Commemoration & Fetish

To:--San Francisco Chronicle

Re:--Auschwitz blueprints presented to Israel (A P), reporting on the presentation of "chilling" blue prints of "gas chambers, crematoria and delousing facilities" to Israel's prime minister.

And so the "holo-cult" grows... this time with reliquiaries (the "original prints") and ever more idiotic statements such as the assertion that Nazi genocide gets "more incomprehensible" with time.

Does this mean that Nazi genocide was somewhat more comprehensible in April 1945 --horrible but "understandable"? Was it horrible, horrible and only a tad understandble in 1965? And is it now so horrible horrible horrible and not understandable that all we can do is tremble and puke? This sort of thing has all the hallmarks of a taboo.

No - I do not think we need to keep the "Incomprehensible Holocaust" ever before us in our minds ...daily... like some sort of monstrance or ritual. That is not how we learn anything. We learn from history by keeping our own conduct in mind. By focusing on what we are doing, what we are ignoring, what we are too lazy to protest against. Nazi genocide was a terrible crime; but there's an important difference between commemoration and fetish.

.