(Jewish Group)Most Jews Weren't Murdered In Death Camps. It's Time To Talk About The Other Holocaust

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

It was the tiny tallit that knocked the breath out of me. Slightly crumpled along the crease lines, as if just taken out of a closet where a loving mother had put it away after washing, it hung alone in its exhibit case at the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s new exhibit Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. The specificity of the single life evoked by this toddler-size garment conveyed more about the tragedy of the millions than words ever could. It was as if it had traveled through time and space to bear witness on behalf of the little boy who once wore it.

My experience at the Auschwitz exhibit was a powerful one. But it was actually a familiar one. We are used to experiencing the horror of the Holocaust through the lens of Auschwitz. When we talk about the six million, we picture concentration camps, ghettos, cattle cars.

And yet, the members of my family who were murdered during the Holocaust did not die at Auschwitz. They were killed at Babi Yar. And I cannot imagine an exhibit like this honoring their memory.

In part, this inability stems from the fact that after decades of silence and intentional forgetting, the material evidence of their lives and deaths is long gone — unlike the thousands of artifacts left behind by the Nazi concentration camps. But the main reason I can’t imagine an exhibit dedicated to the memory of my family is that their story as a whole is not part of our collective memory of the Holocaust.

The story of the Jews murdered not in death camps but by bullets, burning, gas wagons, intentional starvation, drowning, and hanging all over the former Soviet Union — an estimated 2.7 million — has been casually subsumed in the death camp-centered Holocaust collective memory.

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Wonderful for Jews to do, but for more than a few non-Jews, they don't even know the fucking basics!

[modrepub]

1. Timothy Snyder's Black Earth

was an eye opener for me. He came to the same conclusion that probably half of the Jews died by single bullets not the gas chamber. He also outlined how the Jews who had settled in Russia centuries ago were slowly pushed westward into central European countries and the ultimate fate of each country's Jewish population by the end or WWII. From his book it seemed many Jews met their fate by people motivated either to take possession of their material goods or to prove their loyalty to their new German occupiers. Almost as disturbing was the treatment of many Jews who did survive the Holocaust once they tried to return to their former homes and reclaim what was rightfully theirs; they were very often turned away by those who occupied their homes.

While probably one of the most difficult books I've read, there were some very interesting events discussed in the book. I didn't know that Poland fought a brief war with Russia in the early 1930s, which would put themselves between two hostile nations within a few years of its conclusion. I also didn't know the Pols were training Jewish commando's prior to WWII. Menachem Begin was one. Seems the Pols had their own "solution" which was to encourage their Jewish population to migrate out of the country (to British Palestine). It was also interesting to read how some Jews in German occupied countries were sheltered or escaped their fate. Some became "adopted" family members and others became wards of people who seemed to have a big mistrust of government or were outcasts in society.

Most Americans, including myself, know very little about eastern European history so Snyder's book covered subjects I had not really known about or really understood.

[MaryMagdaline]

2. Hitler's Willing Executioners also a good summary

Disturbing revelations but no turning away. The Holocaust was a grassroots phenomenon. Europe can’t escape that truth.