Why are Jews singled out in the Holocaust?

[Applesmack]

According to Nizkor Project, there are a total of 12 million Holocaust victims.

http://www.nizkor.org/

Yet, it is the Jews that are singled out and mourned while the rest are almost ignored by the media and society. Why is that? They definitely were the biggest group of victims by far, but they make up half the deaths...

[Salem1]

I suspect it has to do with the fact that no one really cares since people have been getting killed all the time. It was simply the first time that jews were collected and massacred. Of course, no one is going to admit to not caring once anyone says they don't, but I digress.

[Applesmack]

It was simply the first time that jews were collected and massacred.

At that scale? Yes, but Jews have been collected and massacred almost their whole history.

[Salem1]

At that scale? Yes, but Jews have been collected and massacred almost their whole history.

Yeah that's pretty much my point. I would also like to know the answer of this question, but yeah.

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

Because the Jews have been the most vocal about their suffering I would suspect (Elie Wiesel for example) While most of the other groups kept relatively quite.

[Farnan]

Because of scale.

2/3rds of all Jews died in the camps. European Jewry was nearly wiped out.

[Applesmack]

Because of scale.

2/3rds of all Jews died in the camps. European Jewry was nearly wiped out.

So it is some percentage thing? Suffering of anyone but Jews is generally ignored because they had the largest percentage of their population exterminated? Therefore non-Jew death in Holocaust =/= Jew death because there are more non-Jews than Jews?

[Farnan]

So it is some percentage thing? Suffering of anyone but Jews is generally ignored because they had the largest percentage of their population exterminated? Therefore non-Jew death in Holocaust =/= Jew death because there are more non-Jews than Jews?

Well that is why its more well known.

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum takes great pains to mention the non-Jewish killed to. They actually have a large exhibit on the killing of the handicapped and mention the Russian, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses and Homosexuals who were killed too. And they have a genocide awareness campaign to bring to light current genocides.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php...uleId=10005149

[Boer]

I think most of the focus is on Jewish deaths because more Jews were killed than any other single group and most of the western world (at least) has a sizable, integrated and fairly powerful Jewish community to insure they are remembered. Off the top of my head I can name a bunch of famous Jews but not a single Jehovah's Witnesses or gypsies.

Suffering of anyone but Jews is generally ignored because they had the largest percentage of their population exterminated?

I've read that Jehovah's Witnesses had the largest percentage killed, but I've certainly never dug through the numbers personally.

[Xanthippus of Sparta]

Because of scale.

2/3rds of all Jews died in the camps. European Jewry was nearly wiped out.

This.

But I would agree that other groups that were targeted by the Nazis don't get as much of a mention.

Something like 30 million Russians died in WWII. Only like a quarter of them were soldiers.

About 16-17% of the Polish population was killed during the war. The highest percentage among any nation involved in the conflict.

[El Brujo]

most of the western world (at least) has a sizable, integrated and fairly powerful Jewish community to insure they are remembered.

This is the main reason.

[Romano-Dacis]

This is the main reason.

With the emphasis on powerful. Hard to forget what happened to the Jews when they are so prolific in Hollywood and in American politics, not even mentioning organizations like AIPAC. If you take offense at this then it's your problem; it's just a fact.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BOOK for anyone still confused on the reason.

[Cornelius Plautus]

Antisemitism has been a staple of European society for pretty much all time. Famous and respected Germans like Martin Luther and Richard Wagner already established their Antisemitic beliefs with essays like On Jews and their Lies or Die Iuden in der musik, respectively. Many German commanders even blamed Jews on their loss of World War I. The Jews were a very put upon people, and so it was natural for the Germans to hate them. Additionally -from what I gather- Jews seem to be associated with non-violence by the average American; often times, I am asked 'What did the Jews ever do' or 'Why the Jews; they never hurt anybody'. Since people like gays, communists and gypsies are also hated in America, some Americans would rather not admit to their presence among Holocaust victims, perhaps, in the case of the gays, at least, because associating them with that sort of suffering demands a certain level of respect towards them as a groups. For a number of American conservatives, swallowing pride to mourn the suffering of a gay person would be a near unbearable swallowing of pride.

[Justinian]

Antisemitism has been a staple of European society for pretty much all time. Famous and respected Germans like Martin Luther and Richard Wagner already established their Antisemitic beliefs with essays like On Jews and their Lies or Die Iuden in der musik, respectively. Many German commanders even blamed Jews on their loss of World War I. The Jews were a very put upon people, and so it was natural for the Germans to hate them. Additionally -from what I gather- Jews seem to be associated with non-violence by the average American; often times, I am asked 'What did the Jews ever do' or 'Why the Jews; they never hurt anybody'. Since people like gays, communists and gypsies are also hated in America, some Americans would rather not admit to their presence among Holocaust victims, perhaps, in the case of the gays, at least, because associating them with that sort of suffering demands a certain level of respect towards them as a groups. For a number of American conservatives, swallowing pride to mourn the suffering of a gay person would be a near unbearable swallowing of pride.

I don't think most Americans know what exactly a gypsy is, much less hate them. It's hard to hate someone you have never seen or met.

[Cornelius Plautus]

I don't think most Americans know what exactly a gypsy is, much less hate them. It's hard to hate someone you have never seen or met.

Yeah, that one wasn't the strongest of arguments; however, we could replace 'gypsy' with prostitute and you'd have the same rough idea.

[dogukan]

It's hard to hate someone you have never seen or met.

no it isn't

[Dr. Croccer]

I don't think most Americans know what exactly a gypsy is, much less hate them. It's hard to hate someone you have never seen or met.

Heh. I loved how the Yankees here were shocked and appalled at the thread about the gypos in Italy a few months, because of the seemenly extremely prejudiced and racist comments made by the Eurasians here.

don't think the Ottomans liked them much either.

The Ottomans didn't really have a problem with the Jews and visa versa. The millet system meant that both groups lived relatively segregated from eachother and were quite happy with that. It wasn't untill the Young Turk revolution that the Empire took a far harsher stance on ethnic minorities. Even then, Jews were treated extremely lighly compared to the Greeks and Armenians.

Britain was quite anti-semitic as well. There were few powerful anti-semitic groups but Britain was one of the hotbeds of anti-semitic literature.

[Ludicus]

The Ottomans didn't really have a problem with the Jews and visa versa. .

Indeed, A letter from Rabbi Issac Sarfarti of Constantinople to Lisbon: " Turkey is a land where nothing is lacking,, and where all shall be well with you. It´s not better live under the Moslems than under the Christians? Here many dwell at peace beneath his own vine and his own fig tree"
By the way the Jewish migrants brought with them to Turkey tobacco, which became one of its main exports. And the Jews began the sale of Turkish tobacco overseas, a trade they continued until the Nazi Holocaust. They introduced techniques of weaving textiles, and they also introduced modern techniques of manafacturing munitions. And more: as elsewhere, they introduced printing. As they had only Hebrew type fonts, they published works in Portuguese and Turkish, transliterated into Hebrew characters.
The introduced printing in Portugal, and here they were most proeminent in most fields of scolarship (medicine/mathematics/astronomy,etc). I would like to add, without which the discoveries beyond Europe could not have been achieved.

[Dracula]

And more: as elsewhere, they introduced printing. As they had only Hebrew type fonts, they published works in Portuguese and Turkish, transliterated into Hebrew characters.
The introduced printing in Portugal, and here they were most proeminent in most fields of scolarship (medicine/mathematics/astronomy,etc). I would like to add, without which the discoveries beyond Europe could not have been achieved.

That is ludicrous. The printing in Ottoman empire was not introduced by jews, neither they matter about the Great Geogaphical Discoveries.

[Boyar Son]

Heh. I loved how the Yankees here were shocked and appalled at the thread about the gypos in Italy a few months, because of the seemenly extremely prejudiced and racist comments made by the Eurasians here.

what's worth loving?