Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Carr and the History of World War II
Whoopi Goldberg stepped into it recently by arguing that the Holocaust was not about racism because it was a white-on-white crime, not a white-on-black crime. She was roundly (but not universally) criticized and then suspended from The Vie for two weeks to give her time for reflection.
Up front, I don’t think she should have been suspended. This is not school where principals can “suspend” students, but more importantly, Whoopi has no known history of anti-Semitism. She was poorly informed, for sure (as the concept of “race” historically and internationally is about much more than skin color), but this was a teachable moment if there ever was one. In my small way, that’s what I want to achieve – a teachable moment.
Here, for example, is a far worse example of misrepresenting and trivializing the Holocaust. Jimmy Carr, a British comedian, in a recent Netflix special in his home country, said from the stage that a "positive" of the Holocaust was that thousands of gypsies were murdered. The comments were greeted with applause and laughter, too!
When I saw the headline in a BBC report – “Jimmy Carr sparks fury with Holocaust routine in Netflix special” – I admit I assumed the offensive remark had been made at the expense of Jews. Yet I was reminded that the Nazis killed people other than the Jews, such as Roma and Sinti people (the “gypsies”), people who were largely stateless itinerants for generations across Europe, but more commonly in Central Europe. The BBC report went on to report that between 200,000 and 500,000 were killed in World War II, and they do count as Holocaust victims because they were not combatants. Their murder, as that of the Jews, was not tactical or a means to take land or push back an enemy army. Their murder was an end in itself.
The BBC noted that the Roma and Sinti often were sent to concentration camps along with Jews but it could have added that they also were targeted earlier in the war by the Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads that largely killed by massacre, targeting not only Jews and “gypsies,” but Poles, Communists in conquered territory, as well as clerics and others who were known or suspected to be anti-fascist. The acceleration of the death camps came in response to international news reports (albeit often buried on inside pages of leading newspapers such as The New York Times) that highlighted the crimes. After all, there were witnesses.
I’ve long been concerned that most people today would think World War II was fought to save the Jews. But that conflict, which killed at least 50 million all told, including combatants and civilians on both sides, as well as those who died in the Holocaust, was most certainly not fought to save the Jews. You might want to read up on the Evian Conference convened in France in July 1938. Thirty-two countries were represented but none made a strong commitment to take in Jews; the Australian representative said that whilst his country did not have a Jewish problem it did not seek to import one, and the Polish representative suggested his country might want to deport its Jews, as well, so clearly would take none in from Germany.
World War II was not fought to save the Jews. As far as American involvement was concerned, many in Congress were isolationist and did not want to get involved, but FDR was an anglophile who also understood that democracy across the world would falter if Hitler were not stopped. This also was the position of the British, including the much-maligned Neville Chamberlain and of course Winston Churchill. The only question was when and how, not “if” the Nazis had to be stopped.
We need better, broader and deeper education about all sorts of critical historical events. I’ve thought of crediting the Soviet Red Army with making the greatest sacrifices in World War II, except that it was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed in 1939 between the USSR and Hitler that allowed Nazi Germany to invade Poland and then Belgium and the Netherlands and France in Western Europe.
The Holocaust must be remembered but so must all the history of World War II.