ebooks Remembering the Holocaust: A Debate by Jeffrey C. Alexander in History

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. The Pre-Eminence of the Holocaust Arose From Combined Leftist Ideation and Jewish InfluenceBy Jan PeczkisThis book is of very limited value; as it is rather obtuse and laden with Holocaustspeak. It is little more than a thinly-veiled promotion of Holocaust supremacism.INTRODUCTION: TYPES OF HOLOCAUST SUPREMACISMFor purpose of my reviews; and in the interests of clarity; I categorize Holocaust supremacism into three types: 1). Formal; 2) Mystified; and 3) Practical. The three commonly overlap.In Formal Holocaust supremacism; various seemingly-factual rationalizations are advanced to justify the pre-eminence of the Holocaust over the genocides of all other peoples. An example; in this book; is the essay of Nathan Glazer. He repeats the standard line about Jews being the center of Nazi hatred; and of the Nazi extermination of Jews reducing all other Nazi genocides to; in his words; “sideshows”. (pp. 154-155). This is egregious. In fact; all the arguments upon which Formal Holocaust supremacism rests are demonstrably incorrect. [See comments].In Mystified Holocaust supremacism; quasi-magical and transcendental properties are attributed to the Holocaust and to the Holocaust alone. This mystification of the Holocaust is then used to justify the preeminence of the Holocaust over all other genocides. My review focuses on this.In Practical Holocaust supremacism; the Holocaust simply gets the lion’s share of attention--in academia; media; and the entertainment industry--usually without any supportive justification. The outcome is the same. Common sense alone dictates that what is more important gets more attention than that which is unimportant. So Practical Holocaust supremacism sends the unavoidable message that the genocides of non-Jews are unimportant in comparison with that of the Jews. Practical Holocaust supremacism persists largely because of “cultural inertia”. It is beyond the scope of this book; and is not discussed any further.THE MYSTIFICATION OF THE HOLOCAUST IN ACTIONA clear example of Mystified Holocaust supremacism is provided by author Jeffrey C. Alexander. He writes; “As the tragic narrative crystallized; the Holocaust drama became; for an increasing number of Americans; and for significant proportions of Europeans as well; the most widely understood and emotionally compelling trauma of the twentieth century. [WOW!]. These bathetic events; once experienced as traumatic only by Jewish victims; became generalized and universalized.” (p. 37). Clearly; Mystified Holocaust supremacism is based; to a large extent; on a play on emotions.THE MYSTIFICATION OF THE HOLOCAUST: ALL OTHER GENOCIDES MARGINALIZEDNeedless to say; no other genocide gets the privilege of this kind of drama. Author Alexander admits as much; “I should add by the Jewish AND NON-JEWISH victims as well; for millions of persons were victims of Nazi mass murder in addition to the Jews—Poles; gypsies; homosexuals; handicapped persons; and political opponents of all types. That virtually all of these non-Jewish victims were filtered out of the emerging collective representation of the Holocaust underlines the arbitrary quality of trauma representations.” (pp. 76-77; Emphasis in original).Of course; Mystified Holocaust supremacism need not be overt. It can also be disguised as something quite noble. This includes the pretense that the Holocaust is now a “universal symbol for man’s inhumanity to man.” [SAYS WHO?] For instance; the author; in dead seriousness; quips; “Engorged with evil and universalized in its meaning; the Holocaust could not possibly be ‘owned’ by any one particular social group or by any particular nation.” (p. 87). What a perfect example of doublespeak!NOT JUST JEWISH INFLUENCE: COMBINED LEFTIST IDEATION AND JEWISH INFLUENCEAny notion that the Holocaust is not “owned” by any particular people vanishes once it is understood how Holocaust supremacism came to be. Alexander comments; “As I have shown; it was not the actual power of Jews in the United States but the centrality of ‘Jews’ in the progressive American imagination that defined the crimes of Nazis in a manner that focused on anti-Semitism.” (pp. 85-86).Let us look closely at this statement. Clearly; it is part of left-wing victim identity politics. However; it begs the question why Jews became central to the progressive imagination while Poles did not; and why anti-Semitism became such a big deal while anti-Polonism (not least of which is frequently practiced by Jews to this day) did not.ALL GENOCIDES ARE ADMITTEDLY EQUAL; BUT ONE OF THEM IS MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERSAuthor Jeffery C. Alexander ties-in his discussion; of “the progressive imagination”; with the slighting of the non-Jewish victims of the Nazis; as follows: “In fact; I believe that it is because of the symbolic centrality of Jews in the progressive narrative that so relatively little attention has been paid to the Nazis’ EQUALLY IMMORAL AND UNCONSCIONABLE extermination policies directed against other groups—for example; Poles; homosexuals; gypsies; and the disabled.” (p. 85; Emphasis added).Genocide-Recognition Equality Now!