Deny the Holocaust?!
What on earth?!
Ok, I'm usually not too trusting of the media. Why? Well, I'll read the newspapers and such sometimes, but I've too often found that the media only gives an incomplete, biased and often twisted or inaccurate version of the facts. And I've seen it happen first hand.
So, when this article caught my eye this afternoon, as I was perusing through the 24hr magazine, I had a moment of doubt. But if this is true, then, my goodness, what a joke!
The article reads: "Iran opened a conference yesterday gathering prominent Holocaust deniers that it said would examine whether the Second World War genocide of Jews took place... The hardliner president has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Organizers touted the conference as a scholarly gathering aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from western taboos, but the 67 participants from 30 countries were predominantly Holocaust deniers... " (24 hours, Tues. Dec. 12 2006, p22)
What baffles me is not the fact that these antisemitic people are getting together to try, as many have before, to discuss why Jews should be destroyed, or whatever else they'll be discussing. That doesn't shock me, although it does disgust me. I'm too well aware of the stories and situations surrounding that nation to be surprised by that. And the statement about wanting Israel wiped off the map doesn't surprise me either. Just in the last century, we've seen many hate stories between peoples and aweful genocides (think Apartheid in South Africa, the killing fields in Cambodia, Rwanda's Hutu vs Tutsi, Sudan and it's government led genocide, Iraq and Saddam Hussein...).
(a Cambodian mass grave, picture souvenir of the killing fields; the relatively small space had been the burial plot for 160 victims of genocide)
But what does surprise me is that people could try to deny something that happened so recently and that is so well documented by so many different sources around the world and by personal stories and testimonies. There are still people alive today who can attest to it all.
Obviously, the world would never take them seriously. I mean, the thought itself is simply ridiculous. Everyone knows.
But then again, do they really? A look at history lets you question that security.
How many times have people denied obvious facts? And it gets more complicated when you back up in time. Especially when there are no eye witnesses of the event still alive. How easy it can become to convince a whole generation that something happened, or never happened.
Obviously here, I'm thinking of Jesus. Even just a few generations after He was gone, already people were trying to deny He ever came. Yet there's more historical evidence and documents concerning Jesus, what He did and who He is than there is about Julius Caesar. Yet Julius Caesar is studied in history books, but Jesus is often considered an offense, at least here in Canada.
How can someone deny a detailed, historically documented, so recent Holocaust? I guess they would if it makes them feel uncomfortable. I wonder how many people deny things just 'cause it makes them uncomfortable. Living in denial can seem easier than facing the facts.
I can't deny facts, even when I don't like them. I guess I just don't understand how and why people could...
Ok, I'm usually not too trusting of the media. Why? Well, I'll read the newspapers and such sometimes, but I've too often found that the media only gives an incomplete, biased and often twisted or inaccurate version of the facts. And I've seen it happen first hand.
So, when this article caught my eye this afternoon, as I was perusing through the 24hr magazine, I had a moment of doubt. But if this is true, then, my goodness, what a joke!
The article reads: "Iran opened a conference yesterday gathering prominent Holocaust deniers that it said would examine whether the Second World War genocide of Jews took place... The hardliner president has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Organizers touted the conference as a scholarly gathering aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from western taboos, but the 67 participants from 30 countries were predominantly Holocaust deniers... " (24 hours, Tues. Dec. 12 2006, p22)
What baffles me is not the fact that these antisemitic people are getting together to try, as many have before, to discuss why Jews should be destroyed, or whatever else they'll be discussing. That doesn't shock me, although it does disgust me. I'm too well aware of the stories and situations surrounding that nation to be surprised by that. And the statement about wanting Israel wiped off the map doesn't surprise me either. Just in the last century, we've seen many hate stories between peoples and aweful genocides (think Apartheid in South Africa, the killing fields in Cambodia, Rwanda's Hutu vs Tutsi, Sudan and it's government led genocide, Iraq and Saddam Hussein...).
(a Cambodian mass grave, picture souvenir of the killing fields; the relatively small space had been the burial plot for 160 victims of genocide)But what does surprise me is that people could try to deny something that happened so recently and that is so well documented by so many different sources around the world and by personal stories and testimonies. There are still people alive today who can attest to it all.
Obviously, the world would never take them seriously. I mean, the thought itself is simply ridiculous. Everyone knows.
But then again, do they really? A look at history lets you question that security.
How many times have people denied obvious facts? And it gets more complicated when you back up in time. Especially when there are no eye witnesses of the event still alive. How easy it can become to convince a whole generation that something happened, or never happened.
Obviously here, I'm thinking of Jesus. Even just a few generations after He was gone, already people were trying to deny He ever came. Yet there's more historical evidence and documents concerning Jesus, what He did and who He is than there is about Julius Caesar. Yet Julius Caesar is studied in history books, but Jesus is often considered an offense, at least here in Canada.
How can someone deny a detailed, historically documented, so recent Holocaust? I guess they would if it makes them feel uncomfortable. I wonder how many people deny things just 'cause it makes them uncomfortable. Living in denial can seem easier than facing the facts.
I can't deny facts, even when I don't like them. I guess I just don't understand how and why people could...
posted by Noemie at 6:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home