{"id":6376,"date":"2018-02-01T14:28:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T14:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=6376"},"modified":"2025-12-26T23:14:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T23:14:49","slug":"power-words-holocaust-memorial-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2018\/02\/power-words-holocaust-memorial-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The power of words: on and after Holocaust Memorial Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The power of words was the theme for this year\u2019s Holocaust Memorial Day. Held on 27th January every year, it marks the date that the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power does not evaporate with the passing days. Words can make a lasting difference \u2018for good and for evil\u2019, as the Holocaust Memorial Day Trus<\/a>t states. They can also invoke action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amongst the first words widely distributed telling the world what was happening in Germany was Days of Contempt<\/em> by Andre Malraux<\/a> published in 1935 with Gollancz publishing a translation in Britain in 1936. Its warning was ignored because it was the Communists that were being treated with contempt in Dachau, located at the time on the edge of Munich. This makes the words of Pastor Martin Niem\u00f6ller<\/a> and his famous poem even more resonant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First They Came<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First they came for the Communists<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I did not speak out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I was not a Communist<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they came for the Socialists<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I did not speak out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I was not a Socialist<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they came for the trade unionists<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I did not speak out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I was not a trade unionist<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they came for the Jews<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I did not speak out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I was not a Jew<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they came for me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there was no one left<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To speak out for me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Denial despite known evidence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Word about the \u2018wholesale slaughter\u2019 of the Jews came out via a variety of sources in 1942. In March of that year, when Operation Reinhard<\/a> had only just begun, Burzio (the Papal Nuncio in Bratislava ) told authorities at the Holy See: \u201cThe deportation of 80,000 persons to Poland at the mercy of the Germans means to condemn a great part of them to certain death\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Riegner telegram<\/a> issued by the World Jewish Congress from the British Embassy in Bern in August 1942 to New York and Washington reported that \u201call Jews in countries occupied or controlled by Germany\u201d would be deported, concentrated in the East, and \u201cexterminated at one blow…\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was some prevarication, disbelief and quite a bit of disingenuousness by bureaucrats at this information. However, \u201c… an inter-Allied declaration<\/a> denouncing the murder of Jews\u201c was formally issued in the name of eleven governments and the French National Committee, and released simultaneously in Washington, London, and Moscow.\u201d (Michael Marrus, The Holocaust in History<\/em>, p.160-163).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite all these words and despite pleas to act on the declaration there was a lack of action grounded in a denial of the known evidence that what Robert Burns called \u2018man\u2019s inhumanity to man\u2019 was on the scale of the reports received. Proof positive that it\u2019s deeds, not words, that matter when lives are at stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the most moving and insightful words on the Holocaust were written by the late, great Primo Levi. If This Is a Man<\/em> and The Truce<\/em> exemplify the exhortation by the historian Simon Dubnow who was shot in December 1941 as the Warsaw ghetto was \u2018cleared\u2019. In his final days, he constantly urged all who could hear him: \u201cJews, write and record\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More dangerous are the common men<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Levi\u2019s testimony is direct experience which answers this injunction brilliantly. In my edition there is an afterword in which he answers readers’ questions. His answer to the question, \u201cHow can the Nazis’ fanatical hatred of the Jews be explained? \u201c is revealing and maybe brings an understanding as to why incomprehension at the known information was not acted upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions, like Eichmann; like Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz; like Stangl, commandant of Treblinka; like the French military of twenty years later, slaughterers in Algeria; like the Khmer Rouge of the late seventies, slaughterers in Cambodia.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The slaughter has not stopped. It has just moved on. And that\u2019s why the website for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust marks not only the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust but also the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. Reports indicate that the Rohingya of Myanmar may soon be added to that list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u00e9vi makes the case that study, discussion and reasoning are the best tools against repetition of his direct experience but \u201cwhen wise counsel no longer serves …one must find the strength to resist\u201d. This applies to governments as much as to the reader. You and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power of words<\/em> is a powerfully apt theme for Holocaust Memorial Day as it gives us the chance to study, discuss and reason but also reminds us that sometimes words are not enough. They were not enough in 1942. It is action that will prevent repetition. We must demand from our governments action along with fine words. Words and deeds are indeed a potent combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured image: The Power of Words, at The Quad Derby by Diego Sideburns<\/a> CC By-NC-ND 2.0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite against fascism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Update:<\/strong> Meanwhile, la lotta continua<\/em>\/the fight goes on as Unite Against Fascism reminds us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What remains of the fascist Scottish Defence League (SDL) have called a demonstration over the tragic death of homeless veteran Darren Greenfield. Darren had served with the Royal Tank Regiment but found life hard to cope with after leaving the Army. He was well-known in Edinburgh, asking for change while wearing his khakis, close to Waverley Station<\/p>\n

His death before Christmas, at the age of 47 after contracting an infection, caused many to ponder on the sort of society we live in that culminates in such sad news.<\/p>\n

Unlike the vast majority of people who have sent condolences and messages of support to the Greenfield family, the fascists of the SDL, have cynically tried to blame refugees for Mr Greenfield\u2019s death. Their weasel words will find no echo in the city but their racist scapegoating is to be opposed.<\/p>\n

This was commented on the event page<\/p>\n

If the SDL cared, they\u2019d have helped him while he was ALIVE, instead of using him after it\u2019s too late.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please share the Facebook event page<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Join the counter protest<\/p>\n

Sunday 4 February 1.30pm<\/p>\n

Charlotte Square<\/p>\n

EDINBURGH, EH2 4DR<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The power of words was the theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day. Gordon Munro reports on how Jewish poets\/authors and others wrote about and recorded the (hidden) atrocities occurring in 1942 onwards and asks today’s governments to match fine words with the right deeds to prevent any repetition. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":6377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17719,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6376\/revisions\/17719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}