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Chapter 3THE ISSUE OF THE HOLOCAUST AS A UNIQUE EVENTby Alan Rosenberg and Evelyn SilvermanIf the Holocaust was a truly unique event, then itlies beyond our comprehension. If it was nottruly unique, then there is no unique lesson to belearned from it. Viewed solely from theperspective of its uniqueness, the Holocaust mustbe considered either incomprehensible or trivial.A contexualist analysis, on the other hand, findsthat it was neither "extra historical" nor justanother atrocity. It is possible to view theHolocaust as unprecedented in many respectsand as an event of critical and transformationalimportance in the history of our world. Usingthis method, we can determine the ways in whichthe uniqueness question both helps and hindersour quest for understanding of the Holocaust.The question of the "uniqueness" of the Holocausthas itself become a unique question. When we approachthe Holocaust, we are at once confronted with adilemma: if the Holocaust is the truly unique andunprecedented historical event that it is often held tobe, then it must exceed the possibility of humancomprehension, for it lies beyond the reach of ourcustomary historical and sociological means of inquiryand understanding. But if it is not a historically uniqueevent, if it is simply one more incident in the longhistory of man's inhumanity to man, there is no specialpoint in trying to understand it, no unique lesson tobe learned. Yehuda Bauer states the problem from asomewhat different perspective:If what happenedto the Jews was unique,then it took place outside of history, itbecomes a mysterious event, an upside-downmiracle, so to speak, an event of religioussignificance in the sense that it is notman-made as that term is normally under-stood. On the other hand, if it is not uniqueat all, then where are the parallels or theprecedents?'Of all the enigmas, paradoxes, and dilemmasfacing Holocaust scholarship' the "uniqueness question"is surely the most vexing and divisive; it is the onequestion most likely to evoke partisan debate and togenerate emotional heat in discussion. ' This is mostrecently evident in what has come to be called the"Historian's Debate" or, the Historikerstreit, a volatileThe Issue of the Holocaust as a Unique Event 47
debate of German origin about which we will say morelater.The prominence of the issue of uniqueness,however, has not often been dealt with systematicallyin the literature. No previously published bibliographyon the "uniqueness question" exists, and although manyimportant writings on the Holocaust implicitly includethe issue, relatively few writings in the vast Holocaustliterature address the question of uniqueness directly.Thus the reader will find that the bibliography at theend of this introduction contains fewer annotations ofarticles that deal directly with the issue and many morewhose main focus is elsewhere and from which theuniqueness issue has to be inferred.In our own efforts at analysis of the issuesunderlying the "uniqueness question, " we have beenstruck by the very oddity of the question itself, for itis strange that there should be argument about it at all.What strikes us as peculiar about it is that the legitimacyof the question as such is so taken for granted, soreadily is it assumed that the uniqueness of the Holocaustis not merely a fit subject for analysis but is aproblem of the very first rank in importance.The anomaly here is just that the "uniquenessquestion" itself is taken to be crucially relevant to anunderstanding of the Holocaust although it is relevantto few — if any — other landmark events of history. Onefinds little discussion, for example, of the "uniqueness"of the Protestant Reformation or the Industrial Revolution.The atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki— surely qualified as "unique" and "unprecedented"in terms of their implications for the future of humankind— is simply not the subject of debate concerningits "uniqueness;" nor does it involve controversy andserious divisions of opinion. If the "uniqueness" of suchevents as these, events that have radically altered ourworld, is not in question, why is it that the "uniquenessquestion" has assumed such prominence in the contextof Holocaust studies? Why is the question itself so hotlycontested? Some authorities on the history of theHolocaust go so far as to claim that the stance that onetakes with respect to the "uniqueness question" determinesthe way in which one relates the Holocaust tothe rest of human history, influencing every dimensionof one's interpretation and evaluation of the event itsel f.Comparabilityor UniquenessAccording to Saul Friedlander, for example,before we can begin to analyze any number of thecentral issues surrounding the Holocaust we must firstdeal with "a preliminary issue of crucial importancefor every aspect of the Holocaust: are we dealing witha phenomenon comparable with some other historicalevent or are we facing something unique not onlywithin any traditional and historical context, but evenwithin Nazism itself? "4 George Kren and Leon Rappoportcall the "uniqueness question" very important, for,"depending upon how it is answered, the generalorientation of interpretive analysis will obviously varya great deal. "' And again, insistence upon its historicaluniqueness may, according to Yehuda Bauer, renderthe Holocaust irrelevant except as a specifically Jewishtragedy. Here is the thrust of Bauer's argument:If what happens to the Jews is unique, thenby definition it doesn't concern us, beyondour pity and commiseration for the victims.If the Holocaust is not a universal problem,then why should a public school system inPhiladelphia, New York or Timbuktu teachit? Well, the answer is that there is nouniqueness, not even of a unique event.Anything that happens once, can happenagain: not quite in the same way, perhaps,but in an equivalent form. 'In what follows we shall be addressing the problemsand issues that are raised by texts like these, texts citedhere simply as evidence that — for Holocaust studies— the "uniqueness question" is at once paramountand problematic.It is clear, moreover, that the "uniqueness question"has become a matter of concern to the Jewish andChristian lay community as well as to professionalscholars in the field. One need only think of the publicdebate over the issues of the inclusion of the Holocaustin the social studies curriculum of the New York Cityschool system or the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Councilto see how sensitive the issue has become, especiallywithin the Jewish community itself. ' We may ask ifthis special sensitivity is not itself an impediment tomore widespread dialogue, thus hampering the verycause of understanding that Jews support. For, asProfessor Ismar Schorsch states, the Jews' "obsession"with the uniqueness claim "impedes genuine dialogue,because it introduces an extraneous contentious issuethat alienates potential allies from among other victimsof organized human depravity. Similarly, our fixationon uniqueness has prevented us from reaching out byuniversalizing the lessons of the Holocaust. "'Three Principal OptionsConsiderations such as these clearly imply that,if we are to widen and deepen our understanding ofthe Holocaust, we must deal with the claim of "uniqueness"by developing a strategy that will free us fromthe conceptual muddles that presently cloud the issue.We must be clear as to the meaning of the claim itself48 GENOCIDE
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GenocldeIn OurTlme- ,*"f* *An Annot
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DEDICATIONTo Raphael Lemkin(1901-19
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Chapter 5:The Armenian Genocide: Re
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Appendix 167Appendix: Chronology of
Page 10 and 11: ending sources of joy and hope. In
Page 12 and 13: Massive human suffering caused by p
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Page 16 and 17: CIIAPTER IETHNOCIDEby Alison Palmer
Page 18 and 19: als are tempted away by the promise
Page 20 and 21: Interactionsof Ethnocide and Genoci
Page 22 and 23: Chapter 1: AnnotatedBibliographyRea
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Page 26 and 27: upon the purge of cultural and scie
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Page 30 and 31: whites. Lizot proposes that integra
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Page 40 and 41: ate and beleaguered institutions th
Page 42 and 43: In one of the most important works
Page 44 and 45: focusing on children, the most vuln
Page 46 and 47: ~ 2. 35 ~Sereny, Gita. Into That Da
Page 48 and 49: were less than 200 Jewish survivors
Page 50 and 51: ~ 2. 68 ~Nomberg-Przytyk, Sara. Aus
Page 52 and 53: of the war. The movement was known
Page 54 and 55: ~ 2. 103 ~Wyman, David S. The Aband
Page 56 and 57: * 2. 122 ~Wiesenthal, Simon. The Su
Page 58 and 59: and Christianity. He argues that it
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Page 66 and 67: historical event. All transformatio
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Page 70 and 71: 3 7Berenbaum, Michael. "The Uniquen
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Page 76 and 77: framework, Marrus accepts the Holoc
Page 78 and 79: as "the cement of Jewish identity,
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Page 84 and 85: 10. Lawrence Langer, Versions of Su
Page 86 and 87: ~ 4. 10 ~Sichrovsky, Peter. Born Gu
Page 88 and 89: Appendix: The Diaryby Agi Rubinwith
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Page 96 and 97: Chapter 5THE ARMENIANGENOCIDE:REVIS
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Page 100 and 101: Abdications and Retributions Turkey
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that the history of the Armenians c
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Realities Based on Ottoman Document
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designed to falsely accuse Ottoman
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and Western gullibility and predile
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ambition to retain as much of Russi
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Terror-FamineMemoir literature and
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independence and viability of the U
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So many members of the All-Ukraine
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~ 6. 26 ~Heller, Mikhail, and Aleks
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ousness of the present one. In his
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of structured social inequality, cr
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or religious group, as such. "" The
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and the general degradation of publ
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easier by the fact that those who'd
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26. William Safire, "Object: Surviv
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74. Quoted in Paul Walker and Eric
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es: People in the Machines of Death
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¹ 7. 16 ¹Dadrian, Vahakn N. "A Th
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Corporate Enterprise at Auschwitz"
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* 7. 47 +Nolan, Janne E. , and Albe
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and sometimes irrational. " (p. 7)
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able to evaluate various nuclear we
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In an angry, stimulating book, Aske
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Lang reflects on how technology fac
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This is a pioneering collection of
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"good reasons" for not offering the
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take consistent ethical actions aga
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sadisChart: Taking a Stand Against
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This indicator refers to an advance
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14. Louis Rene Beres, "Genocide, St
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to horrible new acts of violence ag
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* 8. 27 ~Horowitz, Irving Louis. Ge
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~ 8. 41 ~Lifton, Robert J. , and Er
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~ 8. 56 ~Thompson, John L. P. "Geno
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CountryDatesPer petratorsVictimsEst
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Dwork, DeborahDyer, Gwynne. . . . .
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Morgenthau, Henry . . . . . '. . .
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TITLE INDEXThe Abandonment of the J
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"Epilogue: The Nuclear Arms Raceand
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The Industrialization of Soviet Rus
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Psychiatric Aspects of the Preventi
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When Memory ComesWhile Six Million
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