HOLOCAUST DENIAL IN 2022
Aris Janigian
Jewcy.com
Oct 26 2007
In an interview published October 26, 2007, Ami Eden of the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency asked Abraham Foxman whether he had been wrong
to refuse to describe the WWI-era systematic murder of 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turks–an event known to historians as the
Armenian Genocide–as a "genocide." Foxman replied,
"We said it is a massacre, an atrocity, we’ve said it for 40 years.
The Armenians wanted us to say genocide. To me it was sufficient for
us to say I’m not a historian we don’t adjudicate all the issues…
"I respect the Armenian community for wanting their memory, their pain,
their suffering to be recognized globally in the most sensitive way
or the most meaningful way. So we said it is an atrocity and it is
massacre, but we just don’t think that Congress should [describe it
as a genocide]."
The following news story was published fifteen years later.
Foreign relations Committee calls WWII Killing of Jews "Genocide."
September 24, 2022, Los Angeles, CA Aris Janigian-staff writer
On Wednesday, September 23, The House Foreign Affairs Committee
voted 27 to 21 to condemn as genocide the mass killings of Jews in
Germany during World War II. New Germany reacted angrily, recalling
its ambassador from Washington and threatening to withdraw its support
for the continuing War on Terror.
"America has crossed a line with this resolution," Foreign Minister
Helmut Gottschalk said. "Petty domestic politics has trumped American
national interests. The New German people can only take so much
insult. We will see our next steps."
It was a harsh rebuke from one of America’s closest allies, and
sent shock waves through the White House. The resolution comes at
a time when the United States is actively drumming up support for
the War on Terror, and two deputies in the State Department departed
for Berlin immediately after the vote in an attempt to forestall a
diplomatic disaster. At home, Secretary of State Candid Price called
the resolutionStill Waiting for Recognition: For the few remaining
survivors of the Jewish tragedy, this year’s resolution may be the
last chance "irresponsible."
In a Rose Garden press conference President Hernandez acknowledged the
Jewish tragedy, but sternly warned against the resolution. "This is
not the right time or the right place for this kind of resolution,"
Hernandez said.
Jews, along with the large majority of historians outside New Germany,
say that from 1939 to 1945 the German Nationalist Socialist Party
carried out a systematic campaign to kill as many as six million
Jews in Europe. They claim the killings amounted to "genocide,"
a term that the New German government fiercely rejects.
New Germany acknowledges that between 1 and 1.6 million Jews died
during the war, but contends that a vast majority of those deaths
occurred in the throes of war when disease and starvation was
widespread. According to New Germany the intent to exterminate Jews
is historically unfounded. "There was a context for these events.
Many Germans died and suffered as well, far exceeding the number of
Jews. These were the sad unintended consequences of war."
Since the establishment of New Germany, the influential Jewish
American lobby has sought acknowledgment of their ancestors’
suffering. The authors of the resolution are from heavily Jewish
districts in California and Florida and New York. They note that
the United States must recognize the Jewish tragedy while the few
remaining survivors are still alive.
Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Gregory Demerdjian,
a descendent of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, said, "These
events must be characterized for what they were: genocide. It is
well documented in our own national archives that genocide of Jews
occurred during the Second World War. This is merely an acknowledgment
of America’s own understanding of the events during that time. None
of this should be construed to mean that New Germany is in the least
responsible for these deaths." Demerjian said that he would soon
introduce a resolution reinforcing America’s strong and lasting
relationship with the New Germany.
The Jewish tragedy is a sensitive issue in New Germany. Under a
progressive movement called "Identity Reformation," the New Germans
have radically reconsidered what an older generation had taken for
granted. Historians in New Germany argue that between the First and
Second World War Germany was caught between JewishTaking Pride in
Our Past: The New German government has insisted that the alleged
genocide is simply not consistent with the nobility of German
history industrialists and Jewish socialists intent on overthrowing
the German state. "They wanted to destroy the country from within,"
said New German Ambassador Norbert Sommer. "It was a difficult time.
Everyone regrets the death of Jews, but wartime choices had to be
made to save Germany’s very existence."
Today, New Germany rejects the verdicts of the Nuremberg Trials
that found members of the Nazi party guilty of war crimes, pointing
out that Germans admitted to those crimes under duress from the
prosecuting Allies. "No document has ever been produced that shows
that Hitler ordered the extermination of Jews," Sommer said. "Indeed,
many attempts were made by Germans at the time to find a safe harbor
for Jews, including some negotiations with Zionists in Europe. It is
a total fallacy that there was anything resembling genocide."
Members of the House committee who voted against the resolution
characterized it as unwarranted "meddling" in a foreign state’s
accounting of its own past. Representative Stefan Kohler said, "Maybe
it was a genocide, maybe it wasn’t. None of us here are historians.
This was 92 years ago. All I know is that passage of the bill would
cause real-time harm to real people."
Democratic Representative Richard Wechsler had stronger words: "You’d
think with the War on Terror ongoing and all, the congress would find
something better to do than rummage through the trash bin of history.
What congress should be acknowledging is that when the rest of
Europe has turned its back on America, New Germany has stood strong
by our side."
After WWII, America provided Old Germany with massive economic support
under the Marshall plan. Old Germany remained a strong ally of the
United States, and in 2112 it began an accelerated militarization
program. Virtually one-third of New Germany’s GDP is devoted to
military expenditure.
Since 2017, when President Harold Jones stepped up the War on Terror,
America’s relationship to the European Union has been severely
strained. Germany is one of the only European countries with which
the United States has strong diplomatic and military ties.
Under penal code 3001, a number of writers have been prosecuted and
convicted for "insulting Germanness" after using the term "genocide"
or "holocaust " to refer to the Jewish tragedy. In 2020, New German
dissidents attempted to organize an academic conference in order
to revisit the events of 1939-45 from a "Jewish perspective." The
conference was cancelled when then-Foreign-Minister Helmut Gottschalk
called the organizers "traitors."
Some Parliamentarians of the European Union, of which New Germany
remains a nominal member, have argued that Germany should be censured
for its view towards the Jewish tragedy. Other countries have decided
to stay neutral, sharing the position of the United States that the
events of that time should be left to historians to sort out.
"Let bygones by bygones," said Roland Young, Secretary of Defense.
"In a time of war, the United States has precious few allies. We
respect history, but the life of our society depends upon our strategic
position vis-a-vis our enemies today."
Some Jews in New Germany say the house resolution would be
counter-productive. Chief Rabbi of Munich Abraham Grynszpan said,
"New Germany must come to terms with its own history. We resist
pressure from foreign countries to set a timetable." Members of the
Jewish community in America believe that German-Jews are defending
their dwindling numbers inside Germany, and yet others believe that
the existence of Israel is in peril should they speak out.
New Germany has no diplomatic ties with Israel, and has repeatedly
called on Israel to renounce its "genocide" claims. Its satellite
state of New Lebanon has closed its borders with Israel.
Last year, some diplomats perceived a softening in the New German
stance when it called on Israel to establish a joint commission to
study the wartime atrocities, but that perception has since been
altered. In January of this year Herschel Mintz, the ethnic Jewish
editor-in-chief of the New German daily Agon was murdered in the
streets of Berlin for attention he drew to the Jewish tragedies. The
accused murderer, a 17-year-old German, is currently on trial for
the crime, but human rights groups believe that the New German Deep
Police were accomplices to the murder, and prosecutors claim that
evidence was been destroyed.
In 2021, New German novelist Otwin Polk was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature. In an explosive interview with an Italian newspaper,
he said "In New Germany today, nobody but me speaks of the killing
of over six million Jews." Today Polk lives in exile.
——-
Aris Janigian has written for The Los Angeles Times and Warsaw
Gazetta. His novel BLOODVINE was a finalist for the William Saroyan
International Writing Prize. He lives in Los Angeles.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress