The US and the Holocaust

[BoSoxGal]

I hope others will watch this brilliant Ken Burns docuseries. It’s a painful reminder of who we were, and who we still are - many of us, anyway. Too many.

[Burning Petard]

I leave it as an exercise for the student: check the word 'nativist' in a good dictionary.

That is the USofA for most of hits history and most of its population. The national motto should be 'I got mine so you can get the hell out'

If we are 'a Christian nation' I would prefer we were a nation that shared the religion of that itinerant carpenter from Nazareth.

snailgate

[Sue U]

Haven't seen it and frankly not sure I want to; a friend has been urging me to see it and also make sure my passport is up to date (and suggesting it is too late in any event). I already have enough issues with the state of American politics and I really don't need any more panic-inducing fare. I will probably watch it anyway at some point.

[BoSoxGal]

It’s the usual dispassionate presentation of factual history that Burns is well known to produce, so if it induces panic it’s only because the reality was so horrific. And it was.

I watched episode 2 last night which covered from kristallnacht through the expansion into Eastern Europe and the rise of the final solution. Burns included video footage taken by German soldiers in the act of filling mass graves one group of Jews at a time by firing squad. There is archival footage from inside the Warsaw ghetto. The stories of survivors and the family in the old country who couldn’t get out - including the Franks, who made desperate application for visas to the US and were denied like so many others.

It sickened me particularly to see how many countries, including the USA, that would take Jewish children but not their families.

I spent a lot of time crying in therapy about it this morning. As a more than half German person, I have always felt guilt and shame since I was a kid and first learned what the Holocaust was. And then learned that my father was a Nazi sympathizer- that I’m descended from people who would likely mostly have been enthusiastic participants in the Reich. It’s also why the former president’s mere existence had me living with clenched gut and sickening anxiety for years and why I still feel that in this uncertainty we’re in. Atrocities are so very possible but I think humans are very good at choosing not to believe that so this program is important especially for younger generations to see when there is so much evidence that many don’t even know about the Holocaust (how is that possible?!).

One of the survivors who was in last night’s episode talked about how even in the middle of it as they were being deported and put into ghettos and slaughtered the Jews couldn’t believe what was happening to them - so how could families and strangers a world away, safe and snug in their homes, even begin to grasp the horror?

Humans are capable of such atrocities that they struggle even to grasp the depths of their own depravity.

[MajGenl.Meade]

It’s the usual dispassionate presentation of factual history that Burns is well known to produce

Yeah, his tedious love affair with Confederate apologist Shelby Foote which permeated his Civil War series sure was "factual". I've not given more than a coupla episode looks at anything he's done since and I won't bother with this one. I doubt he'll produce anything that's not readily available elsewhere and probably in more important detail. Pompous little shit.

[BoSoxGal]

Unknown amateur historian trashes Ken Burns. Yeah, whatever.

[Bicycle Bill]

Just wanted to point out here that Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona has experimented with open-air 'tent city'-like mass detention facilities for prisoners as far back as the 1990s (the last one wasn't shut down until 2017!) , and is on record as calling them 'concentration camps'.  And the busloads and airlifts of busloads of 'undesirable' immigrants, asylum seekers, or homeless to other locations by the governors of Texas and Florida calls to mind scenes of Jews and others being loaded into boxcars in Europe as they, too, were hustled away, "out of sight, out of mind".

Mark my words, a new Holocaust, courtesy of the RepubliKKKan Party, is just warming up. And while the Jews are not the targeted ones — yet — they would be wise to keep looking over their shoulders.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

New York, NY, April 26, 2022 … Antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the United States in 2021, with a total of 2,717 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reported to ADL (the Anti-Defamation League). This represents the highest number of incidents on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979 – an average of more than seven incidents per day and a 34 percent increase year over year.

ADL’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, issued today, found that antisemitic incidents reached a high watermark across virtually every category. Attacks against Jewish institutions, including Jewish community centers (JCCs) and synagogues, were up by 61 percent, incidents at K-12 schools increased 106 percent, and incidents on college campuses rose 21 percent.

Assaults – considered the most serious incident type because it involves person-on-person physical violence triggered by antisemitic animus – increased 167 percent, jumping to a total of 88 reports in 2021 from 33 in 2020. Incidents of harassment were up 43 percent, and acts of antisemitic vandalism rose 14 percent.

A substantial surge was reported during the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas. There was a staggering 148 percent increase in reports of antisemitic incidents that month when compared in May 2020, as tensions were high and hundreds of anti-Israel protests took place in dozens of U.S. cities. As Jewish individuals were violently beaten in the streets from New York to Los Angeles, a total of 387 incidents were reported that month with 297 of the incidents occurring after May 10, the date marking the official start of military action.

“While we have always seen a rise in antisemitic activity during periods of increased hostilities between Israel and terrorist groups, the violence we witnessed in America during the conflict last May was shocking,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “Jews were being attacked in the streets for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish, and it seemed as if the working assumption was that if you were Jewish, you were blameworthy for what was happening half a world away.”

The May conflict represented only one of several spikes reported throughout the year and, overall, anti-Israel sentiment did not account for the lion’s share of incidents in 2021. In fact, antisemitic acts also spiked in November and December, times when there was no similar triggering factor. Nearly 18 percent of the incidents last year – at least 484 – were attributable to actions by domestic extremists.

“When it comes to antisemitic activity in America, you cannot point to any single ideology or belief system, and in many cases, we simply don’t know the motivation,” said Greenblatt. “But we do know that Jews are experiencing more antisemitic incidents than we have in this country in at least 40 years, and that’s a deeply troubling indicator of larger societal fissures.”

Major Findings:

In 2021, ADL counted a total of 2,717 antisemitic incidents across the U.S. This represents a 34 percent increase from the 2,026 incidents recorded in 2020 and is the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979. The Audit classifies incidents into three categories:

Assault: A total of 88 incidents were categorized as assault, defined as cases where Jewish people (or people perceived to be Jewish) were targeted with physical violence accompanied by evidence of antisemitic animus. Antisemitic assaults increased 167 percent from the 33 reported in 2020. Eleven of the assaults in 2021 were perpetrated with deadly weapons. The 88 incidents of assault included 131 victims. Fortunately, no fatalities linked to antisemitic assaults were reported in 2021.
Harassment: Of the total, 1,776 incidents were categorized as harassment, defined as cases where one or more Jewish people (or people perceived to be Jewish) were harassed with antisemitic slurs, stereotypes or conspiracy theories. Acts of harassment increased 43 percent, up from 1,242 incidents in 2020.
Vandalism: Another 853 incidents were categorized as vandalism, defined as cases where property was damaged along with evidence of antisemitic intent. Acts of antisemitic vandalism increased 14 percent from the 751 incidents reported in 2020. Swastikas, which are generally interpreted as symbols of antisemitic hatred, were present in more than two-thirds (578) of these incidents.
Incidents were reported in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. The states with the highest number of incidents were New York (416), New Jersey (370), California (367), Florida (190), Michigan (112) and Texas (112). Combined, these states accounted for 58 percent of the total incidents.

In 2021, there were 525 reported incidents at Jewish institutions such as synagogues, Jewish community centers and Jewish schools, an increase of 61 percent from 327 in 2020. Of the total, 413 were incidents of harassment, 101 were incidents of vandalism and 11 were assaults. About one-quarter of the harassment incidents (111) were linked to anti-Zionist or anti-Israel sentiments.

ADL’s Audit recorded 484 antisemitic incidents attributed to known extremist groups or individuals inspired by extremist ideology. This represents 18 percent of the total number of incidents. White supremacist groups or extremists were responsible for 422 antisemitic propaganda distributions, a 52 percent increase year over year.

A total of 345 antisemitic incidents in 2021 involved references to Israel or Zionism, compared to 178 in 2020. Of those, 68 appeared in the form of white supremacist propaganda efforts, which attempt to foment anti-Israel and antisemitic beliefs.

A total of 494 incidents were identified through newly established partnerships between ADL and several Jewish organizations, including the Community Security Initiative (CSI), Community Security Service (CSS), Hillel International, Secure Community Network (SCN), Union of Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. This shared reporting represented 18 percent of the total incidents. Even without improved reporting through cooperative partnerships, the 2021 Audit numbers still would have been the highest recorded by ADL, with 2,223 incidents.

The ADL Center on Extremism has reflected the complete 2021 data, as well as data from the previous three years, on its H.E.A.T. Map, an interactive online tool that allows users to geographically chart antisemitic incidents and events nationally and regionally.

Israel-Hamas Conflict Stokes Antisemitism in U.S.

On May 10, 2021, fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas with heightened tensions and violence in some Israeli cities with large Arab and Jewish populations. As the crisis unfolded, there was a surge of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish communities and individuals in the U.S. and around the world.

Between May 10 and the end of the month, ADL tracked a 141 percent increase in incidents over the same time period in 2020. There were 211 cases of harassment, 71 cases of vandalism and 15 assaults reported across the U.S., and nearly 40 percent of the total incidents that month included explicit references to Israel or Zionism.

At least eight of the antisemitic assaults were motivated by anti-Israel or anti-Zionist sentiment. For example, on May 18, patrons at a Los Angeles restaurant were attacked by individuals who arrived in cars carrying Palestinian flags who said, “You should be ashamed of yourselves” after the customers confirmed they were Jewish. The Palestinian supporters pushed one of the victims to the ground and kicked him. Soon after, a brawl erupted, and subsequent news reports indicated the attackers also hurled anti-Jewish slurs. On May 20, in Manhattan, a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was attacked by a group of individuals who yelled anti-Jewish and anti-Israel slurs while they punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and beat him.

Methodology

The ADL Audit includes both criminal and non-criminal acts of harassment and intimidation, including distribution of hate propaganda, threats and slurs, as well as vandalism and assault. Compiled using information provided by victims, law enforcement and community leaders, and evaluated by ADL’s professional staff, the Audit provides a regular snapshot of one specific aspect of a nationwide problem while identifying possible trends or changes in the types of activity reported. This information assists ADL in developing and enhancing its programs to counter and prevent the spread of antisemitism and other forms of bigotry.

The Audit offers a snapshot of one of the ways American Jews encounter antisemitism, but a full understanding of antisemitism in the U.S. requires other forms of analysis as well, including public opinion polling, assessments of online antisemitism and examinations of extremist activity, all of which ADL offers in other reports, such as ADL Global 100, Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience, Survey on Jewish Americans’ Experiences with Antisemitism, Murder and Extremism, and the ADL Survey of American Attitudes Toward Jews.

[BoSoxGal]

The Jews are the number one target of white supremacists still, as it ever was. Spend ten minutes reading at even mainstream right wing forums like USMessageBoard and somebody will have blamed Soros and his Jew friends for the influx of immigrants of color into the USA. The right wing in America today hates Jews as much as Adolf hated Jews - it’s a profound sickness that has been carefully taught to generations of younger Americans by the parents and grandparents who were America First Nazi sympathizers not even a hundred years ago. One of the things we should never forget is that Germans are the single largest ethnic group in America, still today.

Great Replacement Theory: Here’s What Jews Need to Know About White Supremacy

Flaming swastika
Right before a car fatally plowed into protesters near a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, neo-Nazis chanted “Jews will not replace us.”

The verb “replace” refers to the Great Replacement, also known as white replacement theory or white genocide theory. The conspiracy theory, rooted in white supremacist ideology, claims there is an intentional effort, led by Jews, to promote mass immigration, intermarriage, and other efforts that would lead to the “extinction of whites.”

Its inspiration has been cited in the online manifestos of shooters at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where 11 worshipers were murdered, mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand where 51 died, a Walmart in El Paso, Texas where 23 people died, and most recently a supermarket in a predominately Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York where 10 people were killed.

In his manifesto to explain the attack, the Buffalo shooting suspect blamed Jews for pushing out whites and accused Jews of believing they are superior because they call themselves “God’s chosen people.” “Why attack immigrants when the Jews are the issue?” the suspect asks rhetorically. His answer: “They can be dealt with in time.”

“If we care about fighting antisemitism, we must care about fighting anti-Black racism, and vice versa,” said Holly Huffnagle, U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism for American Jewish Committee (AJC). “The future of our democracy and the safety of our communities depends on it.”

Here is what Jews need to know.

Jews Top the Target List
Jews are a primary target of the white supremacist movement. “It’s those antisemitic tropes that Jews are manipulative and controlling and hold the power,” said Natalia Mahmud, AJC Associate Director of U.S. Muslim-Jewish Relations. Black people and other minorities are the tools used by the so-called “Jewish puppeteers” to unseat the white race from the proverbial throne, white supremacists believe.

According to a 2021 study of right-wing domestic terrorist attacks from the 1980s onward, the Global Network on Extremism & Technology found that in every case the perpetrators believed in at least one Jewish conspiracy theory.

Indeed, Arthur Jipson, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Dayton, said antisemitism is the most enduring component of the white supremacist worldview. Though the linguistic flourishes vary, Jipson said, today’s white supremacist propaganda echoes 12th Century condemnations of Jews such as the charge of blood libel, the widespread blame of Jews for unconnected murders and other horrific crimes. But in some white nationalist circles, that condemnation is not as blatant. While white supremacists condemn “ZOG,” or the “Zionist-occupied government,” white nationalists often use more coded language such as “an international conspiracy to undermine white civilization.”

Murdering Jews Is a Call to Arms
For the white nationalist and white supremacist movements, a murderous attack on a Jewish institution is one way to kill Jews, but also can serve as a call to arms. “White nationalists believe there is an inevitable conflict coming – a race war – that has been building for years, if not centuries,” Jipson said. “They envision ‘the Day of the Rope,’ when white people who have been asleep will wake up and become politically, socially, and militarily active and overthrow the chains of their oppressors and engage in acts of violence on a huge scale that heretofore we have not seen.” Both shooters in Pittsburgh and Poway, California believed their attacks would be the spark for this anticipated revolution.

Born in the United States
White nationalism is the main byproduct of white supremacy. The movement, which focuses on preserving the political power and authority of the white race, originated in the U.S. and provided powerful inspiration for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. “It was America that taught us a nation should not open its doors equally to all nations,” Hitler told The New York Times a year before he rose to Germany’s helm in 1933.

References to the movement’s American roots are found in the online manifestos of the Pittsburgh, Poway, and New Zealand killers. Today’s white nationalists often see themselves as patriots, defending America’s founding principles dating to colonial times.

The ideology has continued to be one of the nation’s exports. As humanitarian crises increase and shift populations, a fear of being outnumbered and governed by nonwhites has spawned a rise of white supremacist and white nationalist movements around the world. Hate crimes overall have increased in recent years, up 13 percent since 2019. Crimes against Black people rose 49% since 2019. Anti-Asian incidents saw a 77% increase since 2019. Of the hate crimes motivated by religious bias, 55 percent were anti-Jewish. Anti-Muslim crimes remain the next largest religious group targeted at nine percent.

“Study after study shows a disturbing rise in hate crimes in the current socio-political climate,” Mahmud. White supremacists are troubled by the growing diversity of elected officials. “All of these things pose a threat to their culture and the definition of America," she said.

The U.S. Government Has Struggled to Address It
Despite data between 2010 and 2016 that showed 35 percent of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil had been carried out by extremists who espouse white supremacist ideology compared to only 12 percent by religious extremists, the U.S. government reduced funding for programs aimed at countering domestic terrorism and heightened its focus on international terror threats.

But on his first full day in office, President Biden directed his national security team to lead a 100-day comprehensive review of strategies to address domestic terrorism and the trend has begun to change.

Last year, the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC) convened by AJC with Jewish and Muslim partners, successfully urged Congress to pass the Jabara-Heyer National Opposition to Hate, Assaults, and Threats to Equality (NO HATE) Act. These provisions were included in the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in May 2021.

The legislation helps state and local authorities improve hate crime reporting with training, reporting hotlines, public educational forums on hate crimes, and other tools. The legislation also amends the penalties for hate crimes to allow courts to require offenders to undertake educational classes or service to the victim’s community as a condition of release.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also has helped fund a partnership between AJC and Muflehun, a resource center for conflict resolution, to teach city leaders how to recognize antisemitic and anti-Muslim bigotry and what steps to take to prevent and respond to radicalization, domestic terrorism, and violent extremism in their communities.

https://www.ajc.org/news/great-replacem ... -supremacy

[MajGenl.Meade]

Unknown amateur historian trashes Ken Burns. Yeah, whatever.

The difference between amateur historians and documentary film makers is that the former don't get to air their amateur views on a screen. Well . . . I do on this one but . . . damn!

[BoSoxGal]

Ken Burns documentaries are meticulously researched and include contributions from many US historians of excellent reputation. You may have criticisms but it entirely undermines them when you dismiss his work outright when he is as lauded as he is. Stinks of sour grapes.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Could be, could be. No matter how defective his CW series, it brought attention to a historical event. What he does is very much not worthless. I just can't be bothered to spend time watching relatively elementary History-Channel-level stuff. Not when there's the Walking Dead to catch up on.

I wonder sometimes if people realize how much I laugh at myself? Not from self-aggrandizement either.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I don't know nearly as much about the Civil War as I should but Meade is right about Selby Foote. It was nice to hear his 'color commentary' (as it were, to use a sporting analogy) when he seemed to be replete with minor details about events and characters, but even I could see that he was definitely a closet confederate. Yes, I thought he added a lot to the series and I was glad he was there - I think he added to my understanding of how the war unfolded - and maybe he was there to add some sort of balance to the obvious Yankee viewpoint of Burns.

Some places, especially scientific and historical recounting, 'balance' is overrated. I don't need to see balance in a retelling of Hitler's rise to power (to go all Godwin's law on you) or an explanation of climate change or evolution with equal time to deniers. But there is a 'southern' view of the 'War Between the States' (or 'The War of Northern Aggression' [!!!]) and it's worth trying to understand it because it underpins much of politics these days. It's not going away any time soon.

[BoSoxGal]

You are missing out then Meade, because while his Civil War got him on the radar, he’s produced much better work in the decades since as most artists tend to do with maturity.

His docuseries on the Roosevelts is a thing of beauty which I have viewed multiple times. The series on Baseball is also beautiful. Short but inspiring is his single episode documentary on the legendary and visionary Mayo Clinic. The Dust Bowl is also excellent.

I haven’t yet invested in watching it, didn’t want to during lockdown because it was a heavy subject- but I trust the critical acclaim for his docuseries on Vietnam.

Documentary film is a far better investment of time in my opinion that any mid quality TV. I have rarely seen a documentary that didn’t send me to the library for more, nor one that felt like a waste of brain space but many many hours of TV have left me feeling that way. I do value the power of fiction but truth is always stranger than.

Ken Burns has a particular gift for lifting up American history while also shining spotlight and magnifying glass on the darker truths. This docuseries on the US and the Holocaust is brilliantly done - it is not heavy handed at all but it is most certainly truth that the MAGAts don’t want white children learning in school today. They don’t ever want their kids to feel the weight of the sins of their fathers. But it is ONLY if we feel that weight that we can keep the promise - never again.

[liberty]

Today the Jews of Israel face extermination by their enemies, Iran, and radical Islamic groups. And sooner or later, it will happen. History teaches nothing lasts forever. Sooner or later, Israel will lose a war, and their enemies will drive them into the sea and drown them. You say it will never happen; that's what they said before World War Two. Some of you here are hostel towards the Israelis, and their people's quality has degenerated for some time now. So the time of their destruction must be growing closer. The question is will you celebrate when that happens? I won't because I'm on the side of God's chosen people as the Bible requires

[Big RR]

I agree BSG; I also like that Burns tends to focus more on the common people in his documentaries than the leaders, showing how they helped shape history. In the civil war, he showed some of the plight of soldiers on both sides, as reflected in their correspondence; but some tend to just accuse the looking at both sides of any issue/conflict as being apologists for the side they oppose. If we take the civil war alone, both sides have a lot to be ashamed of and a lot to be proud of; this is true of any war. The first thing to go on the battlefield is the patriotic fervor and the devotion to the political reasons behind the conflict; people fight to protect themselves and their comrades first. The army (probably all the armed forces, but the army is where I learned this) recognized this and has tried to keep units together to take advantage of that; people will sacrifice greatly to protect their friends and family, and the units operate better because of it. Burns showed a little of that human side (ditto in the Vietnam documentary as well as others unrelated to war).

Liberty--WW2 didn't kill judaism (not for lack of trying), nor did the many conflicts they have had since. Indeed, since you mention God's chosen people, the bible shows that most of the problems that they have faced came from within rather than without, where they turned away from god and their beliefs and their ethics--indeed this is true of most groups of people. Yet they have endured.

And, FWIW, why anyone would celebrate the destruction of any people is beyond me; it is clearly against the teachings of jesus and the jewish teachings of that time and later (one need only look at the story of Jonah to see that).

[Sue U]

I'm on the side of God's chosen people

With friends like these -- oy.

[Big RR]

I'm on the side of God's chosen people

With friends like these -- oy.

Maybe he's just an ally, but not a friend?

[Bicycle Bill]

I'm on the side of God's chosen people

With friends like these -- oy.

  

TWO thumbs — WAY, way up for our leading lady!

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

If we take the civil war alone, both sides have a lot to be ashamed of and a lot to be proud of; this is true of any war.