Earlier in the week I discussed the amazingly ignorant comments of Assemblyman Dov Hikind regarding the Holocaust, where he claimed it was a uniquely Jewish event, thus ignoring 5 million non-Jews killed by the Nazis. I also posted comments by Dov Hikind's political ally, Brad Lander, and one of Brad's political rivals, Gary Reilly, criticizing Dov Hikind's ignorance.

Josh Skaller, another candidate in the race for the 39th City Council seat, has this to say about the controversy:

I am saddened that some oppose honoring all Holocaust victims. The Holocaust has a deep meaning for all Americans. The memorial should recognize everyone who lost their lives in this terrible chapter of human history. By seeing and acknowledging the full scope of this tragedy, we do our part to make sure it doesn't happen again.  read more »

Earlier this week I wrote about Assemblyman Dov Hikind's ignorance regarding the Holocaust. Dov Hikind opposes adding five stone markers honoring the 5 million non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust to the 234 markers honoring the 6 million Jewish victims at Brooklyn's Holocaust Memorial Park. The excuse for opposing honoring the 5 million non-Jews who died at the hands of Nazi brutality is: (from the DAILY NEWS Sunday, June 7th 2009)

"The Holocaust is a uniquely Jewish event," said Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn)...

As I discussed in my last article on the subject (where I also quote the Daily News more extensively), Dov Hikind is rewriting history here, writing out 5 million victims of the Holocaust and joins hands with the Iranians in being a Holocaust denier. I should add that Dov Hikind has previously openly supported racial profiling of Muslim Americans and keeping blacks out of "good neighborhoods," so he is known for his intolerance.  read more »

Those of you who read my stuff regularly know that I have covered a great deal of Jewish history including much about the Holocaust. But one thing I always try to emphasize, and my recent reading of the classic history of Nazi Germany, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich emphasizes this, is that the Holocaust is about more than just the Jews. Roughly (and the numbers are debated, but are unquestionably large and horrific) 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Roughly 5 million others, including Gypsies, homosexuals, Catholics, communists, Eastern Europeans, liberals, etc. were also killed in the Holocaust. The first concentration camps did not house Jews, but rather political dissidents including Catholics, communists and liberals. Racial genocide was aimed to a large degree against Jews, but also Gypsies and Slavs. Plus the mentally ill of all races were targeted for genocide.

Those are facts, and they are pretty harsh and brutal facts. Nazi Germany targeted a wide range of humanity in their insane, disgusting attack on civilization.  read more »

This is an interesting monument in Warsaw, Poland, marking the boundary of the Warsaw Ghetto. For more info on the most famous event of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Ghetto uprising, go here (used to have pictures but those links seem defunct). This new info comes from the Jewish Heritage E-Report (November 13, 2008) Edited by Samuel D. Gruber (see also here.)

To my surprise, I came across a new monument on ulica Bielanska, not far from the site of the (destroyed) Great Synagogue that gave me a clue about the Wall. I had not heard of this monument and it is not yet included on any map or in any guide. As it happens it is but one small part of an ambitious new project by the City of Warsaw and the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Jewish Historical Institute (JHI) to bring back the memory of the wall. The work is still in progress, but will be officially inaugurated at the JHI next week, on November 19th.  read more »

The Mormon "church" has been in the news quite a lot lately, due to that organization's successful attack on the civil rights of LGBTQ Americans in California. However, coverage drives more coverage, and now, there's this.

Holocaust survivors to Mormons: Stop baptisms of dead Jews

Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say they are making changes to their massive genealogical database that will make it more difficult for names of Holocaust victims to be entered for posthumous baptism by proxy, a rite that has been a common Mormon practice for more than a century.

But Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, said that is not enough. At a news conference in New York City on Monday, he said the church also must "implement a mechanism to undo what you have done."

"Baptism of a Jewish Holocaust victim and then merely removing that name from the database is just not acceptable," said Michel, whose parents died at Auschwitz. He spoke on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against Jews.

"We ask you to respect us and our Judaism just as we respect your religion," Michel said in a statement released ahead of the news conference. "We ask you to leave our six million Jews, all victims of the Holocaust, alone, they suffered enough."

Is it even possible to do anything more offensive?