July 18 More Lectures and Schindler’s Grave

OK, back to the lectures! This is going to be hard after 3 ½ days off, and we’ve got a whole day of listening ahead of us. Maybe the rest has helped my brain … sorry but this is a longgggggg blog (like the day!).

Confronting the Phenomenon of Holocaust Denial Ephraim Kaye

OK – this is interesting stuff – I find the denial stuff fascinating. Ephraim does a really good job of laying out the framework for denial (revisionism, relativism, reversal) and especially later when he goes over the evidence for 6 million deaths, I think it’s good and I learn a lot.

Ephraim also says that what motivates the deniers is hate – but I wonder if this is totally true. I agree that some most definitely do hate the Jews, but I think some also don’t believe some of what happened, for whatever reason (perhaps, like some Jews themselves, they simply cannot believe anything so horrific could happen). E says that none of the deniers are historians, but I’m not so sure; maybe some aren’t, and maybe some are just bad historians. I remember years ago reading about formerly well-respected historians who dabbled in denial (or at least mitigating the Holocaust). They were discredited, but they were historians nonetheless. Although I find whole idea of denying the Holocaust quite distasteful, one of the things it’s been good for is that it has forced historians to be vigilant with the facts. And if anything, Holocaust deniers have helped to reveal more about the Holocaust, as historians trying to silence their arguments have worked hard to bring to light more evidence; the controversy has also created more interest in the Holocaust. Of course there’s going to be people who say it didn’t happen, just like the people who don’t think the US landed on the moon or who think Lady Diana was murdered or who think the US government crashed the planes into the twin towers. You can’t stop people from saying and doing stupid things, but you can make them look foolish by showing how wrong they are with facts and reason.

Dan, who teaches rhetoric at the SCSU Center for Holocaust & Genocide Education, asks E to discuss the topic of Jews who themselves deny the Holocaust, but Ephraim seems unwilling to tackle this head on – in fact, he skips to something else, and then answers later (a tactic that I don’t like, although to be fair he may not be doing this deliberately). When he comes back to Dan’s point, he says that there is an author, Finkelstein, who does this – E calls him “disturbed.” He thinks that Jews who deny or mitigate the Holocaust are sick. Are they all, though? Surely this warrants more discussion and thought? I wish we could use the talent that is in the room to explore some interesting things, but it doesn’t appear to be on the agenda. Too bad.

Holocaust Denial (warning: some of this gets pretty technical!)

Relativism – Ephraim says that relativizing the Holocaust by saying that Stalin was just as much (if not worse) a mass murderer than Hitler blurs what happened in the Holocaust. Well, maybe. But everything IS relative and Stalin brutally targeted the Kulaks simply for being who they were.

Ephraim talks about other instances and examples of revisionism, relativism, and reversal, and then talks about how we know that there were six million Jews killed. As usual, I have to work a little to clearly get his argument. He begins with some of the problems in tallying the numbers:

• Nazis kept records; however, they did not put the numbers they killed in their records. No names or addresses.  Only at Auschwitz were the Jews tattooed and only those who weren’t instantly executed.
• Estimates of pre-war populations; the problem, however, is that we don’t know the post-1945 numbers; if we can’t find specific people, does that mean that they’re dead? The Germans deported millions of people.
• Many Jews went to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s; anti-Semitism was outlawed and Jews were allowed to be integrated into Soviet society.
• Testimonies: problem is that most survivors didn’t see people being killed; most were murdered so that there were few reliable witnesses.
• If you visit the extermination camps, you cannot see the physical evidence of the extermination of the number of Jews that are claimed to have been killed
• Many deniers want the exact order to kill the Jews/Fuhrerbfehel (Hitler Order), but there isn’t one.

However, there were other methods that could help with a more accurate tally, including the following:

• Enigma decodes – top secret German military codes broken by the British (11 million decodes – www.nsa.gov (Decoding the Holocaust – information put together about the Holocaust). These enigma decodes estimate the number of Jews killed by Dec. 31, 1942 at 1.274 million.
• Operational Situation Report USSR No. 101 – Einsatzgruppe C in Kiev  (Einsatzgruppe Reports – 195 of them) – Raul Hilberger reached a number of 1.4 million Jews executed by cross-referencing these 195 reports. Memo uses the verb “executed” and gives the exact number (33,771) of Jews executed on Sept. 29 and 30.
• According to E, the Jaeger report is the evidence that the Jews were more important than some of the other groups being exterminated because the German reports show incredible detail in terms of how Jews were classified. For example, the reports show the killings of Jews broken down into their sex, various nationalities, and ages: information that is not given for others, who are simply termed “communists” or “gypsies.” This shows that the Germans cared very specifically about the extermination of the Jews.
• For example, the memo from Carl Jaeger (Einsatzgruppen A) shows the number of Jews executed, and breaks it down into men, women, and children (E says children are noted to show that the Nazis wanted to get rid of the next generation). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4ger_Report
• Document No. 1128 Prosecution Exhibit 2370 (From Himmler to Hitler)
• August 1941 R. Weiner film of einsatzgruppen killing people; testimony by Dina Baitler: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrZCieoc2F8
• Company received the commission to build the crematoria 2 and 3 at Auschwitz – there are sketches of the crematoria
• Document by builders that actually lists the number of people that could be burned by these ovens
• Picture of oven (there is only one and it is of the ovens as they are being built) by Topf und Sons  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topf_and_Sons
• Transportation documents Jan 16 1943 – document shows 16,000 people who are travelling – document doesn’t say what happens to the people who were transported

All these bits and pieces of information add up to approximately 6 million (German documents, testimonies, enigma statistics, etc.).

This is exhausting, but interesting, and I appreciate the detail Ephraim’s gone into to prove his point. I do think it’s important to do this – there should be a way to justify the number 6 million.

The Problems Facing Israel Today with Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post

This guy is fascinating, and I learn a lot about the Israeli point of view. It’s going to be difficult to make this short, as he has a lot to say. To try to sum up:

• The Second Intifada was, according to Keinon, a watershed event that colours everything that happens in Israel today. There is a strong sense of vulnerability. He personally knows many people who were killed/injured in attacks.

• Three concerns about current situation in Syria: Syria breaks into 3 parts; perhaps one part may attack Israel, bringing them into the conflict. Second option is the “Samson” option: Assad has major weapons and may choose to bring everything/everyone down with him; third problem is chemical weapons.

• Iran is the problem – they don’t want stability in the region,. The whole strategy for dealing with the problems of the Middle East has been to “kick the can down the road” (i.e., bide our time), and eventually a new leadership in Iran will end the problems. Keinon, however, thinks that this situation will continue.
• Iran – Green Revolution – US didn’t take advantage of this (2009). Iran doesn’t want to raise the stature of the US for example if it achieves peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Are funding Hezbollah or Hamas and will send them in to de-stabilize the area. Iranians, according to Keinon, want hegemony in the area.

• Diplomatic process with Palestinians: process has become a “habit.” The paradigm of negotiations has been ditched by the Palestinians going to the UN last year. Instead of negotiations, they are trying to have their goals imposed on Israel. The Palestinians want the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as their capital, and accommodation for refugees – these (according to Keinon) are their clear goals.

• Arafat chose terrorism (2^nd Intifada – ended 2005/2006). Negotiations and terror both failed, so now trying to have the UN and the world to provide a solution. Keinon considers the current phase we’re in as “motion without movement.”

• Israel’s opinion of the UN is that they cannot get a fair shake/it’s a done deal. There is a built-in majority of countries that are against Israel. No trust in the UN Human Rights Council (Syria, Libya has seats on). Does have trust in the Security Council however; General Assembly not so much. Israel cannot ignore nor take seriously.

• Regarding Palestine – there is an expectation that there are solutions, e.g., that if land is given to Palestine there will be peace; however, just after Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians there occurred the worst period of terror. Keinon thinks we should lower our expectations – there are ideological/religions overtones that have made resolution more difficult. Thinks it will take generations to resolve.

• Obama’s approach was novel – laid down the law in regard to settlements – don’t build anywhere & I’ll get the moderate Arabs to agree to make accommodations to Israel; however, he couldn’t get anything, even from the moderate Saudis. Keinon thinks it’s gone beyond giving up land to get peace. There is a strong religious element that takes it out of the territorial realm. The Muslims/Arabs aren’t willing to talk to us. Thinks that the Palestinian leadership were extremists who originally hijacked the populace although lately the populace have actually voted for the extremists.

• Thinks that talking about problems is a “European model” and doesn’t think that this could work in the Middle East. (Interesting!!!) Thinks that building strong economies could lead to possible resolution.  Most Israelis think that if the Israelis laid down their guns right now the state would disappear.

Keinon is disappointed with how Israel is dealing with the Sudanese refugee situation. He doesn’t think taking in 60,000 more Sudanese will create that many problems.

The Righteous Among the Nations – Saving Jews during the Holocaust with Stephanie McMahon-Kaye

Steffi talks about the criteria for being termed “Righteous”:

– Attempt to save a Jew, regardless of success or failure

– Acknowledged mortal risk to the rescuer during the endeavour

– Humanitarian motivations must be primary purpose – cannot be financial

– Must be testimonial/archival support

She also focuses on the story of Le Chambon in France.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007518

And she focuses on Pastor Andre Trocme

http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/le-chambon.html

Next on the agenda is a visit to the grave of Oscar Schindler with two Schindler survivors, Nachum and Genya Manor.  We load onto the bus and drive down to the graveyard.

Unfortunately, it is so hot that it’s difficult to be there for any length of time. The Manors give a fairly brief speech and we all line up to put stones on Oscar’s grave.

Schinder’s grave gates

Schindlerjuden (Nachum and Genya Manor) at grave site

Oscar Schindler’s grave

We take the bus back to the Prima Kings and have more time with Nachum and Genya (this time in a very air conditioned room!). They actually met and fell in love working in Oscar’s factory in Poland (I think I recognize the story from the novel Schindler’s List). It’s a lovely story laced with tragedy; I feel privileged to be able to meet with the Manors. I’m keenly aware that this opportunity is not one that will be around for much longer; as with all Holocaust survivors, they are getting quite old.

One of the things that the Manors tell us is that the turning point for many survivors in terms of speaking out about what happened during the Holocaust occurred after the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961. This is because the average Israeli couldn’t understand why the Jews didn’t do anything to defend themselves and wondered how so many could have died the way they did. Apparently Eichmann’s testimony confirmed for many what happened.

Dinner

Tonight we have our official farewell party at Tico House.

https://www.google.co.il/search?q=ticho+house&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

What a beautiful place! You can’t see how gorgeous this place is from the website link, but believe me it’s stunning. We walk through the restaurant out to a large multi-level terrace at the back; on every level there are tables set up, and ours is a large square horseshoe on one of the lower levels. The stone terraces and the trees, as well as the lovely Jerusalem evening night makes the setting magical. (Since I’ve come to Jerusalem, I’ve loved all the stone that is everywhere (slippery Old City stone notwithstanding). Coming from the land of wood and brick, to me this is a lovely change. Stone is somehow more old world and exotic, especially the creamy Jerusalem stone.)

This was a lovely dinner with lots of laughs, free-flowing wine, acknowledgements and applause. It’s hard to believe we only have one more day!

Dinner July 18 Canadian girls – Brenda, Dani, Lindsey (thanks to Brenda for the photos!)

Dinner July 18 Canadian girls

The Canadian Contingent

Dani and Steve and I giggle our way back to the hotel. We don’t get bused back as some major Rabbi has died and they need the bus to take people to the funeral. On the way back there is a very steady flow of Hasidic Jews going the opposite way to us to, I assume, the funeral. At one point Dani and I trade shoes – she’s wearing 4 inch platform heels and I have my flat sandals on! She was almost as tall as me before and now I’m at least 6 feet tall! Weird feeling, although I can walk in them.
There’s people out on the terrace again tonight so I join them & try not to stay up too late!