From: sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal)
Subject: Re: Irony continues in our history
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 14:56:53 GMT

In article <1992Aug17.123234.5970@cbnewsl.cb.att.com>, saal@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (samuel.saal) writes:
> 
> I strongly disagree that discussions of the "civil" war and other
> atrocities in what was once Yugoslavia should be posted in
> soc.culture.jewish.  However, this article, with its inane attempt to
> garner Jewish support and sympathies has a section relevant to Jews that
> deserves comment.
> 
> In article <1992Aug14.160353.24463@cco.caltech.edu>
> simic@pollux.ccsf.caltech.edu (Petar Simic) writes:
> 
> >  	My grandmother and her five kids had to flee Kosovo (southern Serbia)
> > when the war started, because the local Albanians who took ower the province
> > when Hitler came started killing the local Serbs (men), and my grandfather
> > had to flee. She had some gold and house which she sold and they left for
> > Kragujevac (average size town in Serbia proper). The family spent rest of
> > the war there, accepting in their small house two Jewish families who where
> > hiding from Nazies, and were eventually transfered to a safer place by
> > the Serbian royalists. The story about these times passed to me by my
> > grandmother and my mother is my personal insight into Serbia under Nazi
> > occupation, and the predominantly friendly attitude of Serbs toward Jews.
> > This is about personal responsibility part of your comment.
> 
> The fact that you can name someone who helped Jews in Yugoslavia during
> the Holocaust proves absolutely nothing about the overall treatment of
> Jews in that country.  After all, in Germany itself there were Germans
> who helped Jews.  This does not, in any way, absolve Germany of its
                                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> crime.  Talking about specific examples goes only as far as making
> those examples praiseworthy.  Those that did nothing are not
> particularly better than those in colusion for the Holocaust.

How about at least saying Nazi Germany instead of Germany?
Today's Germany is only culpable to the extent that they try to
whitewash history, or refuse to punish the guilty.  SInce they
haven't done any of this, we should all have no problem with
todays' Germany.  Individual Germans may still be acting like
Nazis towards African and Turkish residents, but that is not
all of Germany.

You can blame a government for its actions.
You can blame individuals or groups of individuals
acting collectively for their actions (like the Ustashe or the Nazi
party), but you can't blame a whole people for the actions of a
government or a group of individuals acting collectively.
Not every Croat is responsible for atrocities, and not every German
is responsible for Auschwitz.  Until we know that this Croatian
government is trying to assume the mantel of the Ustashe, or that
the Bosnian Muslims are trying to celebrate the collaboration of
some Bosnian Muslims with the Mufti and Hitler, we should not
paint them with the same brush that we paint the murderers of WWII.

Apropos this, there is an incident being reported in todays' N.Y.
local news where residents of Queens with German surnames have
begun receiving hate mail calling them Nazis' and threatening
to kill them in revenge for German atrocities.  There is no
room for this within Jewish society or Judaism.

No peace for war criminals, but let the rest live in peace.

		Seth Rosenthal

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own, not my employers'.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish