HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY.
A thread.
I have always been ambivalent at best about HMD. I have never participated in it. I avoid the use of the word holocaust ('burnt offering' suggestive of a sacrifice) in favour of the Hebrew Shoah (destruction).
(1)

For me it smacks too much of the "and all forms of racism" approach to antisemitism ie it does not merit specific or indeed any attention unless incorporated into a wider campaign. Similarly the price of commemoration of our murdered 6 million is "and all genocides" approach. (2)

I stress that I am not seeking to minimise the suffering of others rather questioning the need/desirability of them being rolled up with a day chosen as it coincides with the liberation of Auschwitz. The problem with this approach is that the Shoah becomes part of a continuum (3)

Its purpose thus becomes a universalist message. Increasingly we see the unique nature and the particularist message being diluted and in some cases erased. I see jews often begrudged even mentioning the attempted obliteration of our people within living memory. (4)

One can almost sense a tired eye roll when the subject is raised. It is only one genocide of many. Jews weren't the only victims. What about the Palestinians etc. As Howard Jacobson wrily observed it is almost as if the non jewish world will never forgive us for the Holocaust!(5)

Having spent decades studying the Shoah which claimed the vast majority of my family here, for what it's worth, is my 'take'.
Most of my family literally disappeared. We do not even know their names or how many perished.
I am far from alone in that predicament. (6)

Unlike other genocides this was not a massacre but a cold blooded, carefully planned attempt to obliterate an entire people. The plan was not limited to areas under Nazi control but jews the world over. It was and remains the only instance of the industrialisation of murder.(7)

It involved the use of the railway system across Europe not to kill people in situ but transport them in some cases thousands of miles to murder them. The plan devised at a special conference held for the purpose was there to engage in mass murder at purpose built camps. (8)

Places like Treblinka where nearly a million jews were murdered were literally factories of death with no other purpose. These were not concentration camps. Tens of thousands arrived daily and were ashes within hours of their arrival.
This feature is again unique to the Shoah(9)

Murder in gas chambers specially constructed for the purpose. The use of Zyklon B gas as the means. Cremation of the bodies in ovens.
The mobilisation of German technology and industry for the purpose. More unique features of the attempt to destroy the jewish people. (10)

Incredibly there is more and worse.
The wholesale theft of property of the victims from luggage to clothing even glasses. Bad enough? Where else in history has the killing machine sought then to harvest the bodies of the victims like vultures; hair, teeth, anything 'useful'! (11)

The ultimate insult and degradation; forcing the victims to do their dirty work. Has there ever been a figure more tragic than the Sonderkommando? Has there ever been a crueller more twisted role devised?
Apart from the human experiments perhaps. Unbelievably cruelty (12)

carried out not by militia men but qualified doctors.
I could go on but the case for uniqueness is, I suggest, made out.
What then of the lessons to be learned?
Of course there are universal messages and warnings to be drawn but that is not my purpose here. (13)

I make no apology for saying that a tragedy unique in human history, which befell the jewish people entitles jews to draw their own conclusions and have them at least respected.
The first is that when push comes to shove we are on our own.
Hitler did not hide his hostiilty(14)

Yet, with honourable exceptions, the world did nothing to help us and for the most part closed its eyes, ears and doors. The Christian church either stood by or actively participated in our persecution. The socialist left, despite their boasts, were at best useless. (15)

For me, the lesson I drew at an early age is that jews can not rely on others. As in our recent battles we are fortunate to have allies but that is not a given. Never again should our fate rest on the whims of others or prevailing political winds. (16)

If the Shoah has anything to teach it is surely that we must be masters of our own destiny in our own state with the means to defend ourselves from those who would destroy us.
If Never Again is to mean anything it is this. (17)

For many of us this means living in Israel. For many (by which I mean the vast majority of jews around the world) it is knowing that Israel is there as a refuge if and when needed. It is that gut feeling which the non Jewish world needs to assimilate and appreciate. (18)

Too many sneer at the "packed suitcase" metaphor. Too many scoff at the idea that people might emigrate if things went the wrong way last December. Too many caricature Jewish fears grotesquely rather than treat them sympathetically. (19)

All of which leads me to the conclusion that there is a very long way to go in so called holocaust education and I am not sure that HMD is a help rather than hindrance.(20/end)