[Peace-discuss] 1919 Hitler letter reveals seeds of ethnic cleansing

Wed Jun 15 03:33:18 CDT 2011

Interesting it is, but anti-semitism [sic]
and ethnic cleansing in Germany already had a lengthy history
of a few hundred years before Hitler's gang came to power
bearing a message that resonated
with what was already in the hearts
and minds of the German people.

After WW1's disgrace the Germans were seeking a scapegoat and the
Jews were close at hand.

Likewise the hapless Americans grooving on the fundamental un-love
between the islamophobic west and their semitic objects of reproach,
bow before their imperialist high priests as they offer up a daily
blood sacrifice of fresh "pig's blood" [sic] hoping to purge their sins
upon the fallen and scorched carcasses of their likewise hapless victims.

So very different from Hitler's barbaric haircuts.  So civilized.

On 06/15/11 11:10, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> The links in the article reveal a situation "when civilized society 
> must intervene."
>
> "One moral truism that should not provoke controversy is the principle 
> of universality: We should apply to ourselves the same standards we 
> apply to others - in fact, more stringent ones. Commonly, if states 
> have the power to do so with impunity, they disdain moral truisms, 
> because those states set the rules. That's our right if we declare 
> ourselves uniquely exempt from the principle of universality. And so 
> we do, constantly. Every day brings new illustrations."
>
> But Mr. Ludsin's letter does raise a practical question, given 
> universality, when he writes, "Perhaps in this modern age of instant 
> communication we can anticipate the virus of hatred and act faster and 
> more effectively."
>
> What should we do, "act[ing] faster and more effectively"?  --CGE
>
>
> On 6/14/11 8:21 PM, David Green wrote:
>>
>>
>>   1919 Hitler letter reveals seeds of ethnic cleansing
>>
>> by David Samel on June 14, 2011
>>
>> A momentous historical find has provided insight into the manner in 
>> which sentiment against a particular ethnicity can grow from the 
>> ravings of a deranged individual into a frightening national movement 
>> with catastrophic consequences. A letter 
>> <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/world/europe/03iht-hitler03.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1307970070-opIWAXbm9G31UrfjQlPxhQ> 
>> authored by Adolf Hitler in 1919 speaks of removal of the Jewish 
>> people from Germany. While even he surely did not dream at the time 
>> that mass extermination was feasible, he spoke openly of cleansing 
>> his country of an element that he considered to be polluting the 
>> national character.
>>
>> The enormous significance of this document from the youthful Hitler 
>> is aptly described by Steven A. Ludsin 
>> <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/opinion/l13hitler.html?ref=todayspaper>, 
>> a former member of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and 
>> the original United States Holocaust Memorial Council, in a letter 
>> published in yesterday’s /NY Times/:
>>
>>     It shows that warnings existed that when a powerful speaker
>>     advocated that the Jewish people must be removed from Germany as
>>     a matter of national policy, his sick ideas should have been
>>     taken more seriously. Perhaps in this modern age of instant
>>     communication we can anticipate the virus of hatred and act
>>     faster and more effectively. Words have power, and anyone who
>>     ignores this may allow history to be repeated. The current
>>     economic downturn is fertile ground for hatred to spread. Let’s
>>     be vigilant.
>>
>> It may start with the ravings of a lowly army corporal whom some find 
>> charismatic. As Mr. Ludsin notes, that’s when civilized society must 
>> intervene. If not, the fever might spread, and not only to 
>> marginalized sectors of the populace that are still considered by the 
>> unwary to be no threat. Without unequivocal condemnation of early 
>> manifestations of racism, the notion of forced transfer of an 
>> ethnically undesirable population will soon find expression in higher 
>> places, including prominent government ministers 
>> <http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AYt3fEaAZVwJ:www.pjvoice.com/v18/18003transfer.aspx+avigdor+transfer&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com%E2%80%9D+rel=>. 
>> Emboldened by silence, even supposedly liberal ministers 
>> <http://www.haaretz.com/news/livni-national-aspirations-of-israel-s-arabs-can-be-met-by-palestinian-homeland-1.259321> 
>> may jump on the bandwagon, hoping to curry favor with a population 
>> that is hurtling toward barbarity. The problem can be especially 
>> insidious when it occurs in a country believed to be a culturally 
>> advanced liberal democracy, as was Germany.
>>
>> Other red-flag factors include whether religious or cultural leaders 
>> <http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=43328> call for 
>> anti-miscegenation measures to protect the purity of one race from 
>> mixture of blood with the “underclass,” whether there is a 
>> long-standing tradition 
>> <http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HUlB5Uczm8cJ:electronicintifada.net/content/zionisms-dead-end/7592+jabotinsky+transfer&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com> 
>> of calling for transfer of the ethnically undesirable, and whether 
>> there is a prior record of success 
>> <http://www.google.com/search?q=palestinian+refugees&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=3Ba&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivnsub&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=23_2TbuCFcjl0QHs5tTrDA&ved=0CGMQsAQ&biw=755&bih=443> 
>> at such transfer, which would only feed the ugly conviction that it 
>> can be accomplished again. Ninety-two years have now passed since the 
>> Hitler letter, and 66 years since the end of his nightmarish regime. 
>> While the Holocaust is a historical event that is receding in the 
>> past, we can only thank vigilant people and organizations like Mr. 
>> Ludsin and the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, and 
>> presumably the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Abe Foxman and the 
>> Anti-Defamation League, who surely will be the first to call 
>> attention to any early warning signs of a recurrence. In the words of 
>> Mr. Ludsin, who asks that we all join in this effort, we must 
>> “anticipate the virus of hatred and act faster and more effectively. 
>> . . Let’s be vigilant.” Amen!
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Peace-discuss mailing list
>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>      
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>    

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20110615/2553f5f9/attachment-0001.html>