Originally posted by Bader
They are.
They are Jewish. I wouldnt like to see representatives of all those many peoples who suffered to line up and bombard innocent children with tales of one-up-manship for the greatest sympathy and make an impact for future political advantage.
The obvious dishonest emphasis on the Third Reich when the Soviet Union was at least ten times worse shows that children are not allowed to get an even break because the first world media has discounted the honest truth about the past, not Soviet propoganda!
Peace is based on justice and justice is based on the truth, not selective knowledge...
Dear Bader,
your post really made me think.
For one I can only defend the schooling system in German-speaking countries (mainly Germany and Austria) which put an emphasis on teaching about the Third Reich and its atrocities - the atrocities committed against any person who did not want to participate in making H s dreams come true, homosexuals, gypsies, invalid persons, too old-to work persons and all people whose ethnicity was Jewish according some preset definitions.
In these countries I am speaking of there is a generationlong feeling of heavy collective guilt for the crimes committed. Especially heavy is that during WWII those who were murdered most in particular were Jews. At least 6 million Jews were braught to death, which is a genocide of tremendous dimensions if we take into consideration that Jews in Vienna, for example, used to be a large and characteristic group of intellectuals, talented musicians and respected business men. I don t know the numbers they were before the war in Austria but for sure nowadays they are only about not even 10.000 Jews living in this country (of a total of 9 Million inhabitants). Most of these 10.000 have mouved here only in recent years, mainly from Russia (Sefardic Jews), they are not survivors of WWII.
Given the fact that in Gemany the collective guilt feels heavy in particular, many young people tend to deny that Jews had ever been treated inhumanly. Young people who are today in their twenties, usually themselves social outsiders in some way, either unemployed and without a stable family background or those with little education and few friends, these young people occupy entire cities in Germany for denying publicly that the concentration camps ever existed, that they were a lie. This is a neo-nazism that is latently growing. I don?t think it has to do with WW or Jews so much but with these youngsters simply picking a politically hot topic for being sure that people will give them some attention... = therefore, however, there is a continued need to teach about the evidence of the Holocaust in particular.
I would understand that this emphasis is made here all the most because here are the places where such things happened.
Russia and Stalin is something we have heard about in school, too. Testimonials were not given so much about it as about the WWII-side of the story in Germany and Austria because perhaps "Russia is more far away". Also, when I went to school they had not yet found all the mass graves that reveal the truely gigantic dimensions of Stalin?s brutality.
With this post I just want to say that, speaking for certain countries such as G. and A., I do find it justified that a special attention is given to the Holocaust and the newly growing hatred of Jews in the present time. These are countries where Communism is not very likely to ever become a driving force and therefore not too much time is dedicated to talking about the shortcomings of Communism. Instead, time is being dedicated to find ways that would allow an integration of society with Jews and viceversa, because if this integration is not being cared for, terrible things could eventually happen again.
My statement of "such testimonials should be told in schools" also refers to schools in any country, of course. But I am afraid I can t share at this very moment your view of Jews being always more pointed out as victims of injustice than other ethnic groups. Perhaps yes, in a way, because let?s face it, gypsies have few representatives who deal with public entities which would be vital for conceiding gypsies platforms where their sufferings would be made known, recognized and apologized for.
Your view seems to be that Jews are actually directing it "their" way. - All I would like to say about this is that I have been for long having a perception that US Jews seem to behave somewhat different than European ones. US Jews seem to be pretty influencial in some ways that are never really openly discussed anywhere. Therefoer I can t comment on it, I have no experience or knowledge about it that I could rely on.
As for the countries I mentioned I can t see it and I think they are in their full right to receive endless acknowledgement.
On the other hand, I don t know what is being taught in US schools and how the Russian schooling system handles certain historic truths. I really wonder if the mayority of the Russian population ever came to know that so many of their own blood were murdered under Stalin. It is more likely that WE know about it.
"Anything a man does can bring him closer to the Suprme Wisdom, as long as he works with love in his heart."
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