the slaughter of 6 million Jews is a "myth," but demands that the state of Israel be "wiped off the map" (6 million dead Jews were not enough). Failing that, European countries should take back their Jews. He plans a conference on the Holocaust to stoke anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism.
Not so long ago, the French Ambassador Daniel Bernard to Britain told a chic dinner table in London that Israel was a "s--tty little country," and asked, "Why should the world be in danger of World War III because of these people?" (What subsequently upset the English, according to the hostess who gave the party, was not the substance of the remark but her bad table manners in saying anything about it.)
The Muslim Council in London has boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day every year since it was designated in 2001 and asks all Muslims to do so. All the more remarkable, then, that even one Muslim in London, writing in the New Statesman, would dare to scold the Muslim Council for failing to see how the Holocaust is unique in the long history of human suffering. "Muslims have no right to demean the horror experienced by Jews, and as human beings they cannot stand aside and refuse to participate in remembering this calamity," he writes. "It is shameful for the council and its supporters to demonize those Muslims who participate in the memorial day."
Any student of the history of Holocaust memory must welcome the United Nations commemoration because history can shortchange facts. Henry Ford famously said, "History is bunk." Bunk or not, history like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and the beholder is easily manipulated by the interpreters. The medium shapes the message, and politics propels the interpretation.
The United States has gone through many different phases in its own commemoration of the horrors bequeathed by the Third Reich. In the decade after World War II, survivors arriving here from Europe wanted to forget their brutal experiences and focus instead on their new lives. Many of them kept their silence. Silence morphed into sensationalism as the Holocaust was trivialized into soap opera, a miniseries for television.
At war's end, Margaret Bourke-White's famous photograph of emaciated inmates at Buchenwald, staring out from behind barbed wire, seared the conscience of the civilized world. In 2002, the Jewish Museum shocked the public by exhibiting the same photograph, digitally altered by an artist who inserts himself in it, holding up a can of Diet Coke. (At Buchenwald, everybody was on a diet. Get it?)
The Holocaust even becomes comedy. Audiences of stage and screen laugh uproariously at "The Producers," satirizing the Third Reich with a chorus line of young women in scanty costumes and black leather boots, singing "Springtime for Hitler" as they form a swastika. Oprah's next book club selection is "Night," Elie Wiesel's memoir of his experience in a death camp. He could only watch in agony as his family was murdered, a mute witness to the evil that lurks in the hearts of men.
In a preface to "Night," Francois Mauriac, the French writer, says, "It is not always the events we have been directly involved in that affect us the most." He's right about that. But we have a responsibility to continue to confront the truth, ever more difficult as the last survivors die. An international day of commemoration helps keep those facts alive in the public memory.
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Suzanne Fields Archives
© 2006, Suzanne Fields, Creators Syndicate
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