This article originally appeared in The Polish-American Journal , Jan. 1994.
Violence inflicted by mankind upon mankind is nothing new.
Some might say that it is obscene to argue about who suffered more at the hands of the Nazis. But like it or not, there are groups arguing, and it has even appeared in these very pages. Many Polish groups have begun fighting for the recognition of the suffering of the Poles at the hands of Nazi Germany, implying, and in some cases even stating, that Poles and Jews were co-victims of the Holocaust. What makes the Jewish Holocaust unique is that an entire bureaucratic apparatus was created to define who they were, where they should live or be forced to live, and eventually, to see that they would live no more. This was not murder as a byproduct of war, not casualties as a result of skirmishes or partisan activities, but the end-result of an ideology that had for years been calling Jews vermin and also calling for their destruction.