Outraged reactions pour in after an op-ed, published on Holocaust Remembrance Day, says “Hitler was just one of many dictators.”
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
A major Kentucky paper ran an op-ed Friday, which coincided with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, saying that the day should be turned into a memorial for all victims of hatred, prompting outraged reactions from readers.
The opinion piece in the Courier-Journal, part of the USA Today Network owned by the Gannet news conglomerate, said that it was wrong to particularize the attempted extermination of the Jewish people during World War II.
“If we as a community only focus on one religion, only one event, we are then negating and trivializing the horrors of the past and the injustices of today,” the group of five writers said. “International Holocaust Day is not just a mantra about one Jewish holocaust, but about every genocide, every mass tyranny that is carried out upon any group based on skin color, religion, gender identity and ethnic background.”
“Hitler was just one of many dictators,” they added.
The writers went as far as charging that such memorialization actually hurts other groups.
“Jews do not have a monopoly on persecution and atrocities,” they wrote. “For one group, for one person, to claim that the hate and violence towards them is more important than another’s, only encourages more acts of violence against others, including Black people, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, LGBTQ+, trans-gender and Native Americans. This list is not all-inclusive.”
Readers were outraged by the call to turn the day into an all-inclusive memorial for victims, taking to Twitter to jibe at the authors about other days that focus exclusively on one group yet are seemingly acceptable to them.
“This September 11th – we should also remember all those other plane crashes over the years…” wrote one, while another said, “And don’t forget, with Black History Month coming up, it’s good to remember there are more races than black.”
Many attributed the seeming intent to downplay the Holocaust to antisemitism.
“How anti Semitic of you to ‘all lives matter’ the Holocaust,” tweeted one user, with another commenting, “Your op-ed is designed to create an air of impropriety where there is no impropriety.”
“Are there days of sacred remembrance for other communities that you would interrupt with a dismissive reminder that other people have also suffered?” asked a third, “or is it just Jewish people who receive this treatment?”
A fourth responder spoke for many when he wrote, “No, Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day to remember the Holocaust. They even called it ‘Holocaust Remembrance Day’ to make this easy to understand.”
Among the op-ed authors were two former local politicians and a lawyer.