A couple of weeks ago I posted about young Americans abroad. One commenter said that some young Americans abroad "do get it," and followed it up by posting this link. I have no interest in denying the importance of the Holocaust. It was a hugely significant event that has shaped American foreign policy in many good ways but it has also warped it in ways that are hard to underestimate. (And I'll get to that in a moment.) But excuse if I say I disagree. Visiting and understanding the past in Europe are important. Understanding the roots of the genocide committed against the Jews is important. But there is so much, much more to being a global citizen that visiting Europe and the sites of its darkest moments.
I'm very glad these late teenagers and early twenty somethings went where they did, but I have an important question to ask: why not visit Kosovo? Why not visit Bosnia? Why not visit Rwanda? Why not any of the three aforementioned countries where the horror of genocide is still alive, there are many, many more people alive today from those three real or attempted genocides than there are Holocaust survivors. And this is what I don't get: genocide is a crime against humanity but America acts as if the only really important one was that of European Jewry during WWII. Sometimes I think it is as if we've (unilaterally) taken the guilt off the shoulders of the Europeans who committed the horrible act and taken on the burden ourselves. And this has warped our foreign policy in the Middle East in immeasurable ways.
No doubt, these are questions that would certainly get me accused of being anti-semitic by the radical right. But that doesn't make them any less valid, or important. All genocide is bad. All genocide must be prevented, if at all possible. Samantha Power in her book, "A Problem From Hell," lays out an excellent set of early warning signals, something policy makers should take up. (I wrote a graduate paper on her book and genocide, by the way.)
But it is high time America grew up and realized that, while all genocides are not created equal, that which happened to the Jewish people in Europe should not continue to dominate our foreign policy thinking or our historical memory. (That doesn't mean abandoning Israel, either, for all you wingnuts out there itching to call me an anti-semite.) Our foreign policy needs to be tempered with a full understanding of world history. A history, at the very least, of the whole 20th century (Armenian genocide included) and much of the 19th.
Our foreign policy needs pragmatism and a careful balancing act between real interests and capabilities. And our students should be shown the full world or horrors, not just those that happened several decades ago in Europe.
To do otherwise is to commit a national act of historical amnesia that will continue to cause us intense grief in regions we know little of and understand even less.
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Comments: 21
There is an exceptionally ugly truth about that episode, which I don't believe we have come to grips with. Those who did these things, were clearly people very much like us.
Just my opinion .
And, let's face it, what happens in Africa is of little import to those outwith its shores. Otherwise the Rawandas and Zimbabwes of this world would be centre stage.
I am a member of Amnesty International and have a close relative who works for MSF.
And, I notice a huge degree of eurocentrism in the initial argument. Eurocentrism in where the Atlantic-centered culture has access. Soviet, Khmer, Indonesian, Chinese, and other spots where mass suffering occurred without much media access are additional sites -- some with more total deaths than the Holocaust sites. So, let's give credit to all types of humans.
Two more items:
1. Rwanda will be remembered based on the popularity of Hotel Rwanda and any new films.
2. So, many people forget that only successful genocide. The Tasmanian aborigine was exterminated. So, go to Tasmanian mix humanitarian and eco-tourism into one tour.
i think the hOlocaust in Europe was more globally acknowledged, being a World War.
Kosovo, Bosnia,Darfour and others are more localised and seem more distant to western culture. It is no less important. The holocaust should always be remembered but also to use the knowledge gained there to deal with new issues that crop up in other countries as well. With the ever-constant man's inhumaity to man.
The legacy of the Nuremberg principles and the Geneva Conventions were discussed and a proclamation was issued. I have been meaning to write about it ever since, but am backlogged with work.
I have read Samantha Powers' Pulitzer-prizing-winning book and hope that she will once again be advising Sen. Barack Obama, should he be elected president of the United States. If you are willing to share your graduate paper, I would love to read it.
Best wishes for a safe trip.