Yesterday, as I said, the radio opera was “Carmen” by Georges Bizet. Though Bizet was French (some of the most Spanish of Spanish music written in the 19th century was written by Frenchmen) evryone thinks “Spain” about Carmen, and it is set in Spain – but Carmen is a Roma. So are her two closest friends. So are pretty much all the smugglers Romani. That kind of hit me in the face when i realized that yesterday was Holocaust Remembreance Day – and theRomani were as much a target of the Nazis as the Jews. Trying to read up in the Roma quickly is a little like trying to collect syrup in your hand – a little sticks, but more slips out. They are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, but they also live all over the world. They have been called “gypsies,” but they are not from Egypt. They have been called “Bohemians,” but they are not from what is now Czechoslovakia. Neither are they from Romania, but originally from northwest India. They have endured slavery along with other forms of abuse. I’m linking to both Steve Schmidt’s Substack – it’s not new material, but a collection of links to his earlier writings on antisemitism – and to The Conversation, to an article which addresses some of the ways in which the Jews and the Roms were linked by the Nazis (I needed a hanky. But it’s all very well to mourn the lost – it doesn’t do too much to prevent it ever happening again.)
Heather Cox Richardson’s Friday night letter did quite a decent job of summarizing highlight from the week, including a couple I hadn’t heard. If you have time, I recommend it.
Over the weekend, someone on DU shared the information that under New York law, you can appeal a civil suit, but if you do, you must first deposit the full judgment plus a small percentage with the court. I don’t know whether the legislators were thinking of interest, or court costs, or justice delayed – possibly all three. But if Trump** is going to appeal the most recent judgment, he will have to deposit $99 million with the court.
Yesterday, I spent a fair amount of time struggling with the internet and email – trying to get paperwork to my doctor’s office to get my car registration renewed. His email account is set to reject any email from someone he hasn’t approved. He did approve me,but my email was not going through. Thinking maybe it was the number of attachments, I sent seven separate ones today – one for each attachment. But it was late in the business day, so I’ll have to check again today. They were all jpgs – before retiring I converted them all into pdfs in case I have to resend again. If I can’t get it done in time, I’m going to go see Virgil Sunday anyway (I did get confirmation yesterday; I looked for it Monday but of course that was a holiday.) In less personal news (but still kind of personal, since we all love the Carters), Rosalynn has been diagnosed with dementtia. She is still at home with Jimmy and is able to see loved ones and enjoy the spring weather.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
NMAI (National Museum of the American Indian) – Why We Serve
The National Museum of the American Indian is one of many institutions which come under the purview of the Smithsonian. There isn’t a lot of information about Native Americans that you won’t find somewhere under its umbrella. “Why We Serve” is a website dedicated to Native Americans in the military – active duty, veterans, and war dead. It’s an online exhibition that you can wader through, just as you would wander through a physocal exhibition on site. I was pleased to learn about NAWW – Native American Women Warrriors – group specifically for women veterans who are native Americans. The Museum’s “Object of the Month” for May is a blue jingle dress worn by Mitchelene BigMan (Apsáalooke [Crow]/Hidatsa) during the 2013 presidential Inaugural Parade. You’ll find it (along with three others) under the topic “War and Peace.”
The Warning (Steve Schmidt) – The distortion and delusion of the MAGA/GOP view
Quote – The greatest crime in human history began with the rise of a far-right political party of losers, crackpots, opportunists and alienation that sowed division, hate, intolerance and grievance against its enemies, status and condition. The Jews were the target of its scapegoating, hate, conspiracies and terror. Ultimately, an extremist political party became the State and then the nation. Hitler’s rise was abetted by countless small acts of moral appeasement and accommodation by people who were appalled by him. Ambition and cynicism fueled a merger of industry with extremism and hate with national identity. All of it was sustained by propaganda, lies, and conspiracy theories. Before it was over human civilization nearly fell. Click through for column. You’ll probably have to click on “Let me read it first.” It isn’t the full column, since I’m not a paid subscriber, but it’s enough to sound an alarm.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Last week was Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and I was planning to use this article, but the fact that is was also income tax deadline weekend caused me to save it a week so that there would be less distraction and people would be able to think about it – about what we can do every day, to survive fascism and to help others survive fascism.
Some of us, of course, are living under fascism more than others. California and Florida may both have Disney theme parks, but living in one is a very different experience from living in the other – and that is particularly true for marginalized groups, but there is some effect on everyone. No one survives fascism alone.
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Defying the Holocaust didn’t just mean uprising and revolt: Remembering Jews’ everyday resistance on Yom HaShoah and year-round
Samuel Willenberg, the last survivor of the Treblinka uprising, poses for a picture at his art studio in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2010. AP Photo/Oded Balilty
Richard Glazar insisted that no one survived the Holocaust without help. To this Prague-born Jewish survivor, who endured Nazi imprisonment at Treblinka and Theresienstadt, plus years in hiding, it was impossible to persevere without others’ support. Glazar conceded that some of his fellow Treblinka survivors were “loners,” but he nevertheless believed that they “survived because they were carried by someone, someone who cared for them as much, or almost as much as for themselves.”
Carrying someone else took many forms. For fellow Treblinka prisoner Samuel Goldberg, a Polish Jew born in a small town called Bagatelle, it was the moment the women of his work detail stood up to a guard to save Goldberg’s life. For those around Glazar, it was the times he brought them more to eat because his position as a fence builder gave him chances to buy food outside the camp. Still more prisoners benefited from a friend willing to literally hold them up during roll call so no guard would notice they were sick – a near-certain death sentence.
In a place meant to destroy all Jewish life, the smallest acts of support and comfort were resistance.
On Aug. 2, 1943, the Treblinka II extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland was the site of one of the most dramatic acts of armed rebellion throughout the Shoah, as the Holocaust is called in Hebrew. Several hundred prisoners managed to escape, though most were recaptured and killed. Nonetheless, at least 70 people survived to recount what happened there. Without their actions, the camp might have continued to operate, and we would likely know next to nothing of its history.
In years of research on this extermination camp, I’ve come to place as much importance on the long trail of smaller acts as on the famous day itself. Long before the revolt, resistance was commonplace at Treblinka. It had to be. Here and elsewhere, prisoner revolt would have been impossible without those everyday acts of support that laid foundations for more.
A clandestine photograph of the burning death camp Treblinka II, taken by eyewitness Franciszek Ząbecki during the uprising on Aug. 2, 1943. Franciszek Ząbecki/Wikimedia Commons
Defiance and dignity
Between July 1942 and November 1943, Nazi Germany killed as many as 925,000 people at Treblinka II. The vast majority of these victims were Jews, though the regime also murdered several thousand Romani people there.
This terrible place was unlike most other Nazi camps in that its sole purpose was the destruction of life. There were no slave labor industries or construction projects. The Jews responsible for the revolt were among the several hundred men and women kept alive to maintain facilities, sort the belongings of the dead, and dispose of the bodies. As the historian Michael Berenbaum put it, Treblinka was “a factory whose end product was dead Jews.”
In such a hell, life itself is resistance, but those held at Treblinka pushed back against Nazi designs for their destruction in every way possible. Early organized efforts took the form of escapes to warn other Jews. Abraham Krzepicki, for example, escaped Treblinka and went back to the Warsaw Ghetto to tell of what the camp really was – and later died there, fighting in the ghetto’s 1943 uprising.
Deportation to Treblinka from the Jewish ghetto in Siedlce, Poland, in 1942. Wikimedia Commons
These messengers of truth helped expose Nazi lies and give others the chance to try to go into hiding, fight or jump from trains.
Still, most people targeted by the Third Reich could not avoid transport to Treblinka or other camps even if they knew what awaited them there. For some, resistance was the way they carried themselves on the way to a certain death, such as saying prayers like the Shema Yisrael. Condemned for being Jewish, they steadfastly remained so to the end.
Samuel Willenberg, who was the last survivor of the Treblinka revolt when he died in 2016, remembered how a young woman named Ruth Dorfmann asked only if the gas would hurt, and calmly acted with such unshakable dignity that he felt compelled many years later to sculpt her final moments.
‘Choiceless choices’
Court testimonies, oral histories, survivors’ memoirs and other sources show that over months of concerted planning, Treblinka prisoners’ “Organizing Committee” laid the groundwork for the August rebellion by building a network of trusted men and women. Organizers found ways to place them in jobs that gave prisoner planners complete access to the camp.
That process was a winding and perilous road. Three earlier plans failed, and Nazi guards killed many Jews they suspected of resistance. It took at least eight months of concerted effort to finally pull off the revolt.
Though resistance at Treblinka eventually meant armed revolt, it could not have achieved that end without the countless little rebellions that came before. The same was true in Warsaw and throughout Nazi-controlled Europe. At its core, resistance is the way a person or a people chooses to stand against the challenges thrown at them. That holds true even if those options are what Holocaust scholar Lawrence Langer called “choiceless choices” between one terrible outcome and another.
In the Warsaw Ghetto, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were crammed into inhumane conditions, residents held each other up by establishing soup kitchens and clandestine schools, organizing the removal of waste to prevent disease, and setting up everyday events to help people feel normal, even for one moment.
A piece of bread, equivalent of a daily food ration in the Warsaw Ghetto, displayed during a commemoration of residents’ suffering in the ghetto. Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via GettyImages
Warsaw Jews worked to archive what they endured and documented the medical effects of the starvation they faced. Both acts demonstrated hope for a future that would remember their suffering and use its lessons to ease the pain of others.
Yom HaShoah, the annual day of remembrance for the Holocaust established by the Israeli government, occurs on the 27th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar: the start of major fighting during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Thousands died in the Germans’ brutal retaliation.
A more complete picture
The full name of Yom HaShoah is “Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day” – which, along with its tie to the Warsaw Ghetto, links remembrance with resistance in no uncertain terms. This pairing held great importance for Israel’s identity as a new state and for a people so deeply wounded by years of terror.
Whenever we remember the Holocaust, we should remember the small rebellions, the individual stands, and the little acts of caring that Glazar found so important. Only in seeing that wider picture of everyday struggles can we understand the true variety and scope of resistance.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, if we haven’t already begun thinking about what we can do, not just to survive but to help as many to survive as possible, the time is now. Before the camps open. Because we don’t want it to get to that point.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Holocaust Remembrance Day was this week. The present day is a time in which Holocaust denial is at an all-time high (and trending higher.) I’m reminded of a remark by C. S. Lewis, that we often fall into the error of thinking of a societal change as a moral improvement (or the reverse) when in fact is is merely a change in common knowledge. For instance, some people think we are better than our ancestors because we no longer kill witches. But that is because we no longer believe witches exist. If we still believed that there were people who had teamed up with the devil to do as much harm as possible, we might well agree that, if anyone deserved the death penalty, these traitors to humanity did.
So it is critical, in order to be a good person, to be knowledgeable about facts, and not to believe lies. The number and the nature of deaths we have experienced from CoVid demonstrates that convincingly – to anyone who knows the facts. The suggestions here are valid for anyone who does not want to be deceived, and for educators who do not want their students to be deceived.
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Combating antisemitism today: Holocaust education in the era of Twitter and TikTok
Technology is increasingly important in Holocaust education – seen here in ‘The Journey Back’ within The Richard and Jill Chaifetz Family Virtual Reality Gallery at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Courtesy of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, CC BY-NC-ND
In the era of social media, antisemitism and Holocaust denial are no longer hidden in the margins, spewed by fringe hate groups. From Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – and NBA player Kyrie Irving to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, well-recognized personalities have echoed antisemitic ideas, often online.
Beyond high-profile figures, there are clear signs that antisemitism is becoming more mainstream. In 2021, using the most recent data available, the Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reached an all-time high. Eighty-five percent of Americans believe at least one anti-Jewish trope, according to another ADL survey, and about 20% believe six or more tropes – a sharp increase from just four years before. In addition, Jewish college students increasingly report feeling unsafe, ostracized or harassed on campus.
Rather than teaching the Holocaust as an isolated event, educators must grapple with how it connects to antisemitism past and present. That means adapting to how people learn and live today: online.
Toxic information landscape
The online ecosystem where today’s antisemitism flourishes is a Wild West of information and misinformation that is largely unmonitored, distributed in an instant, and posted by anyone. Social media posts and news feeds are frequently filtered by algorithms that narrow the content users receive, reinforcing already held beliefs.
According to a 2022 report by the United Nations, 17% of public TikTok content related to the Holocaust either denied or distorted it. The same was true of almost 1 in 5 Holocaust-related Twitter posts and 49% of Holocaust content on Telegram.
An emerging danger is artificial intelligence technology. New AI resources offer potential teaching tools – but also the menace of easily spread and unmonitored misinformation. For example, character AI and Historical Figures Chat allow you to “chat” with a historical figure, including those associated with the Holocaust: from victims like Holocaust diarist Anne Frank to perpetrators such as Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s minister of propaganda.
These sites come with warnings that characters’ responses could be made up and that users should check for historical accuracy, but it is easy to be misled by inaccurate answers.
Another potential AI hazard is deepfake videos. Media experts are warning about the potential for destabilizing “truth decay,” the inability to know what is real and what is fake, as the amount of synthetic content multiplies. Holocaust scholars are preparing to combat how historical sources and educational materials may be manipulated by deepfakes. There is particular concern that deepfakes will be used to manipulate or undercut survivors’ testimony.
Media literacy
Much of my scholarship tackles contemporary approaches to teaching the Holocaust – for example, the need to rethink education as the number of Holocaust survivors who are still able to tell their stories rapidly declines. Addressing today’s toxic information landscape presents another fundamental challenge that requires innovative solutions.
As a first step, educators can promote media literacy, the knowledge and skills needed to navigate and critique online information, and teach learners to approach sources with both healthy criticism and an open mind. Key strategies for K-12 students include training them to consider who is behind particular information and what evidence is provided and to investigate the creators of an unknown online source by seeing what trusted websites say about its information or authors.
Media literacy also entails identifying a source’s author, genre, purpose and point of view, as well as reflecting on one’s own point of view. Finally, it is important to trace claims, quotes and media back to the original source or context.
Applying these skills to a Holocaust unit might focus on recognizing the implicit stereotypes and misinformation online sources often rely on and paying attention to who these sources are and what their purpose is. Lessons can also analyze how social media enablesHolocaust denial and investigate common formats for online antisemitism, such as deepfake videos, memes and troll attacks.
Learning in the digital age
Holocaust educators can also embrace new technologies, rather than just lament their pitfalls. For example, long after survivors die, people will be able to “converse” with them in museums and classrooms using specially recorded testimonies and natural language technology. Such programs can match a visitor’s questions with relevant parts of prerecorded interviews, responding almost as though they were talking to the visitor in person.
There are also immersive virtual reality programs that combine recorded survivor testimonies with VR visits to concentration camps, survivors’ hometowns and other historical sites. One such exhibition is “The Journey Back” at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Not only can VR experiences transport viewers to such sites in a more realistic way than traditional lessons, but they also allow learners to partially decide how to interact with the virtual environment. In interviews for my current research, viewers report Holocaust VR experiences make them feel emotionally engaged with a survivor.
Society’s ‘family tree’
People often learn about themselves by exploring their family trees, examining heirlooms passed down from ancestors and telling stories around the dinner table – helping people make sense of who they are.
The same principle applies to understanding society. Studying the past provides a road map of how people and prior events shaped today’s conditions, including antisemitism. It is important for young people to understand that antisemitism’s horrific history did not originate with the Holocaust. Lessons that lead students to reflect on how indifference and collaboration fueled hate – or how everyday people helped stop it – can inspire them to speak up and act in response to rising antisemitism.
Holocaust education is not a neutral endeavor. As survivor and scholar Elie Wiesel said when accepting his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.”
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, I’m confident that techniques like these will work – if they are used. My concern is that too much education in America (and quite possibly elsewhere, but I can’t speak to that) is in the hands of people whi emphatically do not want students to know the truth. I fear that these techniques will (to paraphrase Chesterton) not be tried and found wanting, but will be found diffucult and left untried.
Forgive me for a little rant here on a pet peeve of mine. I am well aware that when someone uses the phrase “It’s all about the Benjamins,” they are referring to Benjamin Franklin, whose face appears on our $100 bill, currently the largest denomination in circulation. But I am also aware that “Benjamin” is the name of one of the sons of Jacon, and is therefore the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. I am also aware that Judah P. Benjamin, a Jew, was an American (later Confederate) statesman, resigning the position of U. S. Senator to become the Confederate Attorney General (later Secretary of War, and still later Secretary of State.) I don’t know wht we cannot, if we want to use the colorful phrase, start saying, “It’s all about the Franklins” instead. Sometimes it isn’t what you say that matters – it’s what others hear.
For further reading, Steve Schmidt has made available in one place six essays he has written over the years on the Holocaust.
Yesterday, I went to visit Virgil – or tried to – but my car broke down and I had to get a tow and a ride home from my roadside assistance program. That went reasonably smoothly, and I have sent an email to the mechanics (they will have it by the time you read this) and a “JPay letter” to Virgil – that is a message which is electronically transmittied to the facility, printed out, and given to the offender – it’s the fastest means of communication from me to him, since I can’t call him, he has to call me. It is faster than snail mail, but not as much as I would wish at times like this.
Cartoon – 01 O2 RTL
Short Takes –
Crooks and Liars – Louie Gohmert Melts Down After Dem ‘Impugns’ His Lies
Quote – Rep. Cicilline then told Republicans to read the documents and stop making false claims. “Good luck with that,” the chairwoman said. This set Louie Gohmert’s hair on fire. “The gentleman … is not allowed under the rules to impugn false statements by this side,” Gohmert said. Click through for full extent of – whatever it is. Sometimes one wonders whether they are delusional or just plain dumb. Louie is delusional – but this was just plain dumb. [The meeting chair at that point was Madeleine Dean (D-PA)]
Daily Beast – Dr. Oz’s Turkish Nationalist Pals Living in His Secret N.J. Condo
Quote – Dr. Mehmet Oz owns an undisclosed apartment in New Jersey that houses close associates of his who are linked to groups that have denied the ethnic cleansing which occurred in the formative years of the modern Turkish state. Bergen County records show that since 2006 Oz and his wife have owned the condominium in the borough of Fairview, a seven-minute drive from their mansion overlooking the Hudson River, where the county sent the unit’s property tax bill as recently as this year. Yet this apartment is oddly absent from the otherwise exhaustive disclosure Oz made in April as a candidate for the U.S. senator from Pennsylvania…. What was possible to ascertain is who those tenants are: a pair of apparent longtime friends deeply involved in Turkish nationalist activism and connected to groups that have fought to prevent the United States from recognizing the extermination of Armenians on Turkish territory during World War I—which Oz himself has refused to describe as a genocide, despite a consensus among respected historians. Click through for more. Yes, Republicans lie, and no, other Republicans don’t care. But this is like denying the Holocaust happened. People like that are dangers to democracy.
Yesterday, I heard from WWWendy (we are still working on my getting ownership of the blog esablished at BlueHost) She added a personal update:
Right now, I am continuing work as a caregiver – I care for two clients – one with alzheimers and one with dementia. Both will probably need to be placed soon so I want to stay with them until the transition is made. What will I do after that? Not really sure- guess I will deal with that when the time comes. Give my best to everyone.
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Crooks and Liars – Capitol Rioter Invoked ‘Game Of Thrones’: ‘I Choose Violence’
Quote – “In stating, ‘I choose violence’, Cersei Lannister embraced — and then carried out — mass murder to achieve her political ends,” the document adds. “In the context of Caplinger posting this just two days after January 6, Caplinger’s adoption of this quote is alarming and provides insight into his mental state and intent in storming the Capitol.” Click through for story. Maybe I should try to figure out the poll app so we can vote on who is stupider – this dude or the ones who called the “Lost and Founf.”
Mother Jones – Oath Keepers Anticipated “a Bloody and Desperate Fight” to Overturn the Election for Trump
Quote – “[Edwards] Vallejo and his co-conspirators coordinated at least three regional QRF teams stationed at a Comfort Inn in Arlington, Virginia, to support the co-conspirators’ plot and the January 6 Capitol attack. The QRF teams guarded an arsenal of firearms and related equipment and were prepared to speed those weapons into the hands of co-conspirators on the ground in Washington, D.C., when directed by Rhodes or other conspiracy leaders.” Click through for details. We are not making this up. I don’t understand why more people aren’t terrified.
The Jerusalem Post – Biden references Colleyville in Holocaust Remembrance Day statement
Quote – “Today, and every day, we have a moral obligation to honor the victims, learn from the survivors, pay tribute to the rescuers, and carry forth the lessons of last century’s most heinous crime,” said Biden. “From the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, to a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, we are continually and painfully reminded that hate doesn’t go away; it only hides.” The president stressed the need to teach accurately about the Holocaust and to push back against attempts to ignore, deny, distort, and revise history, making reference to a US co-sponsored United Nations resolution to combat Holocaust denial. Click through for more. Yes, I’m a day late. It isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last. In any case, as Joe said, “and every day.”
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