Atheist on Holocaust memorial: ‘It’s important that we not give the Holocaust to just the Jews’

[rug]

By Arturo Garcia
Friday, July 26, 2013 17:42 EDT

The leader of an atheism activist group clashed with Fox News host Sydney Bream on Friday over a proposed Holocaust memorial for the Ohio Statehouse that would bear a Jewish Star of David, saying it would marginalize other groups affected by genocidal efforts by the Nazis during World War II.

“It’s important that we not give the Holocaust to just the Jews,” American Atheists president David Silverman told Bream. “There were a lot of people who died.”

The memorial, which would be placed on the Statehouse lawn in Columbus, has been criticized by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) for including only that symbol on the approved design.

Silverman told Bream that while his group wouldn’t oppose the Star of David being on the building if it were accompanied by other religious symbols, the current design did not account for 40 percent of the Nazis’ victims not being Jewish, and noted the targeting of the handicapped, Romani and gay and lesbian communities during the Holocaust.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/26/atheist-activist-on-ohio-holocaust-memorial-its-important-that-we-not-give-the-holocaust-to-just-the-jews/

I'm sure they'd be happy to give it back.

4:25 video at link.

[cbayer]

1. Wow, what a very unfortunate choice of words

and also a very unfortunate choice of battles, imo.

They should be putting their resources behind the military group that is fighting for secular chaplains or an effort to stop Mary Landrieu's ludicrous proposed law or stopping the rising theocracy in N. Carolina or hundreds of other badly needed objectives.

This is just a PR nightmare. It looks like a temple? Really?

No it doesn't.

[rug]

2. Watch the video if you can. He also called it immoral.

[cbayer]

3. And a member here called it a giant "Fuck you" to people of no or other religions.

They need somebody to help them with PR. Trying to separate the holocaust from Judaism is a big, fat mistake.

Can't watch the video. Not only are the boy scouts up, but it's saturday and the population has tripled.

Can barely open web pages.

[LostOne4Ever]

4. While I agree that its a poor choice of words and battles

I must politely disagree else where.

It might not be popular but there were millions of victims who were not jewish who also died during the holocaust including the disabled, communists, gypsies, ethnic poles, serbs and homosexuals. They all deserve someone to stand up for them.

They should all be honored for the horrors inflicted upon them. The solution to the problem seems simple enough though. Just add symbols for the other groups as well. Or they could remove the star. Either way it should not be a big deal...unless this is not really about the holocaust at all but rather promoting a religion.

The message remains the same if they did either of what im suggesting. Honoring those who died and reminding people what happens when good people remain silent. Im glad Mr. Silverman chose not to remain silent.

[bunnies]

6. The inscription:

"Inspired by the Ohio soldiers who were part of the American liberation and survivors who made Ohio their home. If you save one life, it is as if you have saved the world."

"In remembrance the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust and millions more including prisoners of war, ethnic and religious minorities, homosexuals, the mentally ill, the disabled, and political dissidents were suffered under Nazi Germany."

[LostOne4Ever]

7. But only one group gets a symbol?

Why not a hammer and scythe for the Communists and a rainbow flag for the Homosexuals? A polish flag for the poles? Serbian flag for the serbs? And so on.

Again, it would not take much to make sure they all had a symbol. Put up some flags atop the wall and maybe an empty wheelchair on one of the sides. What is the big deal?

[bunnies]

8. I get what youre saying but...

I agree with your last sentence most. Whats the big deal? The memorial is beautiful and not at all what I expected given the interview posted. Did you see the mock-up? I posted it down-thread.

[LostOne4Ever]

12. From the article

Last edited Sun Jul 28, 2013, 01:55 PM - Edit history (1)

It looks like the issue is wanting to keep the memorial from being overshadowed by the religious imagery and possibly be taken as an endorsement of religion and at the same time making sure that the other groups get equal treatment in someway.

I know the plaque mentions the other victims but you know how the right is, they will distort anything to try and destroy the separation of church and state, and use it as a means to get the state to endorse Christianity.

There is one commenter down below trying (as is) to assert that Mr Silverman is "somehow" being anti-Semitic and lying about the numbers saying that jews made up 95% of the victims while he himself is trying to ignore the polish and serbian casualties.

Yes, I saw it from the news link in the article. It is a beautiful monument and that why I said that the wall could be used for some flags or plaques with other symbols and how there is room for an empty wheelchair or something of that nature.

I hate being a hardass on something like this, but it really does not strike me as fair to the other victims, and my paranoia when it comes to the religious right has me worried that they will find SOMEWAY of using the monument to excuse a ten commandments monument or something of that sort.

[cbayer]

9. And they are all reportedly recognized on the memorial, though to a lesser

degree. Whether it is exactly proportionate, I don't know.

[bunnies]

5. I think the design is really, really cool.

By what Silverman said, I expected something completely different.

[pinto]

10. Speaking as a gay man, I've no problem with the memorial.

Jews were the primary target of the Nazi "cleansing". I appreciate that the inscription includes gays, Romani, the mentally ill and others who the fascist regime saw as "undesirables".

And agree - “It’s important that we not give the Holocaust to just the Jews” is off-base. We don't 'give' the Holocaust to anyone. Those that died and suffered through it already own it. As do the generations that followed after WWII. Jews, gays, Romani, the mentally ill, the disabled, political dissidents. I share that with them.

I don't need a pink triangle next to the Star of David to recognize that. Jews bore the brunt of Nazi terrorism. The memorial is fitting, imo.

[cbayer]

11. Well said, pinto.

I like the FFRF and support their efforts, but this seems off base.

[Goblinmonger]

13. Most people don't even understand the genocide of the Romani

It was horrible and they were usually the first to be killed and hunted quite overtly. Shouldn't we be at the point where we can acknowledge that it wasn't just the Jews that were genocided in WWII? And, yes, I have Romani ancestors.