Tag Archives: Holocaust

From The Brothers Karamazov To The Holocaust: Could You Will It Again and Again?

Posted on March 25, 2015 by

In the Brothers Karamazov, a little before the Grand Inquisitor section, Dostoevsky describes the death of an eight year-old, and this is sufficient to cause Ivan in the novel to reject the whole notion that a good God made the … Continue reading →

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God’s Pregnancy Test: The Law of Non-Contradiction and the Holocaust

Posted on March 24, 2015 by

With regard to God’s existence, what happens when we apply the law of non-contradiction to the Holocaust? God is said to be all good and powerful–but the Holocaust happened; therefore if God is good, he’s not all powerful, and if … Continue reading →

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Does The Holocaust Render Natural Law Problematic?

Posted on March 24, 2015 by

Think about the Holocaust in relation to natural law. Even if the Holocaust doesn’t give you pause in relation to God’s existence, it nevertheless functions as an impasse to comprehension. What was God up to in letting the Holocaust happen? … Continue reading →

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“Why the Germans? Why the Jews?” Thinking about Gotz Aly’s New Book, 70 Years after Auschwitz

Posted on March 5, 2015 by

Given that this week marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I’d like to share a new book on the Holocaust that I’ve been reading: Gotz Aly’s Why the Germans? Why the Jews? It raises the question of … Continue reading →

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God, The New Testament, And The Holocaust

Posted on April 30, 2014 by

It’s very, very hard to speak of God’s existence and of human history going according to a divine plan after the Holocaust. In 1945, Theodore Adorno famously said that it’s absurd to write poetry after the Holocaust, and it seems … Continue reading →

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Khamenei Strategist Alireza Forghani: “In the name of Allah, Iran must attack Israel by 2014”

Posted on February 10, 2012 by

You can’t say we weren’t warned. This was in the Jerusalem Post yesterday: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s strategist provided the legal and religious justification for the annihilation of Israel and the Jewish people, in a document published on conservative Farsi website Alef. Reports … Continue reading →

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John Wayne and Mensa. Really?

Posted on June 10, 2009 by

U.S. Holocaust Museum rifleman, James W. von Brunn, according to The Daily News, belonged to Mensa and worked in a bookstore run by the Institute for Historical Review (a Holocaust-denial group). His ex-wife says he was obsessively consumed with racial hatred and carried … Continue reading →

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U.S. Holocaust Museum Rifleman James W. von Brunn: Portrait of the Artist as a Nostalgic Fascist?

Posted on June 10, 2009 by

U.S. Holocaust Museum rifleman, James W. von Brunn, is not only like Adolf Hitler in that he wrote a long and paranoid Antisemitic screed. Brunn is also a painter devoted to the recovery of “realism” in art (as Hitler was). Below is one of Brunn’s paintings … Continue reading →

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President Barack Obama on Holocaust Denial

Posted on June 5, 2009 by

From his Cairo speech yesterday: Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust. Tomorrow, I will visit Buchenwald, which was part of a network of camps where Jews were … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: See Here the Part of Barack Obama’s Cairo Speech in Which He Confronts Arab Holocaust Denial and Affirms a Two State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Posted on June 4, 2009 by

Vintage Obama—trying to get everybody to imaginitively walk in the shoes of others. And he calls Holocaust denial “baseless, ignorant, and hateful.” Bravo!:

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Salon Asks Barack Obama’s Great Uncle About His Role in the Liberation of Ohrdruf Camp During World War II

Posted on May 30, 2009 by

Salon recently interviewed Barack Obama’s 84 year old great uncle, Charles Payne. Obama’s uncle, a veteran of World War II, helped to liberate Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald. Here’s the part of the interview in which he describes what he witnessed … Continue reading →

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John Demjanjuk: A Former Sobibor Concentration Camp Guard Living in America?

Posted on April 15, 2009 by

What is Ohio resident John Demjanjuk accused of? According to Der Spiegel, Demjanjuk may be an accessory to the murder of 29,000 people: On March 10, the State Public Prosecutor in Munich issued an arrest warrant against Demjanjuk, first making … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Hitler Shakes Hands with a Catholic Bishop

Posted on April 13, 2009 by

In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler sought, and received, support from many German Protestants and Catholics. At a Berlin rally, Hitler warmly greets a Roman Catholic Bishop, and is warmly greeted in return. Source: U.S. Holocaust Museum photo archive

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: A Survivor of Bergen-Belsen Starts Life Anew in Costa Rica

Posted on April 3, 2009 by

According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum photo archive, the woman seated at the right was liberated from Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and immigrated to Costa Rica. She was the only survivor of a family that had seven children. The photo above was taken … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Studio Portrait of Kurt Klein, Age Two

Posted on March 30, 2009 by

Studio portrait, from 1922, of two-year-old Kurt Klein. In 1937, Kurt Klein’s parents sent him to live with relatives in Buffalo, New York. His parents, unable to immigrate, died at Auschwitz in 1942. According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum archives: Kurt was … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: The Story of Jadwiga Hassa

Posted on March 20, 2009 by

Jadwiga Hassa, a Christian woman who was part of the resistance against the Nazis in Poland, was arrested by the Gestapo and ultimately ended up in Ravensbrueck concentration camp. The U.S. Holocaust Museum photo archive tells her story this way: She … Continue reading →

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Onward Christian Fascists? An Example of Christian and Fascist Syncretism in Nazi Germany, May, 1936

Posted on March 20, 2009 by

At the U.S. Holocaust Museum photo archive is a sobering front page of the anti-Semitic newspaper, Der Stuermer, from May, 1936, in which Christianity and fascist messages are blended. Here’s the Holocaust Museum’s catalog description of the image: Front page of the … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: Anne Frank and Margo Frank in a Purim Holiday Photo with Other Jewish Children, February, 1934, and an Image from Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, Where Anne and Margo Died

Posted on March 18, 2009 by

Anne Frank is the little girl to the left (in a dress in the front row). Margo Frank, Anne’s older sister, is with the taller kids in the back row, and is wearing a dress similar to her sister’s. Margo … Continue reading →

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Bearing Witness to the Holocaust: A Color Photo, Made by an American Soldier in 1945, of Prisoner Clothing Hung Before the Crematoria Doors at Dachau

Posted on March 18, 2009 by

The photograph was taken by American Colonel Alexander Zabin in May, 1945. According to the U.S Holocaust Museum archive description of the photo, Col. Zabin “had landed in Normandy on the day after D-day and moved with the Third Army … Continue reading →

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Ideas Have Consequences—and So Does the Misreading of Ideas: Ricky Gervais on Hitler Reading Nietzsche

Posted on March 13, 2009 by
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