OTHER VIEWS
Lessons Of The Holocaust
T
he memory of the Holocaust
is turning into history. There
are continually fewer sur-
vivors alive. The proliferation of
Holocaust museums and Israel's Yad
Vashem counteract the tendency of
the largest mass murder and mass
expropriation in history being
denied or forgotten.
My personal attitude as time goes
by is becoming evermore intolerant
toward the Holocaust deniers. Men
like David Irving in England are, in
my view, on the same level as war
criminals.
For more than 30 years, I, along .
with most survivors — some of
them up until today- did not want
to talk about the subject at all. There
isn't a day in the past 60-odd years
that I do not think or remember in
some way the suffering of my par-
ents, family and innocent millions
— sometimes at night and some-
times during broad daylight.
By now, I have distributed, sold or
given away about 1,200 copies of my
book Defiling the Fates, created over
a period of eight years with the help
of my wife, Nancy. I speak regularly
to all kinds of groups at the
Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills as a docent guide
and survivor.
How can I possibly explain to an
American living in freedom and rela-
tive luxury the existence of a human
being under the rule of a tyrannical
dictatorship? It is impossible. The
listeners are so poorly prepared.
They have never suffered the fears,
indignities and hopelessness. Even
their comprehension and relation-
ship with history is negligible. It is
impossible to make them understand
the constant fear of the secret police,
the total overpowering force that
knows no appeal or human decency.
This held true as much under the
Stalinist Soviet system as under the
Hitlerian Nazis.
At Root Level
At the museum, we come to a point
of trying to explain the roots and
Henry Gleisner lives in Oxford.
JN
2/17
2005
32
causes of the tremendous success of
the Nazi party and its philosophy.
We remember that the Nazi Party in
Germany was freely elected. During
World War I, irresponsible and
plainly stupid generals (whose mon-
uments — be it British General
Haig or France's Petain or Foch —
we can find all over Europe) sacri-
ficed millions of soldiers in trench
warfare. The obviously criminal and
deranged Hitler came out of this
background.
Next, the ill-conceived Treaty of
Versailles forced huge reparations on
Germany, which was incapable of
fulfilling them. The following hyper-
inflation caused tremendous hard-
ship. This was followed by economic
depression and high unemployment.
All these conditions were cleverly
exploited by Nazi propaganda. But
having said this, other times and
other nations experienced similar
disasters and did not resort to mass
murder. So the questions still
remain. There are no excuses.
I remember having met on two
occasions the heroic Polish diplomat
Jan Karski, who was a member of
the government in exile of the Polish
Republic in London during the war.
He was smuggled into the Warsaw
Ghetto by the Polish resistance after
having parachuted into Nazi-occu-
pied Poland — and back out again
to London. He had a lengthy visit
with English Prime Minister
Winston Churchill and then with
President Roosevelt in Washington.
His description of his visit with
President Roosevelt was highly criti-
cal of the latter. This coincides with
a history of American anti-Semitism
unconcerned with the Nazi atrocities
in the 1930s.
This brings me to another deduc-
tion of roots, causes and guilt of the
Holocaust. The role of many leading
people played before my eyes: U.S.
Ambassador Joseph Kennedy in
London was one of the great sympa-
thizers of the Nazi regime. So were
aviator Charles Lindbergh of Detroit
and Father Charles Coughlin of
Royal Oak. In England, Churchill
fought throughout the 1930s against
the pacifist demoralizing
we turned upon our own
influences of the British gov-
timid non-participants and
ernment under Stanley
also gave them a good
Baldwin and Neville
thrashing. In the process of
Chamberlain. The Duke of
this fighting, one of my
Windsor, later King. Edward
Jewish colleagues whom I
V111, was also enamored in
knocked to the ground
the fascist image. Ditto
broke the little finger of his
HE NRY
France.
hand, and he came back to
GLEI SNER school the next day in a large
The succession of numer-
Corn munity
ous changing socialist gov-
white plaster cast, which
Persp ective
ernments culminated in the
caused a lot of grief to my
meeting in Munich by
parents and me.
betraying and giving away
My highly competitive
the independent democracy of
spirit in the Warsaw gymnasium fol-
Czechoslovakia to Hitler.
lowed. There, I did not allow any of
Let's not forget that the Jews also
the anti-Semitic pupils to denigrate
played a highly dismal role, starting
me. I was able to assemble good
with Jewish leaders in England
friends and won out in the end. All
opposing the Balfour Declaration in
this background came forcefully to
1917 (the cornerstone for the cre-
the fore under the later Soviet and
ation of the State of Israel), the con-
Nazi occupation. Even before the
tribution of large sums of money to
Nazis came to Lvov, where we had
the Nazi Party by Jewish German
escaped, I bought on the black mar-
industrialists and finally the timid
ket a semi-automatic pistol. At the
role of American Jewry in the
time, I hid it from my parents. But
Roosevelt administration. Of course,
after the Nazis marched in and their
the pacifist intellectuals also heavily
appalling atrocities bloodied the
influenced the Jewish people.
streets, I strapped my pistol on every
If not for the strong pacifist poli-
morning, even before I put the
tics of the 1930s, it would have been required and hated armband with
very easy to stop the German mad-
the blue Star of David on my left
man during his reoccupation of the
arm. At an age of 17, I determined
Rhineland or the occupation of
that should anyone arrest, capture or
Austria or the occupation of the
imprison me, I would shoot and kill
Sudetenland or the grab of
as many of my oppressors as I could
Czechoslovakia. How much culpabil- before succumbing. This was not a
ity has the pacifist movement accept- typical Jewish attitude.
ed for the disasters that came?
But there was a strong Jewish move-
ment — the Zionist movement that had
Early Exposure
given me this background. As any
My first confrontation with anti-
nation produces a certain few geniuses
Semitism in Austria under the
among their leaders, so did the Jews.
Austro-Fascist regime came when I
The man who foresaw most of our sad
was 11. Upon entering the gymnasi-
history and did all he could to subvert it
um, the first class was divided into
was Vladimir Jabotinsky. He and his fol-
two: 1A were Christians and 1B
lowers advocated resistance and fight for
were Jews. This was done to simplify
survival and our rights. He created a
the religious instruction that was
youth organization, Betar, patterned
part of the curriculum. It had the
upon the Boy Scouts, but with some
effect that after school, groups
militaristic overtones. The pacifists called
formed that insulted each other and
him a fascist, yet he was an exemplary
caused some nasty street fights. I
Democrat. His biography should be
participated with gusto, and we beat
much better known.
the heck out of the Class 1A on a
In conclusion, I carry my memories
couple of occasions.
with sadness, but I also can see some
After they disbursed and ran away,
frightening analogies today. O
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