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December 09, 2005
How could we even suspect?
Most of us – I hope – can see the cynical politics at play when the leader of Iran expresses doubt that the Holocaust occurred. But as the last of the Holocaust survivors die off in the next few years, I have a great fear that Holocaust deniers will find too many willing believers among new generations.
This thought was sparked not only by news reports of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vile propaganda aimed at kicking the Jews out of Israel. It was also reinforced when my colleague Mark Travis pointed out a news item on an old Monitor front page taped to a poster board in his office. Hazen Smith, a longtime employee here, had pointed it out to Mark.
The newspaper is dated July 3, 1940, and contains a wonderful mishmash of news, in the style of old-time journalism. There is a story about the bonfires that will be set in Rolfe and Rollins Park the next day to celebrate the Fourth – the 50-foot flames licking the sky in Penacook and out-climbing the 35-footers in Concord. There is a story about a Laconia steeplejack who has been hired for $1,400 to regild the eagle on the State House Dome. In all, there are 29 stories on page 1!
It was one of the stories at the bottom that caught first Smitty’s eye, then Mark’s, then mine. The headline reads: “Hungary Ban On Jews Is Drastic.” In three inches of type, the story lays out new restrictions introduced by the Hungarian Nazi Party in Parliament on that day.
Among these restrictions, Jews may not:
– Drive automobiles.
– Buy books unless they are written in Hebrew or Yiddish.
– Marry, unless they are their families’ eldest sons or daughters.
– Retain Hungarian names; they must instead take “Hebrew” names.
– Hoist the Hungarian flag.
– Employ Gentile women under 40 years of age.
– Ride in regular railway cars.
– Buy anything from a peasant.
– Sign any legal document.
The lead story on the same page, a roundup of events in the war in Europe, contains this paragraph:
“Bloody anti-Semitic rioting spread throughout Rumania after disorders last night in which scores were injured and many believed killed. Many wealthy Jews fled to the country and others remained inside their homes as police and troops failed to bring the disturbances under control.”
This paper hit Concord doorsteps as people prepared to celebrate Independence Day in 1940.
1940!
Maybe you read in your history books that America’s leaders didn’t know about the Holocaust, or that reports of it were too fantastic to be taken seriously. But here, in plain words, Americans could read of Hungarian Nazis passing laws restricting the procreation of Jews and Rumanian authorities standing aside while Jews were killed and routed. How great a leap is it from these acts to the attempted extermination of the Jews?
Whether America could – or should – have done more to help the Jews of Europe is a complex issue. That’s not my point here.
What concerns me is how easy it was, when news of the Holocaust became widely known after the war, for people to say they had no idea anything like that was even possible, much less going on. And how easy it will be, once the Elie Wiesels of this world are gone from our midst, to persuade emerging generations that perhaps the Holocaust didn’t happen after all.
Posted by Mike Pride at December 9, 2005 05:26 PM