„Przemyśleć Zagładę” Yehudy Bauera nareszcie po polsku!

ŻIH

Nakładem wydawnictwa ŻIH ukazała się jedna z najważniejszych książek światowej sławy badacza Holokaustu. To jej pierwsze polskie wydanie.

Profesor Yehuda Bauer jest historykiem, jednym z najwybitniejszych badaczy Zagłady. Obecnie profesor emeritus Uniwersytetu Hebrajskiego w Jerozolimie oraz doradca naukowy Instytutu Jad wa-Szem.

Urodził się w 1926 roku w Pradze. W 1939 wraz z rodziną wyemigrował do Palestyny. Po ukończeniu szkoły średniej w Hajfie dzięki brytyjskiemu stypendium podjął studia na Cardiff University w Walii.

Po powrocie do Izraela wstąpił do Kibucu Shoval i rozpoczął studia na Uniwersytecie Hebrajskim w Jerozolimie. Swoją rozprawę doktorską poświęcił Brytyjskiemu Mandatowi Palestyny. Obronił ją w 1960 roku. Rok później Yehuda Bauer został wykładowcą w Instytucie Współczesnego Żydostwa na Uniwersytecie Hebrajskim w Jerozolimie. Był współzałożycielem i redaktorem pisma „Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies”. Jest autorem kilkudziesięciu książek i wielu artykułów na temat Zagłady i ludobójstwa. Laureat wielu nagród i odznaczeń, członek Izraelskiej Akademii Nauk.

W recenzji książki Przemyśleć Zagładę opublikowanej w „The Washington Post” Paul Breines pisał:

Książka Bauera wychodzi (…) poza kwestię ratowania [Żydów], stanowiąc ważne wprowadzenie do wielu analitycznych debat nad nazistowskim ludobójstwem. Wśród naukowców zajmujących się tematyką Holokaustu [Bauer] jest tym, który za centralny punkt swojej interpretacji zamiast struktur społecznych i ich funkcji przyjmuje ideologię – nazistowską wizję świata „oczyszczonego” z Żydów. Właśnie ze względu na ideologię sprawców w ramach swoich badań porównawczych nad współczesnym ludobójstwem Bauer postrzega Holokaust jako zjawisko nie mające precedensu w historii. Według niego inne przykłady ludobójstwa były ograniczone politycznie lub w inny sposób: Turcy nie chcieli wyeliminować wszystkich Ormian, podobnie jak naziści nie zamierzali wymordować wszystkich Romów (na cel wzięli tych spośród nich, którzy prowadzili koczowniczy tryb życia, nie zajmowali się zaś tymi osiadłymi). Niemniej jednak w dwóch rozdziałach, w których poddaje ocenie najnowsze interpretacje Holokaustu, Bauer odrzuca tezę Daniela Goldhagena o tym, jakoby od początku XX wieku „eksterminacyjny” antysemityzm ogarnął społeczeństwo niemieckie w takim stopniu, że Hitler miał do dyspozycji naród „ochoczych katów”.

Z kolei profesor Barbara Engelking tak pisze o książce Przemyśleć Zagładę:

[Bauer] sfromułował własną interpretację wydarzenia, do którego – jak twierdzi – nie musiało dojść. „Tak jak zbrodnia popełniona na Żydach nie była nieunikniona, tak samo nie jest niewytłumaczalna” – pisze Bauer, argumentując, że Zagładę można i należy zrozumieć, gdyż jest ona wydarzeniem ludzkim, w tym sensie, że dokonali go ludzie z powodów leżących w ludzkiej naturze i metodami wymyślonymi i zastosowanymi przez ludzi. (…) zachęca nas do odrzucenia wszelkich interpretacji lokujących ją poza sferą racjonalności, traktujących ją jako „niewytłumaczalną”, i zaprasza do przemyślenia tego bezprecedensowego wydarzenia w kategoriach historycznych.

„Przemyśleć Zagładę” – jedna z najważniejszych książek historyka światowej sławy – wreszcie, z wieloletnim opóźnieniem, trafia do rąk polskiego czytelnika. To elementarz dla wszystkich próbujących lepiej zrozumieć świat, w którym żyjemy.

W swoim słynnym przemówieniu w Bundestagu, wygłoszonym 27 stycznia 1998 roku, profesor Yehuda Bauer powiedział:

(…) Kiedy naziści chcieli dokonać rebelii wymierzonej w kulturę zachodnią, kogóż jeśli nie Żydów, którzy ciągle stanowili żywe przypomnienie jednego ze źródeł tej kultury, musieli unicestwić? Żydzi – bez względu na to, czy tego chcą, czy nie – stanowią kluczowy składnik autopercepcji mieszkańców Zachodu. Ta autopercepcja rozpowszechniła się na świecie nie tylko za pomocą tak zwanej cywilizacji zachodniej, ale też przez kulturę kiczu, która również powstała na Zachodzie. (…)

Książkę Yehudy Bauera „Przemyśleć Zagładę” — w tłumaczeniu Jerzego Giebułtowskiego i Janusza Surewicza, wydaną we współpracy z Fundacją Textura — mogą Państwo nabyć w Księgarni na Tłomackiem lub on-line tu: Sforim.pl.

Is the Labour Party’s problem with racism beyond repair?

Dan Hodges

The anti-Semitism row in Oxford is not an aberration – it is just what the modern Labour Party looks like

Jeremy Corbyn smiles as he leaves the stage after he is announced as the new leader of The Labour Party during the Labour Party Leadership Conference

Earlier this week Alex Chalmers, the chair of Oxford Labour students, resigned. He was honest and succinct about the reason why. “A large proportion of both OULC and the student left in Oxford more generally have some kind of problem with Jews”, he said.

Last night, a statement from the Oxford University Jewish Society began to circulate on social media, claiming to give an insight into how this problem with Jews was actually manifesting itself.

According to the statement, senior members of the Labour club liked to regale listeners with a song called “Rockets over Tel Aviv” and endorse Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. They were in the habit of casually referring to Jewish students as “Zio”. They repeated tropes about the “Zionist lobby” and “high net worth Jewish individuals”. They stated all Jews should be required to denounce Zionism and the state of Israel, and that those who refused to do so should be shunned. And they had arranged for a group of students to harass a Jewish student and shout “filthy Zionist” at her.

For obvious reasons, relations between the Oxford University Jewish Society and Oxford University Labour Club are at something of a low ebb. And it will take time to verify the validity of each of these claims. But they align with Alex Chalmers’ own statement that members of the Labour club executive “used offensive terms with casual abandon”, and, “had a history of targeting and harassing Jewish students”.

Now there are calls for the University authorities and the Labour party to intervene. Such intervention is inadequate. The police need to be called in and if it is true students have been harassed in the way described, people need be arrested and they need to be prosecuted. Then the senior administrators of Oxford University, who have now clearly lost control of their establishment, need to be sacked. At which point attention needs to turn to the Labour Party.

A Labour rosette Photo: PA

It would be nice to be able to write that these reports are shocking. That they are an aberration. That they are anathema to a political party that has a long and proud tradition of combating prejudice.

But I can’t write that because these reports are not shocking. They should be, but they are wholly predictable. Nor are they an aberration. They are reflective of a perpetuation – and tolerance of – anti-Semitism that starts at the top of the Labour Party, then steadily works its way down. And are they no longer anathema to Labour or its heritage. Far from it. Anti-Semitism is now firmly embedded in the Labour party’s DNA.

A few weeks ago I wrote a piece talking about the hypocrisy of the reaction to the historic racism of Oliver Letwin. About how when it came to bigotry, the Labour Party and the wider Left consistently fail to practice what they preach. But as the events at Oxford University Labour club – the largest and most prestigious university Labour club in the country – reveal, it’s no longer just a question of Labour not practising what it preaches. Labour is now openly prasticing what it preaches against.

It’s time for Labour MPs, Labour activists and Labour members face up to a few hard truths. One of which is this. Labour does not have an anti-Semitism problem, Labour has a racism problem.

I’ve been as guilty of this as anyone. My articles are littered with references to “racism and anti-Semitism”, as if they are not one and the same thing. Racism – that’s bad. Anti-Semitism – yeah, it’s bad, but it’s a different sort of bad. Not quite as bad.

It is as bad. Gathering a gang to go up to a Jewish student and call her a filthy Zionist is the same – exactly the same – as gathering a gang and going up to black student and calling them a filthy n–––––.

Another thing the Labour Party needs to understand is that Labour’s racism is now hiding behind a cloak of “anti-Zionism”. The statement “I’m not a racist, I’m an anti-Zionist” has become the Left’s “I’m not a racist but…”, or the Left’s equivalent of “I can’t be called a racist for saying I hate Muslims. Islam is a religion, not a race”.

I’m sure that there are people who have spent a lifetime campaigning against what they would call “Zionism” who are not racist. In the same why I’m sure there are people who have spent a lifetime campaigning against immigration who are not racist. That’s not the point. They are now being used as human shields by a lot of people who are racist. And that shield has to be stripped away.

The Oxford University Labour Club has more in common with Mosley’s Blackshirts than my father’s Labour Party.

Read more: Is the Labour Party’s problem with racism beyond repair?

Anti-Semitism a major problem in UK universities

Jonathan Owen

Anti-Semitism a major problem in UK universities, says former co-chair of Oxford University Labour Club

‘Anti-Semitism is a particular problem on campus, where Jewish students are often left feeling threatened and vulnerable’

The row over anti-Semitism within the Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) has intensified, with the Labour party announcing an investigation amid claims by a former OULC co-chair that the problem affects campuses across the country.

Mounting allegations of anti-Jewish behaviour by senior figures at the club, ranging from supporting attacks on Israel to targeting a Jewish student for abuse, have promoted the Labour party’s student wing to investigate the claims.

In a statement regarding the club, which includes Ed and David Miliband among its former members, a Labour party spokeswoman said: “Labour Students have launched an immediate investigation and the Labour party welcomes and supports this action.”

Oxford University Labour Club co-chair, Alex Chalmers,
resigns amid anti-Semitism row

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has pulled out of a talk he had been due to give to the OULC next month. And Labour MP John Mann demanded the party suspend its links with the student club while the investigation is conducted.

“It is hugely embarrassing for the Labour party. This is something Jeremy Corbyn should personally look into,” he said.

The row reflects a wider problem, according to David Klemperer, a former co-chair of OULC. “Anti-Semitism is a major problem in Britain, with increasing numbers of anti-Semitic incidents reported,” he said.

It is a particular problem on campus, where Jewish students often feel “threatened and vulnerable,” and have “insufficient support” from student unions, claimed the undergraduate at St John’s College, who served as a co-chair last year.

In a motion supported by Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) President Becky Howe, which was debated during a meeting of the OUSU Council last night [Weds], he added: “Jewish students are the only minority group which is not directly represented by any of the NUS liberation campaigns.”
Mr Klemperer’s motion stated: “More needs to be done by institutions of higher and further education and by students’ unions to tackle anti-Semitism on campus.”

The row which has engulfed OULC was sparked by the resignation of Alex Chalmers, a co-chair of the club, on 15 February – after the club decided to support an Israel Apartheid Week.

Many members “have some kind of problem with Jews,” claimed Mr Chalmers in a posting in Facebook. He also referred to “senior members of the club expressing their ‘solidarity’ with Hamas and explicitly defending their tactics of indiscriminately murdering civilians.”

In a statement, the Oxford University Jewish Society (Oxford JSoc) said: “We are grateful that Alex Chalmers has made the statement that he did and has brought the issue of anti-semitism to the fore in a way that Jewish students have so far been denied.”

More allegations came to light on 17 February, after disaffected OULC members passed details of incidents to the Oxford JSoc.

They include a claim that former committee members sung a song ‘Rockets over Tel Aviv’ and expressed their support for attacks against Israel by Hamas.

One club member was “formally disciplined by their college for organising a group of students to allegedly harass a Jewish student and to shout ‘filthy Zionist’ whenever they saw her,” according to a statement by Oxford JSoc.

And an OULC member “argued that Hamas was justified in its policy of killing Jewish civilians and claimed that all Jews were legitimate targets.”

In a statement, the OULC’s executive committee said: “The comments detailed in JSoc’s statement last night indicate a shocking pattern of hateful and racist behaviour by some Club members, and it’s of the highest priority that this be dealt with swiftly and lastingly.”

And Megan Dunn, NUS president, pledged: “I will continue to work with Jewish students and their local students’ unions to ensure everybody feels safe on campus and that racism, fascism and anti-Semitism is always challenged.”