From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish,soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.mideast,talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,soc.culture.soviet,soc.rights.human,soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Re: Jewish readers who find it inappropriate ...
Date: 20 Nov 92 19:56:09 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <1992Nov19.212258.24292@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> J.Theodore.Schuerzinger@dartmouth.edu (J. Theodore Schuerzinger) writes:
>In article <1992Nov19.152026.20758@urartu.sdpa.org>
>dbd@urartu.sdpa.org (David Davidian) writes:
>
>> [JTS] [Jewish readers who find it inappropriate that I compared the genocide
>> [JTS] against the Armenians to the Holocaust may flame me by email.]
>> 
>> The following is directed to those who would "flame" Mr. Schuerzinger:
>> 
>> Just what is this supposed to mean? What is inappropriate? Why should Mr.
>> Schuerzinger be flamed? Is it somehow sacrilegious for "Jewish readers" to 
>> compare the prototype of the Nazi Holocaust to the Nazi Holocaust?
>
>OK.  I didn't realize my comment would get those of Armenian extraction
>angry.  It's just that words like 'genocide' and 'holocaust' have been
>bandied about so often recently that they seem to have lost their
>meaning.  I was afraid that Jews, especially those directly affected by
>'the Holocaust' (capitalized) would find my use of the word to describe
>yet another circumstance where a large percentage of on ethnic group
>was murdered by another ethnic group inappropriate.
>
>IN MY OPINION, *some* Jews seem to think that the word 'holocaust'
>should be used only to describe what happened to the Jews during Adolf
>Hitler's reign, that this was the worst thing that ever happened, and
>that nobody else has a right to claim what happened to other ethnic
>groups was as bad as what happened in 'the Holocaust' (again
>capitalized).  To put it another way, I get the impression there are
>people who feel that using the word 'holocaust' (in lowercase) lessens
>the meaning of what happened in 'the Holocaust' (yet again
>capitalized).  I personally think that it's perfectly acceptable to
>call what happened under the Khmer Rouge 'the Cambodian holocaust', and
>even to call what happened to the Armenians under the Ottoman Turks
>'the Armenian holocaust'.  
>
>Maybe the last paragraph should have read, "Members of ethnic groups
>who think that I have lessend the gravity of what happened to their
>ancestors may flame me by email."  Is this generic enough to cover
>Jews, Armenians, and the rest of the ethnic groups that have suffered
>some sort of genocide?
>
>Again, all interested parties may flame me by email.
>
>
>--Ted Schuerzinger
>email: .zed@Dartmouth.EDU
>"I should have realized it would be bad vodka when all the label said
>was 'Russian Vodka'."

>Again, all interested parties may flame me by email.
>--Ted Schuerzinger

Ironic that the word flame should come up.  Holocaust specifically
refers to the image of the large scale cremation of victims.

Both the terms holocaust and genocide were coined as a result of what
happened under Hitler.  

Holocaust is an old generic word that acquired a new and especially 
pointed imagery and meaning. Genocide is a new word which has taken
on a generic meaning.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish,soc.culture.yugoslavia