House Republicans Decline to Vote on a Resolution Stating That the Holocaust Targeted Jews:
jdthegiftontherocks:
theroguefeminist:
jdthegiftontherocks:
returnofthejudai:
The resolution, a shrewd effort to pin Republicans down on something the Trump administration has needlessly made an issue, condemned the White House’s Holocaust Remembrance Day statement, which failed to mention Jews or the anti-Semitism that led to Adolf Hitler’s genocide against them. It also called for the House to reiterate “the indisputable fact that the Nazi regime targeted the Jewish people in its perpetration of the Holocaust,” condemn Holocaust denialism, and demand acknowledgment from the White House that Jews were targeted.
In the wake of controversy over the Holocaust Remembrance Day statement, the White House defended it, saying that it had wished to be inclusive by acknowledging that other groups had been killed by Hitler’s regime as well.
So we can now pin the Republicans with what Deborah Lipstadt calls “soft Holocaust denial.” Good job, asshats. Tell me again how Nazi you aren’t. It’s getting awfully hard to believe you.
If only the Republicans would mention that those ‘other groups’ the Nazis targeted in the Holocaust were disabled and queer people. It'a often forgotten, because the focus is on Jews, but disabled and queer people were rounded up and murdered and were often used as ‘guinea pigs’ for the atrocities the Nazis would do to the Jews.
So instead of not mentioning Jews at all so they can be ‘inclusive’, I’d love for the GOP to just add those other groups to the list of those who should be remembered.
They would never do that since their policies also result in the deaths of queer and disabled people. Imagine if they also included communists and political agitators lmao. But in all realness, the Holocaust primarily targeted Jews for complete eradication. It definitely involved the deaths of other groups, but it is a form of soft denial to act as if Jews “hog” the spotlight of victimhood of the Holocaust, which is what the Republican Party is implying.
Worst case scenario, they’re doing this so as not to alienate their neo-Nazi base. Best case scenario Trump is a prideful asshole who refuses to apologize for any mistake he makes. Either way, their Neo-Nazi base and other antisemites and Holocaust deniers are validated by their response.
You are completely right. But I do think it doesn’t have to be one or the other. I just think that people should be offended that multiple groups targeted by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps have not been remembered on Holocaust Memorial Day just as much as they are that the GOP removed mentions of the Jewish people from their Holocaust Memorial Day messages. It’s all terrible, but we could at least honor and remember all those groups. And that’s not just a Republican issue, it’s been the practice on both sides that the other groups aren’t mentioned.
I mean, ideally everyone would be acknowledged, but they’re two different issues and the impact is honestly not the same. As Elie Wiesel said, “Not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims.” Pretty much every Ashkenazi Jew you talk to has family members who died in the Holocaust, or is descended from people who escaped, myself included. It eradicated one third of all Jews in the world. Our entire culture changed. It is the single greatest modern tragedy we have faced. Most other groups targeted by the Holocaust don’t have this relationship to the tragedy. Most other groups do not, as a whole, feel personally victimized by it.
When the Holocaust as a topic comes up in conversation or in the media, Jews are personally affected and connected to whatever is said–especially Holocaust denial or jokes. The Holocaust to Jews is kind of like what the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s is to gay people: sure, AIDS greatly impacted many other groups (hemophiliacs, drug addicts, sex workers, etc), but It is arguably the greatest modern tragedy we as the LGBT community have faced and to reference it as a crisis and tragedy in a moment of remembrance without mentioning gay people or its impact on the LGBT community would be a homophobic act. That disease completely altered our community–it devastated us, it destroyed an entire generation. It was called the “gay disease” and homophobia was a huge reason why so many died: the government did not take action or speak of AIDS, and it was stigmatized and ignored so long largely because gay people were predominately affected.
Just like it would be insulting to jump in and say, whenever gay people or anyone else acknowledges the huge impact AIDS had on the LGBT community and the homophobia surrounding it, but other people got AIDS too! it does have the effect of derailing and of erasing the primary nature of the Holocaust to aways insist but these gentile groups were targeted too! Acting as if other groups must always be mentioned in any remembrance of the Holocaust or as if a failure to always,100% of the time include every single group affected is “equally offensive” as ignoring the central target (Jewish people) is low key antisemitic and is honestly really misguided. I think you can only make that claim if you fail to understand exactly what the Holocaust means to us as Jewish people. When someone defends Nazis or Hitler…that’s a direct attack on us, on our safety. A swastika drawn in public is a hate crime toward us. Most other groups do not have this reaction to these events because they don’t have the same connection to the Holocaust.
I do think people should be aware that LGBT people, Roma, disabled people, political prisoners, Polish people, Slavs and others were killed, but it’s also important to understand the Holocaust as a Jewish tragedy, the central role antisemitism played in the genocide, and the incredible impact the event had and still has on the Jewish people.