lisa@phs.UUCP (Jeffrey William Gillette) (04/16/85)
[] 40 years ago this week the definition of the word 'inhumanity' grew exponentially. Lest we forget that revelation of Nazi concentration camps, six million of our brothers and sisters ruthlessly murdered, mad scientists experimenting with living people, military entertainment consisting of all sorts of diabolical means of torture, President Regan has designated this week as Holocaust Remembrance Week. Let me suggest two propositions. First, we are all victims of the Holocaust. True, Jews were the immediate victims of Hitler's madness (and thus fate has laid upon them the unenviable task of reminding us continually of humankind's worst hour - the depths to which even the best society can sink if not constantly vigilant). Yet all of us are the victims of fear: could blacks be hauled off in the middle of the night to prison camps without trial? Could old people watch their few possessions confiscated or destroyed because their children (or grandchildren) were members of the political opposition? Could university students become the objects of spontaneous harrassment and detention by police for no apparent reason? Not only could these things happen in America (indeed, some already have), all these and more are happening right now in South Africa, Lebanon, Chilie, the Philippines, Nicaragua, just to name a few countries. The Holocaust did not stop in 1945 (just like it did not begin in 1939). The names have changed but the story goes on in 1985 as in 1945. But we can not identify with the victims of the Holocaust alone. All of us must also idenfify ourselves as the captors. I suggest that the German people are not the most inhumane people on earth. Indeed, "Americans" were perfectly capable of exterminating many thousands of our native forerunners. Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese have all had their turn at devising spinechilling methods of torture. Even Jews have been granted the opportunity to display ample inhumanity to palestinians, consigning them to refugee camps hardly better than prison camps. The danger is not that all of us have a little Hitler inside waiting to get out. The Holocaust only needed one Hitler. The danger is that we, like the millions of "innocent" German bystanders will continue to close our eyes to the unplesant suffering of "others." How can we remember the Holocaust? Certainly by reminding ourselves of its victims and honoring their suffering. Likewise we can reminding ourselves that this could be us if we are not ever vigilant. But perhaps the best way to remember the Holocaust is to recognize its ugly face today in 1985, to see its victims among our kin and friends around the world, and to become involved in one (or more) of the many efforts to stop the torture, violation, and murder of whole classes and races of people. Our beloved president decided not to visit a concentration camp during his coming stay in Germany. Some have condemned him for that. I do not criticize him. The reason is, with the givernment of American supporting the Holocaust in South Africa, Chilie, the Philippines, Guatemala, and (until last week) the Sudan, to pay lip service to America's "humanity" by visiting the scene of a death camp would be a supreme act of hypocrisy. What have we learned from the Holocaust? For too many of us the answer is nothing. Jeffrey William Gillette duke!phs!lisa The Divinity School Duke University