4 ms·

I had aunts, uncles, and various family friends with numbers on their arms. I vividly recall their expression when I asked (I was like 3 or so, late 1960s) if

by hpcjoe 5y ago

I had aunts, uncles, and various family friends with numbers on their arms. I vividly recall their expression when I asked (I was like 3 or so, late 1960s) if I could get one of those for me. I thought it was cool. I only learned much later, when my older brother came home with a swastika drawn on one of his school binders, what had happened. This was "the talk". A discussion of the Shoah with my older brother and me, from my parents, who were kids (in the US) during that time. They simplified it somewhat, but it was absolutely horrible regardless. As an adult, I read about the Evian Conference[1][2]. It was an opportunity to reduce and even, possibly, stop a genocide. All the participants had to do was to open their countries to jewish refugees. Of all of the participants, only 1 did. Not because it was morally the right thing to do. But because he thought it would enrich him. After learning of many of the rest of the atrocities, the willing/eager participation in these from eastern European countries ... I am generally unwilling to feel sympathetic in the least, towards any country/people/group that participated in this. This includes those jews who turned into collaborators. They are called kapos btw. They existed. Tieing this all back to today. There is precisely 1 country on the planet that accepts jews from where ever they are as olim, without appealing to other authorities. They enable jews to return from the diaspora to their historical homeland. Had this country existed in 1939, it is unlikely that the Shoah would have happened. The same forces that allowed, and actively encouraged the Shoah to bloom are play today. Jews are still global targets. Antisemitism has been blossuming. The difference? We have somewhere to go. And we won't go out quietly into that good night. As Golda Meir pointed out with regards to our homeland, we have a secret weapon. We have no other place to go. And history has shown that we should never, ever, under any circumstances, trust another nation to provide security. [1] https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-evian-conference https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-evian-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian_Conference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian_Conference

schwartzworld 5y ago
> we have a secret weapon. We have no other place to go This is an excellent point, although I do wish most Jews would Israel would lead by example with their treatment of Palestinians, which currently is a shande
Maursault 5y ago
> There is precisely 1 country on the planet that accepts jews from where ever It is difficult to discuss the history, which is part of the history of anti-semetism. I think it was that anti-semitism and the Evian Conference that directly led to the British Mandate. But if attempting to understand these events, it is difficult because even attempting to talk about what these leaders and many others believed, their belief in stereotypes, draws accusations of anti-semetism. But I am going to risk it, not because it is a valid perspective, but because it happened, it was a common belief that Jewish populations put economic strain on a country by nepotistic practices and hoarding wealth, and this belief was behind the reluctance of the Evian Conference participants to accept refugees; to avoid accepting Jewish refugees, the British Mandate created Israel. The British just grabbed hold of a pre-existing dream of some Jews (Zionism) to return to the "Promised Land," and promoted it. But I think the truth behind this detail of anti-semitism is that the lazy envy the industrious and successful, and unjustly those among Jewish populations that were successful and wealthy became representative of all Jews. The fallacy here is hasty generalization, thus the sentiment was always invalid. The British Mandate was a very weird thing because it handed victory over the current residents of the area to a conquered (effectively) alien nation. But Israel would not have been able to exist if not for the sheer amount of backbreaking labor and the terraforming of non-arable land by the original settlers (of the 20th Century, but migrations of Jewish populations to the Four Holy cities predated the British Mandate by about 4 centuries). Contrasting the horrifying treatment of Jewish populations with the horrifying treatment of Native American populations and the horrifying treatment of African populations reveals what is distinct in anti-semitism compared to other forms of racism. It was and is all very very bad, so it is a bit of a shock that anti-Palestinian racism is also a thing and rampant. It seems for every identifiable culture there is a particular flavor of racism. Fundamentally, racism is ignorance and hatred overpowering the ability to reason.

by hpcjoe 5y ago

schwartzworld 5y ago

> we have a secret weapon. We have no other place to go This is an excellent point, although I do wish most Jews would Israel would lead by example with their treatment of Palestinians, which currently is a shande

Maursault 5y ago

> There is precisely 1 country on the planet that accepts jews from where ever It is difficult to discuss the history, which is part of the history of anti-semetism. I think it was that anti-semitism and the Evian Conference that directly led to the British Mandate. But if attempting to understand these events, it is difficult because even attempting to talk about what these leaders and many others believed, their belief in stereotypes, draws accusations of anti-semetism. But I am going to risk it, not because it is a valid perspective, but because it happened, it was a common belief that Jewish populations put economic strain on a country by nepotistic practices and hoarding wealth, and this belief was behind the reluctance of the Evian Conference participants to accept refugees; to avoid accepting Jewish refugees, the British Mandate created Israel. The British just grabbed hold of a pre-existing dream of some Jews (Zionism) to return to the "Promised Land," and promoted it. But I think the truth behind this detail of anti-semitism is that the lazy envy the industrious and successful, and unjustly those among Jewish populations that were successful and wealthy became representative of all Jews. The fallacy here is hasty generalization, thus the sentiment was always invalid. The British Mandate was a very weird thing because it handed victory over the current residents of the area to a conquered (effectively) alien nation. But Israel would not have been able to exist if not for the sheer amount of backbreaking labor and the terraforming of non-arable land by the original settlers (of the 20th Century, but migrations of Jewish populations to the Four Holy cities predated the British Mandate by about 4 centuries). Contrasting the horrifying treatment of Jewish populations with the horrifying treatment of Native American populations and the horrifying treatment of African populations reveals what is distinct in anti-semitism compared to other forms of racism. It was and is all very very bad, so it is a bit of a shock that anti-Palestinian racism is also a thing and rampant. It seems for every identifiable culture there is a particular flavor of racism. Fundamentally, racism is ignorance and hatred overpowering the ability to reason.