Holocaust Day

[ziasudra]

Always, Darkness Visible
Aharon Appelfeld, translated from Hebrew by Barbara Harshav, The New York Times, January 27, 2005, Op-Ed, A25.

January 27, 2005, is Holocaust Day (or Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK)*. Today marks the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps during ha-Shoah, better known in English as the Holocaust. I think, despite the the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that it is appropriate to take a step back to acknowledge the existence of this horrific past that tainted human history 60+ years ago. Political opinions and geographical entitlements aside, what we have in common are a beating heart and the right to live with dignity.

"60 years ago today, the wheels of destruction in Auschwitz stood still."

No cut tag here...the message is too important to hide behind a LJ cut:

"During the Holocaust, there was no place for thought or feeling. The needs of the hungry and thirsty body reduced one to dust. People who had been doctors, lawyers, engineers and professors only yesterday stole a piece of bread from their companions and when they were caught, they denied and lied. This degradation that many experienced will never be wiped out."
~ Paraphrasing Tim Keller, pastor of Remdeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY, from his sermon this past Sunday: when you know there are no consequences for doing wrong, many people would just do it.... People in suffering act selfishly. In life and death issues, one doesn't think for others' interests.

This explains the questions, "How could the Nazis do it?" and "Why did the worst come out from everyone, perpetrators and victims alike?" The explanation is neither satisfactory nor reassuring. It brings the horror fully into light. Yet daring to examine such horror head-on is the only way to truly face the Shoah.

"Under conditions of hunger and cold, the body, we learned in the camps, is liable to lose its divine qualities."

"Jean Améry, a prisoner of Auschwitz and one of the outstanding thinkers on the Holocaust, says in one of his essays: 'Anybody who was tortured will never again feel at home in the world.'"

"We had been in both hell and purgatory and we were no longer what we were."
~ What struck me about this quote is the "what." Hebrew, as it is in English, has separate words for "what" and "who." What compelled the author to forego his human identity and assume the role of an object? Whether he chose "what" consciously, this little word, this "what," tells us more about how humanity is stripped from the person than any big word can.

"Some entered hell as pious people and came out of it just as pious. That position deserves respect."
~ These would be the "category #2" people I talked about in this entry. ([respect & standing ovation]^{xth power} to them.)

"For the sake of sanity, the survivors built barriers between themselves and the horrors they had experienced. But every barrier, every distance, inevitably separates you from the most meaningful experience of your life..."

"They were betrayed by the neighbors among whom they and their forefathers had lived. They were betrayed by Western culture, by the Germans, by the language and literature they admired so much. They were betrayed by the great beliefs: liberalism and progress. They were betrayed by their own bodies.

What to hold onto to live a meaningful life?"

For those living in the UK

*: Not to be confused with USA's Holocaust Remembrance Day, or "Yom Hashoah," which is on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan every year. This year's Yom Hashoah will be on May 6, 2005.

Comments

[lynkemma.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this, it was a thought-provoking post.

Where I am, there have been lots of memorial events, and one thing has struck me about all of them: all the speakers, all the journalists, all the politicians, only ever talk about the Jews. Granted, far more Jews than any other group were killed, and despicably so, but this is not a game of numbers.

What *really* pisses me off is that *no-one* seems to mention the gipsies, the people with the mental disabilities and the people who were non-heterosexual. Speaking as someone who's bisexual, I find it deeply frightening that gay people somehow... disappear from the history of Auschwitz.

*nods in agreement*

[ziasudra.livejournal.com]

Very true. Gypsies, the mentally/physically handicapped, non-heterosexuals, and even some Christians have been persecuted along with Jews but have remained unrecognized. Not to mention the millions who perished under Stalin and the countless victims on both sides of the Japan and China/Korea border subjugated to "biochemical experimentations."

For me, my bias is academic. Even though by background I'm a Chinese-American heterosexual Protestant, my discipline was in Northwest Semitic (Jewish and later on also Christian) history and philology, and currently in the modern Middle East (Arab and Muslim), coupled with journalism. As much as my background shapes my worldview, I don't feel *qualified* to speak on issues outside of my discipline(s) :p

So: thanks for bringing these other groups up! It enabled me to understand how catastrophic the Holocaust was to all of humanity, and not just to a particular group of people.

Speaking as someone who's bisexual, I find it deeply frightening that gay people somehow... disappear from the history of Auschwitz.
You definitely have a first-person voice and perspective that I don't have. Continue to speak up! Awareness is so important. Every instance counts.

*lights candle in remembrance of those forgotten*