Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

My career has afforded me the opportunity to travel- and for that I am very grateful.

I have been to many places and I have seen much natural magnificence- that fantastic tapestry that is the natural world. I have also seen museums, art galleries and even in more humble surroundings, showcases to man’s ability to create art and objets d’art, that are truly a testament to that side of ourselves that can create extraordinary expressions of beauty.

I have also been to places that have moved me, deeply, realizing that although myself and those around me have been blessed, there are people and places that are not so fortunate and that trite expression, ‘not so fortunate’ cannot even begin to describe the chasm between what we know to be true about suffering and what we take for granted.

I have also been to places that can best be described as a gateways to Hell. Those places are so awful, so horrible, that one cannot help but be changed by them.
Auschwitz, in Poland, is one such place.

There will be much written and said today, throughout the blogoshere and in the media, about the Wansee Conference, that gathering of evil people who decided, in a very clinical way, that a people were to be exterminated, for no other reason than the fact they existed.

There are many people today, who will write about the Wansee Conference and offer up wise words and ideas of what that all meant.

I will not be one one of them. Instead, I will talk about what I have seen, on my own, in my travels.
No matter how well one thinks they understand the horrors of Auschwitz, no matter how well read on the subject they may be, no matter how many old newsreels and photographs they have been exposed to, nothing- absolutely nothing- can prepare anyone for what they will see.

Imagine a large industrial or chemical plant complex. Then, triple or quadruple the size. That is how big the killing factory was. Make no mistake- it was not an internment camp- it was a death factory.

One and a half million Jews perished in that camp alone- of that number, half a million were children under 16 years of age. This is not an exaggeration or calculation. By their own admission and record keeping, those who perpetrated the evil, have told us so. These numbers do not include the millions of Poles and others put to death in Auschwitz.

After a while, you get used to the size of the place. You become numb to what transpired there, as the numbers become even more incomprehensible. The reality of those exhibits and the remnants of real human lives force you to divest yourself from forming an attachment to those lost souls. The mountains of shoes, eyeglasses and even battered old hats become no more than curiosities. It has to be that way, because if it we didn’t have that defense mechanism, we would be unable to cope.

There were medical ‘experiments’ on twins, the ‘less than perfect’ and a host of of others, done in that Place of Darkness. I will not go into that. It was my intent only to remind you of that. Those of you with children, myself included, cannot shut out those sounds, that still resonate in the silence. It is the most terrible sound I have ever heard.

The Russian steppes are places of magnificent natural beauty. On those steppes, 20 to 30 million(no one really knows) people were killed. They were killed because they were in the way. There are whole towns and villages, that once existed, that are now gone. The towns, villages, and the inhabitants are all forgotten, never to be remembered, by anyone. They were killed not because of who they were, but rather, because they were in the way- by the same people with the ideologies that casually decided that a whole group of people were to be exterminated.

It wasn’t just Jews that were singled out for extermination. Gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally ill were all ‘inferior’ or ‘depraved- and thus were to be eliminated as well, with equal zeal. The difference was that the perpetrators of these crimes chose to publicly single out the Jews- the scapegoats of those who offer nothing but evil, throughout history.

Late last night, I had a conversation with a friend. We talked about the similarities and differences that people share. We talked about values- those universal ideals that are not tainted by ideologies. The best of those ideals are what bind us all together, in families, societies and cultures. We may speak different languages, eat different foods and listen to different music, but in the end, there are noble ideas that are universal and help us live up to our potential. To abandon those ideals is to embrace evil and indifference.
There have been killing fields the world over- Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Darfur, just to name a few. We have allowed that to happen, comfortable in our existence and far removed from those tragedies. We are happy being blind.

Post Holocaust, is that blindness the legacy of Christianity?

In the Middle East, whole cultures and societies that had nothing to do with the Holocaust, embrace the evil doers and celebrate their crimes. They, who should have the moral superiority to chastise the Christian world for our inaction and self imposed distance, choose to identify with evil- so much so, that they teach it in schools and echo the hatred in political and religious milieus. We see the celebration of murder and evil on a scale heretofore unprecedented. We hear it daily and say nothing. We have this need to ‘negotiate,’ it seems, with evil. We cannot seem to take a stand. History repeats itself.

Regardless of the politics, can we really say that societies and cultures that willingly and publicly embrace that evil are moral equivalents? They are not. We must address that reality. We cannot allow that to enter the geo-political debate. Left unchecked, that evil will eventually manifest itself.

I visited Auschwitz on a rainy day, the ground soaked and soft underfoot. The grass smelled sweet, fresh and inviting. I remember quite clearly, the sucking sound of my shoes in the mud. It was as if I were being tempted to focus on something else- anything that would take my mind off of the Place of Darkness.

I remember looking down at my now muddy shoes. For a moment- a very long moment, the grass was red.

Reflections, Travels was originally published in January of 2005.

What ‘We’ll Finish What Hitler Started’ Looks Like

See Fausta’s roundup of Holocaust Remembrance Day posts.

This is the first of two posts. The second post will be published on Monday.

Venice is sinking.

For more than three decades, commission after commission, a succession politicians, scientists, business people, environmentalists, engineers of competing disciplines and even anthropologists have examined and weighed in with various proposals on what to do, and how to do it.

For over three decades, nothing was done because each of the competing interests wanted to be right and to be the top dog. They wanted to be Charles de Gaulle like heroes, marching at he front of a great parade that would celebrate their greatness, a parade that would lead Venice into a perpetually safe (and dry) future. They secretly wanted a statue of themselves on the Plaza San Marco, whether they admitted it (or even conciuosly knew it).

For decades, they all denied that of course. They claimed to care and concerned only with what is good for the city and the people. That’s what they said but in truth, the situation in Venice deteriorated for over three three decades and nothing was done.

Whatever one might say about the project to save Venice that was finally implemented, there are a few things that are certain: Venice has been sinking all the while, the project will cost more than it would have 30 or even 20 years ago and if the project turns our not to address all the problems or fails in some areas, there will be more work to be done.

The number of studies, commissions and proposals were not the problem. The Venetians learned something new with each proposal and each idea. The problem Venice was made to endure for 20 of those 30 years had to do with personalities who refused to deal with other personalities. Each personality was determined to be a hero and prophet in their own right and each wanted top billing. They may not have consciously been aware of that truth, but in the end, bragging rights and the right to say ‘I told you so’ are powerful narcissistic drives.

As of late, some on the right side of the blogosphere have begun to resemble the aforementioned Venetian committees, disavowing and undermining others who do not share their ideas. Most of the disagreements center around Europe and how those nations are or should be dealing with the realities of substantial Muslim populations in their midst. As the ferocity and intensity of the disagreements escalates, so do the debates and exchanges on how to deal with the problems. Ideas are bandied about and discussed. Some are subtle and others are heavy handed. Some ideas are deliberate and considered and other are less thoughtful and more obtuse.

Most recently, Little Green Footballs and Pajamas Media have seen fit to exorcise the bloggers at Gates of Vienna, ostensibly because of what has been portrayed as a ‘disagreement.’ We will address that in a bit.

First, a bit of housekeeping and disclosure. This blogger claims Little Green Footballs as a parent. That blog is read every day and my appreciation of Charles Johnson’s efforts has escalated with time. No one else does ‘less is more’ better than him. With a few words he is able to present an argument or upend conventional thinking like no one else. When it comes to ‘can you find the lion in the picture?’ Mr Johnson is the all American champion. He cuts through hypocrisy, deceit and fraud like Michael Debakey handles a scalpel. He does it better than anyone else.

Roger Simon and others of Pajamas Media had a good idea and ran with it. His efforts have resulted in what is now nothing less than a blogosphere resource. PJM may not be the biggest of that genre of websites but it certainly one of the best. He has assembled a stable of thinking writers that are second to none. PJM may not have the circulation of Nesweek, but neither does Commentary or Foreign Policy- and their influence is immeasurable. PJM is in good company. The author of SC&A is a PJM Correspondent and has written various pieces featured at PJM. The author has spoken amiably with Roger Simon on more than one occasion.

Gates of Vienna is a different kind of blog. The authors offer up their own ideas and they provide a platform for others to express themselves. Their focus is primarily on Europe and European politics, culture and society. Their writing is a thoughtful and cogent presentation of their beliefs. Their guest bloggers tend to be European as well. Their politics are not hard to discern. Certainly, this author doesn’t always agree with the ideas presented by the authors of GOV or their guest posters, but so what? Ideas are meant to provoke thought, not necessarily agreement.

LGF, Pajamas Media and the Gates of Vienna are on the same side of the political aisle. They differentiate as to degree. Thus, it was very disappointing to see GOV tossed overboard by LGF and Pajamas Media. That those bloggers took umbrage with the ideas at GOV does not concern me. That they dispensed with the authors of GOV is troubling.

Those of us on the center right or right side of the political spectrum pride ourselves on having better ideas and being able to convey those ideas. We noted that

Conservatives want you to believe they have better ideas. Leftists want you to believe they are better people.

Liberals want you to believe they are ubermenschen, the highest and most elevated form of humanity. They want you to believe that anyone who doesn’t share their beliefs are handicapped untermenschen at best and evil at worst.

The ubermensch cannot exist without creating an untermensch.

When LGF and PJM rejected Gates of Vienna out of hand, we were shocked. The freedom to exchange ideas is fundamental to conservative values.

That is not to say all ideas are equally meritorious. They are not.

Dr Sanity once noted that

So, many times in politics, programs that originate with the “best of intentions” end up doing exactly the opposite of what was intended.

She was talking about the political left but in fact, her words are equally applicable to the right.

You may not like some of the ideas presented by the authors of Gates of Vienna. You may even be put off by some of their ideas and the ideas of their guest posters. Nevertheless, to deliberately characterize their efforts as malevolent is not only unfair, it is a betrayal. The excoriation of GOV may have been done with the best of intentions, but in the end, it is a huge mistake.

Commentary has published articles by Glenn Greenwald and other leftists. No one mistakes that magazine for being sympathetic to those things Greenwald holds dear. On more than one occasion, the authors of GOV have specifically noted that they do not necessarily agree with what is written or said with guest posters they host and publish. Rather, they are publishing ideas for readers to consider.

It must also be noted that Americans have less than a clear understanding when it comes to events in Europe and Europeans in general. While those familiar with Europe affairs do their best to explain events on the continent to Americans, a huge chasm remains. As an example, Americans are often appalled by the restrictions to speech on Germany. From an excellent post by Neo-neocon:

To Germans and Austrians the danger of public promulgation of Holocaust denial may indeed (especially when the laws were first passed) have seemed like the danger of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater. Likewise–although to a lesser extant–to countries such as Poland, who have reason to know the Holocaust in a way that countries such as Britain and the US never can, Holocaust denial may seem a particular affront and a special danger. “He jests at scars that never felt a wound;” and so it is much easier for countries who have not experienced such a cataclysmic upheaval to be absolutist about protecting freedom of speech..

Author D.D. Guttenplan has some insight on these points, as well as a discussion of the differing legal history of the Anglosphere vs. the continent:

In Britain and the United States we regard Free Speech as sacred. Americans venerate the First Amendment, while Britons cite Milton, who in Areopagitica said true Liberty only exists “when free born men / Having to advise the public may speak free”. Holocaust denial is currently a crime in Austria, France, Germany, Israel, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania and Switzerland. Do the citizens of those countries value freedom less than we do? Or might other factors be involved?

Robert Kahn, author of Holocaust Denial and the Law, points to a ‘fault time’ separating the ‘common law countries’ of the US, Britain, and former British colonies from the ‘civil law countries of continental Europe’. In civil law countries the law is generally more prescriptive. Also under the civil law regime the judge acts more as an inquisitor, gathering and presenting evidence as well as interpreting it.

Unlike the Anglo-American adversarial system, where fairness is the primary attribute of justice, and the judge functions as a referee, trials under the continental system aim at arriving at the truth…

Ultimately, though, it is the difference in historical experience that ought to constrain our attitude to other countries. In Germany and Austria Holocaust denial is not ‘mere’ Jew-baiting but also a channel for Nazi resurgence much like the Hitler salute and the display of the swastika, which are also banned…

Perhaps the authors at GOV are guilty of not understanding that most Americans do not share their understanding of Europe and Europeans and are therefore lightning rods for their inevitable critics. We assume this to be the case with LGF and Pajamas Media.

What the authors of understand so naturally can be anathema to many Americans who do not share their insights. To be sure, not all Europeans agree would agree with all their ideas but neither would they claim them to be so malevolent.

This writer would hope that Charles Johnson of LGF and Roger Simon of Pajamas Media would reconsider their decisions to marginalize GOV. Europe, like Venice, is sinking. GOV may not have all the answers and in fact, they may have none but when it is all said and done, they want to help save Europe. To make them an issue  is to take your eye off the ball- a critical mistake.

Of course, the authors at LGF or Pajamas Media are not really like the committees that watched Venice sink, caring only about themselves. They have certainly proved their credibility beyond a doubt. By marginalizing GOV, there is a danger they have set the stage where others come in behind them with less than pure motivations . Neither Charles Johnson of Roger Simon ought ever be compared to self absorbed leftist ideologues- ever.

More tomorrow.