The Holocaust Industry

My job and my internship couldn't be more different from one another. The internship is a family like atmosphere, we're squeezed together and forced to share everything, most notably, limited space. At my job, it's completely impersonal and lame, I can sit in my corner all day and not call attention to myself and it makes everyone around me all the happier to not interact. Both have ups and downs - and I'll get into more some other time.

But onto the post...along with this difference is intellectual stimulation. We get into fun discussions at the internship, today Michael made a point about how he started looking at the NY Times Book Review section about 10 years ago and noticing that in every single addition, there was always a book review about the Holocaust. It's a sensitive subject, so I'll try to remain civil, but not nearly as much attention has been paid to the Armenian Genocide or the Rape of Nanjing as the Holocaust. In fact, most people don't know about either one of the aformentioned atrocities, which in comparison to the knowledge of the Holocaust is, well, disproportionate.

He pointed out that for years after WWII that many did not talk about the Holocaust. Many survivors didn't care to. The NY Times was Jewish run in the 40s and 50s and there wasn't a big movement to inundate the world about the Holocaust. Somewhere along the line, however, the Holocaust became propelled into the forefront of 20th century history and it remains there to this day - the ultimate example of wrong being perpetrated against a group of people.

Why is this? Well, clearly the Elders of Zion have been manipulating our media sources and we're all supposed to believe this "holocaust" really happened...okay, that's a bad joke to most people...

Who knows? But we do know certain narratives get pushed to the forefront of people's minds and other narratives are forgotten. Maybe it's on purpose, maybe it's laziness, maybe it's because some narratives are intrinsically more powerful than others.

Michael gave us a good spiel today about making documentaries, that there are so many interesting things out there to tell stories about....for instance, a documentary about WWII from the German perspective. Note: All who haven't read my blog much, now probably thing I'm interning for a Nazi---but in some respects that's exactly his point - why do we shut down intellectually when it comes to certain issues that are undoubtedly complicated simply because it's WRONG? I mean, that never stopped me from trying booze too young or looking at pornography...

Anyhow, the answer is probably because it's too damn hard to get any money. And that's why I'm working at the other job, with the amazing cafe latte machine in the kitchen. Ummmmm.