https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/27/white-house-holocaust-remembrance-day-no-jews?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+AUS+v1+-+AUS+morning+mail+callout&utm_term=210611&subid=17659828&CMP=ema_632

Quote:

The White House raised eyebrows on Friday when it issued a statement to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, that did not mention Jews, Judaism or antisemitism...

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Paul D

Quote:

The White House raised eyebrows

But why? I don't understand the significance of the "omission".

It's not as if they were "celebrating" the Holocaust from a Nazi, or neo-Nazi perspective.

Anyone who knows what the Holocaust was, knows that it was Jews who were murdered - and they know that "Holocaust Remembrance Day" is in remembrance of those murdered Jews.

The White House statement seems reverent and appropriate.

Or, have I missed something?

Jim

Quote:

But why? I don't understand the significance of the "omission".

It's not as if they were "celebrating" the Holocaust from a Nazi, or neo-Nazi perspective.

Anyone who knows what the Holocaust was, knows that it was Jews who were murdered - and they know that "Holocaust Remembrance Day" is in remembrance of those murdered Jews.

The White House statement seems reverent and appropriate.

Or, have I missed something?

Jim

Here's a quote from the article.

Quote:

However, Fred Brown, a spokesman for the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement “it’s outrageous that people are using Holocaust Remembrance Day for partisan reasons or to try and settle scores. The horrors of the Holocaust are not to be taken lightly. Today is about remembering the millions of Jews who suffered at the hands of hate, and the heroes who died fighting it.”

Trump's order banning entry from many countries, including war refugees, not including any countries that have committed terrorist acts on American soil as far as I can tell, was done on the same day.

For some, this brings up memories of this country's refusal to allow in Jewish refugees from Hitler. Japan got us into the war, not Nazi atrocities.

Bannon is an anti-Semite to put it mildly. Bannon is the most powerful person in the White House. 2 + 2 still equals 4, whatever Trump or some Republican apologist says about it.

Yes, I read that and those are very legitimate points but l was restricting my remark to the complaints that the White House "did not mention Jews, Judaism or anti-Semitism" in their statement commemorating "Holocaust Remembrance Day".


Jim.

The Holocaust is an event. Murdered Jews are your neighbors.

From a political perspective, even Bannon probably realizes that the White House has to say something on remembrance day. By keeping it to remembering an "event," without personalizing it to remind people that these victims were in reality individual people, whose neighbors watched as they were hauled away, he's tossing a bone to his white supremacist base, nudging the line of forgetfulness the wrong way (away from remembering) and dehumanizing the victims all in one simple statement.

He's evil, but not stupid. The statement can easily be read as a generalized statement that "Nazis were bad" that then morphs into a proactive argument for Trump's view of the country (in the darkest hours of humanity), and of himself (light shines the brightest.) Then onto policy with "we are deeply grateful to those who risked their lives to save the innocent" which is obviously referring to their desire to increase the military significantly. Because, of course, we need to "ensure that the forces of evil never again defeat the powers of good." Evil would be Muslims.

Bannon is a master propagandist.

Exactly. They released a statement saying that they didn't mention Jews because they didn't want to exclude any of the groups who suffered during the Holocaust.

Quote:

"despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered,"

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/white-house-holocaust-memorial-day/

That ignores, though, that Jews were by far the biggest group affected. 6 million Jews died and 5 million other people (political opponents, gypsies, etc). It's easy to recognize that Jews were the largest affected group without ignoring other groups. You just say: "As we remember the 6 million Jews and all others who died..."

Of course, Steve Bannon wouldn't let a statement like that go out. It probably turned his stomach that he even needed to recognize International Holocaust Remembrance Day at all.

Quote:

For some, this brings up memories of this country's refusal to allow in Jewish refugees from Hitler.

'The world's doors were closed': Jared Kushner's grandma on refugee life
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/31/jared-kushner-grandmother-refugee-holocaust