#holocaust studies

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Alberta government announced that studying the Holocaust will be a compulsory part of the province's new social studies curriculum.  The ministry of education will explore when to educate students about the Holocaust. The department will consider the Jewish communities' input and its partners in education, stated the government news release.  At this time, the Holocaust is a component of a unit called "Perspectives on Nationalism," which students study in Grade 11.

Continue Reading.

Tagging @politicsofcanada @abpoli

[determinate-negation]

like serioisly how many accounts of completely orphaned children who just survived concentration camps wandering the countryside for years looking for traces or any of their family members or neighbors or town thats all been just wiped off the map by genocidal destruction can you read before you think this is just bad in general and should never happen to anyone i really dont know why so many people are determined to ignore the similarities but i guess its just racism and western chauvinism at the end of the day

[notaplaceofhonour]

Gentile leftists, this is a PSA, and I am begging you to listen. Sharing claims that Jews aren’t indigenous to the land of Israel, that Jews don’t come from the Middle East, and/or that the Zionist movement wasn’t created in response to centuries of antisemitism & genocide is fringe revisionist history with a long antisemitic history. These aren’t anti-imperialist or anti-colonial stances. They are just antisemitic conspiracy theories.

And on the flip side, acknowledging the simple fact that Jews are indigenous to the region currently occupied by Israel & Palestine does not imply any opinion about the modern states of Israel & Palestine, their governments, or the conflict in the region. This post is not voicing support for Zionism or the state of Israel. This is literally just historical fact: both Jews and Palestinians are indigenous to the region where modern day Israel & Palestine are.

If you make this about the politics or conflicts of the modern states of Israel or Palestine—if you comment or send me asks to that effect—you will be blocked.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

someone in my circle said the holocaust was the biggest genocide in history and I'm like? was it? and by what metric? body count? effect on european history?

Such a vague hyperbolic statement regardless

Look dude, this is ask giving Holocaust denial. And after all the shit I’ve put up with on this website since October, I don’t trust that you’re not trolling me.

Hitler was directly responsible for the murder of approximately six million Jews across Eurasia and Northern Africa. It was and still is the largest, most industrialized, most effectively, bureaucratically organized genocide in history.

But also, and most importantly, it’s not a contest! All genocide is bad! It’s not like The Jews (tm) are winning anything over here by having a claim to the “biggest” genocide. We lost millions of our own and saw our ancient civilizations, languages, and cultures across Eurasia and Northern Africa destroyed, probably forever, as a direct result of this cataclysmic event you’re so bothered by.

Also, read this post, it might help you work out some of your….weird attitude here:

[notetaeker]

Raz Segal is an Israeli historian residing in the United States who directs the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies program at Stockton University.

[article]

[koshka-sova]

it's absolutely insidious that zionism uses judaism as a shield and motive for their colonial actions. isnt it so horrible that they can villify any opposition by labelling them antesemitic, when we've seen jews openly deny zionist values as equal to that of jewish ones

[jewish-microwave-laser]

rn i'm thinking about all the people who like to do holocaust inversion and how that crowd is generally also made up of the people who say that like [insert jewish practice/tradition/clothing/saying/language/cultural marker] is a zionist dogwhistle. i wonder if they've ever thought about how all popular goyische media on the holocaust essentially de-judaizes the victims to make them more universal (less visibly jewish, no yiddish, no religious practices, etc) and how most of the victims they're trying to prop up in order to be antisemitic displayed those traits that they have deemed to be (((zionist dogwhistles)))

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Mary Chastain 

The University of Minnesota is in hot water after it appointed an anti-Zionist as director of its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Raz Segal worked as a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University in New Jersey.

But Segal has spent his career bashing Israel, equating everything it has done to survive and defend itself as genocide.

Karen Painter and Bruno Chaouat resigned from the department’s advisory board in protest of Segal’s appointment:

“Dr. Segal has positioned himself on an extreme end of the political and ideological spectrum with his publications on Israel and Gaza, including an essay in which he accused Israel of genocide a week after the October 7 terrorist attacks,” Painter wrote in her Friday night resignation email to Provost Rachel Croson and Interim President Jeff Ettinger. “The CHGS director is ideally a scholar whose principal area of research and public commentary is the Holocaust itself, and certainly should not be an individual publicly identified with extremist positions on the present Middle East war,” she wrote. “We need a center director who will bring our community together to understand how the Holocaust and other genocides occurred, not someone who blames Israel for the rape and murder of 1,200 civilians, and kidnapping of hundreds more.”

Six days after the October 7 massacre, Segal wrote “A Textbook Case of Genocide” in Jewish Currents.

You’d think it’s a piece about the massacre, describing it as the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Nope!

The piece is a sympathetic piece towards Gaza, criticizing Israel’s treatment of it. In other words, “Can you blame Hamas for attacking, murdering, and kidnapping Jews?” He also brags about his anti-Zionist studies and works throughout his career.

Israel defending itself is textbook genocide.

[anarchotolkienist]

What Lula said was that what is happening on Gaza with the Palestinian people has only happened once - the Holocaust. This comparison obviously reduces and trivialises the Holocaust, as well as ignoring the hundreds of other genocides carries out in history, including the direct settler-colonial genocides carried out - and still ongoing - in Brazil itself. It is - again - obviously reducing and trivialising the Holocaust. At high estimates, some two percent of the Gazan population have been killed, and many millions have been forced to flee. That is a genocide, it is horrific, it is not in any way shape or form justifiable, let alone self-defense, and it needs to be stopped by any means. It is not the Holocaust.

The Holocaust was the industrial slaughter of human beings with the aim of utterly extermination every single Jew. It killed some 80% of European Jewry, more than a third of all Jews on the planet. Sayong that it is the same is literally Holocaust denial. You have to deny the Holocaust in order to make the comparison, it is not possible to believe them to be the same without massively reducing the extent of the Holocaust.

[gay-jewish-bucky]

Jews: Judaism is about more than just the conflict or the shoah

Jewish studies departments planning their courses:

I say this with love, but i'm begging the profs to propose courses on other topics please and thank u

[mermazeablaze]

Misti Tope is the current head principal of Classen School of Advanced Studies at North East High School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Misti Tope has been fostering an environment of fear & hostility among everyone including students, faculty, educators & parents. It is to the point where parents are organizing private meetups to discuss her. Students are creating petitions.

Misti Tope has recently stated multiple times to students & faculty that she wants to create an educational environment that aligns with Ryan Walters views.

Misti Tope has been firing teachers of color & working to force them out. Misti Tope recently fired a trans teacher, Mx Mustain, who was close to receiving tenure. Misti Tope, of course, lied about the reason behind these firings.

Misti Tope has threatened female students who wanted to report predatory behavior from faculty. She went so far as to make threatening phone calls & disbanded an after school club over these students compiling information. Misti Tope has threatened to disband any club that seeks to protect themselves from predatory teachers.

Misti Tope physically gropes students over dress code violations. Whether they are violating dress code or not, this is unexcusable. Misti Tope also makes derogatory commentary on female students being "busty" & "curvy".

Misti Tope actively intimidates the female student body. There have been situations where male students have shown their penises to female students & all the male students receive is detention. Misti Tope has called female students "overemotional" & "dramatic".

Misti Tope keeps seeking ways to disband the Black Student Union. Misti Tope has vocally compared black students in BSU more than once to rats & roaches pulling at each other's weaves. Misti Tope also stated that black students are equivalent to goldfish & don't deserve an education because they are incapable of retaining information.

Misti Tope is an active Holocaust denier. The son of a Holocaust survivor was kicked off stage while giving a presentation. Misti Tope shuts conversations surrounding the Holocaust.

Misti Tope's son who is a student is known to carve & graffiti swastikas & other Nazi imagery all over the school. Misti Tope's son also states antisemitic, homophobic, transphobic & racist rhetoric. Misti Tope scapegoats by saying he learns this from anime, which is untrue. Misti Tope also allows her son to skip classes & wander around the school.

Misti Tope attempts to force transgender students to use restrooms of their biological gender. Misti Tope has told transgender students to dress according to their biological gender.

Misti Tope is seeking to end funding to the athletic departments & divert funds to a swim team.

Misti Tope is not the future of Classen. Misti Tope is unfit to be a part of any school district in any capacity.

Again, I am not the only parent. Other parents are organizing & mobilizing of their own accord & having meetups. The same is being said of students. I have added screenshots because the admins of the Classen Parent group like deleting posts as evidence when things become heated.

Students, though this action was not right, cornered Misti Tope in her office this Friday (05/03/24). This is how threatened they feel by Misti Tope, this is the environment she's creating.

[cantorpike]

do y'all ever watch an episode of star trek that makes your jew spidey senses tingle and you can just Tell some antisemites with no media literacy are probably at some point gonna try to use it to be antisemitic. or is it just me

[conceptofjoy]

W. Why did they hire a white teacher to an african american studies clas? [Altough maybe if she, y'know, actually studied the topic it wouldn't be so bad]

Even better question, why whould someone NOT KNOW what INTERSECTIONALITY IS in SOCIAL STUDIES CLASS??? HOW THE FUCK DID THEY EVEN ENROLL INTO IT?!? huH??????

lol she was nice but she got on my NERVES sometimes lol. white queer swiftie thats all im gonna say.

theres some things you lose when you have a white teacher teaching anyyyy kind of social studies class. the teacher cant speak from their experiences of being black, and sometimes it fuckin feels like the student's gotta enlighten them on topics that they're barely having the words to piece together (BECAUSE THEY'RE A KID).

like i knew what intersectionality was from a super young age. i knew there would be special challenges i would face because i was a black girl but i didnt know the term for it nor was i taught that was a Thing until i was in high school. i was like a 9th grader and i was like ohhh yeah yep. but for some people this was just a new thing they had to learn for a grade n that's it. toss the word right out their brain after they take a test bc it's not gonna be something they think about out side of school.

i fuckin hate public school.

[sarishim]

really wish people would stop throwing around the word n.azi to just describe anything/anyone they dont like.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

hi! on the historical mystery poll you mentioned a difference between mass murder vs ethnic cleansing re: the Final Solution - what is the difference? thanks and thanks for the public history work you do!

Hi! Thank you for your kind words.

Ethnic cleansing is the forced removal of an ethnic minority from a region/country, and its forced settlement in another area. While the end goal of ethnic cleansing, ostensibly, is not mass murder, the power perpetrating the ethnic cleansing is generally unbothered by any deaths which take place during or as a result of the ethnic cleansing process.

During the Holocaust, the Nazis considered having the Jews deported to Madagascar and Siberia at various intervals. The Madagascar plan failed because the Nazis could not defeat the British Empire: the power which controlled the seas. As for Siberia, first Stalin told Hitler that he couldn't deport all of the Reich's Jews into the USSR, and then the Nazis failed to conquer the USSR within three months of June 22, 1941. Meaning, that they still had nowhere to send their unwanted Jews. As a result of the failure of his plans for ethnically cleansing the Jews from Europe, Hitler determined that the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem was to be one of mass murder, or genocide.

Now, ethnic cleansing can often act as a shield for what is actually genocide. This took place during the Armenian genocide, and the Nazis used the language of "population resettlement," ie, ethnic cleansing, long after the first extermination camps became operational.

There are some instances of what we can term a "long genocide," such as Indonesian treatment of the indigenous population of West Papua since 1962. "Long genocides" in active conflict zones can involve ethnic cleansing and mass murder; sometimes at the same time, sometimes separately, and sometimes after long periods of inaction.

Let me know if you have follow-up questions!

[musings-of-a-lit-student]

Between The Lines

When you read literature you get to see the work of someone else, and interpret it. Our experiences shape our understanding of people relationships. The same way we note the information from newspapers, facts like those influence how we read other forms of media like reels, or videos.

Acknowledging the importance of absorbing information we come in contact with and the way it influences what we read in the future plays a big part in how we see the world. Maus is perhaps my favourite books simply for way Spiegelman encourages us to question what's going on at each point of the work.

The media we consume is important because be it the news or stories, we note that someone has an intent behind the things they say. Just as Vladek presents himself as more preferable in his retelling, we see Spiegelman discredit himself in order to sate his guilt. Maus is the perfect example of why things are shown the way they are, and it encourages us to question the motives of the writers.

When you read a news article, the writers may want to influence you in thinking poorly about one country, or candidate, or procedure. Even in this day and age, propaganda can be widespread, and it was often used in the wars to boost morale, sharing selective information about victories and less information about defeats.

Remembering that all the media you consume has a secondary purpose is important. Be it Tiktok- where people want to monetise their views, or movies where certain thoughts are propositioned. In analysing this book, I don't just hope to point out cool facts, and techniques used, but rather encourage you to consider the motivations for authorial choices in a narrative.

Crash Course Series