An Edah Editorial
By Dr. Efraim Zuroff
A Plea for Jewish Action Against the Crimes
Being Committed in Darfur
Dr.Efraim Zuroff
It is fair to assume that it is not by accident that the "Save
Darfur" rally planned for this coming week, April 30th, in Washington was
scheduled in close proximity (5 days apart) to Yom Hashoa. We can also expect
the Holocaust to be invoked forcefully by those presenting the case for urgent
action to end the mass murders being carried out in Sudan. Such a link is only
natural given the fact that ever since the end of World War II, when its true
scope was revealed, the Holocaust has become the unofficial yardstick for large-scale
man-made tragedies.
From 1945 on, practically every case of mass murder, ethnic
cleansing, and genocide-from Biafra to Cambodia to Bosnia to Rwanda-has invariably
been compared to the systematic, industrialized annihilation of European Jewry.
In fact, in recent years, this tendency has become even stronger as worldwide
awareness of the Holocaust has grown enormously and the Shoa has become the
paradigm of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Thus during the past two
decades, the attitude toward various issues which directly relate to the Holocaust
such as racism, anti-Semitism, and discrimination on ethnic, religious, or nationalistic
grounds have become litmus tests for countries, organizations, and individuals
to measure their internalization of Western democratic values and their suitability
to join multinational forums such as NATO and the European Union.
While these developments can undoubtedly be considered an important victory
for the Jewish people, having ostensibly turned our greatest tragedy into a
worldwide vaccination of sorts against racism and anti-Semitism, they have also
aroused several serious concerns. Foremost among them is the fear that the worldwide
adoption of the Holocaust as the most authentic yardstick of manmade tragedy
will ultimately lead to a dilution or diminution of its Jewish component. The
Jewish identity of its victims will become irrelevant, the Shoa will be relativized
in relation to other tragedies, and we will have betrayed the memory of our
martyrs in return for universal recognition and values.
This tension between the particularistic and universal aspects of Holocaust
commemoration, education, and most important, the implications we learn from
the events of the Shoa will undoubtedly continue to pose a serious problem in
the coming decades for Jewish leaders and educators, who will have to find innovative
solutions to enable these two components to coexist in peace without destroying
one another. Under these circumstances, it is particularly important that this
tension and the danger of over universalization of the Holocaust not inhibit
or hinder the Jewish response to other cases of mass murder and genocide. We
cannot allow the misuse or misappropriation of the Shoa its history, imagery
and symbols, and/or its moral lessons to dissuade us from speaking out against
genocide and ethnic cleansing whenever and wherever they occur, and even more
important to do whatever we can to stop these crimes and alleviate the plight
of their victims.
In this respect, the fact that most of the world stood idly by while six million
Jews were being murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators has always been
an important dimension of the tragedy and one of the most critical lessons of
the Holocaust which we have tried to impart to the world. But to have real meaning,
that lesson has to be taken seriously not only by the nations of the world who
failed to save European Jewry, but also by the Jewish people who today are in
a position to render meaningful assistance against these crimes. Basic Jewish
morality demands this of us, whether we had suffered a tragedy of the dimensions
of the Shoa or not, but the fact that we were the Nazis’ primary victim
doubly reinforces our obligation.
We who have preached to the world for decades about the failure to save the
Jews who faced Nazi genocide, cannot ignore the plight of other victims of heinous
crimes. Our response, moreover, will in no way diminish or impugn the memory
of the Holocaust. If anything, the success of a Jewish effort against the perpetrators
of contemporary mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and genocide will only reinforce
the power of the memory of the Holocaust and its unique importance not only
for us but also for the entire world.
So as we face the terrible crimes being committed in Darfur and its vicinity
by Arab militias supported by the Sudanese government, we have a Jewish obligation
to speak out against the murders and try our utmost to facilitate prompt action
to save those targeted by the killers.
For years we have been preaching “Never Again,” and
we have proven our dedication to saving Jews in distress time and again, but
the time has now come to clearly demonstrate that the holy pledge made in the
wake of the Holocaust applies to the rest of the world as well. Such activities
will not betray the memory of its victims but only reinforce their posthumous
honor. In the words of Hillel in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers), “If
I am not for myself, who will be for me, and when I am only for myself what
am I, and if not now, then when?
Dr. Efraim Zuroff is Simon Wiesenthal Center's Chief Nazi
Hunter and head of the Israel office.
