You are here: 2000 / Workshops, Panels and Seminars / Workshops on Education / Workshop 5 on Education, "Religious and Ethical Teachings and the Holocaust" / Presentation by Dr. Franklin H. Littell
	Participants Countries and organizations Conference documentation Conference programme				Report from Workshop 5 on Education: "Regigious and Ethical Teachings and the Presentation by Rabbi Irving Greenberg Presentation by Dr. Franklin H. Littell Presentation by Dr. Elisabeth Maxwell Presentation by Dr. Stanislaw Obirek Presentation by Dr. Didier Pollefeyt Presentation by Professor John K. Roth Presentation by Dr. Franklin H. Littell Littell, Franklin H. Presentation by Dr. Franklin H. Littell The best teachers warn us against handling the theme of "Holocaust" in too facile a manner. Elie Wiesel urges that the walk on sacred ground be made in respectful silence. Emil Fackenheim draws only one lesson from the SHOAH: that the Jewish people live, giving Hitler no posthumous victory. Both poet and philosopher have the survivor's bona fide. The rest of us, however, cannot but be worried that the theme is being vulgarized across a broad map. If there are affirmative reasons for keeping silent about such topics as "lessons of the Holocaust," there are compelling negative reasons for strongly staking out guidelines to ward off superficiality, vulgarization, cheap equivalence and banal generalizations. Otherwise we face a destruction of the language, with no way to study and discuss the Holocaust amidst dozens of little "holocausts" too routine to keep attention focussed. For the sake of both theological integrity and historical precision, two guidelines are here posited. One, "the Holocaust" and "genocide" are not the same thing, but rather two concepts dialectically related to each other. Two, "genocide" is a word and a concept and a defined crime that emerged from the tragedy of the Holocaust. Of the lessons of the Holocaust, none is more important than realization that slaughter of a targetted minority by a government may no longer be considered a prerogative of sovereignty, still less dismissed as analogous to an earthquake or a great flood. Genocide is now a crime, recognized as such in International Law. It is not the "right" but rather the duty of every civilized government in concert with others to intervene and inhibit its continuance. Confronting today the incidence of genocide not only radically limits traditional notions of political sovereignty: it also underlines the need to re-define "legitimacy" as applied to government. Today, as two centuries of emphasis upon "public opinion" and popular sovereignty has come to dominate the discussion of public policy, every murderous dictator and brutal despot feels it necessary to claim that he represents "the will of the people." In the shadow of Auschwitz, the definition of "legitimate" government is imperative. A guideline that can help is this: half of a government's legitimacy is evidenced by the faithfulness with which its policies reflect - after full, free, and informed public discussion! - the will of the people. The other 50% of its legitimacy is accredited by the faithfulness with which it protects the liberties and basic rights of loyal citizens and suppresses the activities of conspiracies that threaten those liberties and rights. Finally, this essay posits the hypothesis that popular political movements very early indicate clearly whether they are offering a legitimate program and leadership or are disloyal both in program and intent. The free societies need an "Early Warning System" against potentially genocidal movements. More than thirty years ago I published a fifteen-point "grid" by which an illegitimate movement - that will certainly be an illegitimate regime if not stopped in its tracks in time - may be discerned and defined. The axiom is this: the NSDAP was already a structurally illegitimate and potentially genocidal movement in 1923, and its abuse of power was predictable. As Ingmar Berman put it on producing "The Serpent's Egg," "the membrane was so thin that through it you could already see the perfectly formed body of the reptile." A loyal tribute to the memory of the Holocaust is this: to make deterence of the crime of genocide a powerful legal force in the affairs of nations. >> Back to top				Introduction Opening Session: Messages and speeches Plenary Sessions: Messages and speeches Workshops, Panels and Seminars Summary Report on Panels and Workshops Panel 1: Holocaust Education - Where Are We Going? Panel 2: Remembering the Holocaust - The challenges of Memory Panel 3: Holocaust Research - From the Archives to the Classroom Workshops on Education Workshops on Remembrance and Representation Workshops on Research Closing Session and Declaration Other Activities
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