History /
Poles and (Polish) Jews... Victims of war... and beyond [380]
The word 'pogrom' had many meanings, most common was 'total military defeat over ones enemy '.
Just have a look at this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom
Quote:
The term was originally used to denote extensive violence against Jews - either spontaneous or premeditated - but in English, it is also applied to similar incidents against other minority groups.
So I guess that clears this misunderstanding on your part.
Yet when it comes to the Holocaust issue all of a sudden it's THE Jews. What's that all about?
Have a look at this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Geneva_Convention
Read article IV, it gives a definition of what a POW is. Note that Civilians and Soldiers in captivity are treated under the same section.
As for THE Jews, well that has been a lengthy process by the countries themselves. When Jews did sth good, they were civilians of that particular country; when they did sth bad it were suddenly THE Jews. It was like that long before the war, so the Jews said: if we're gonna be THE Jews when some of us do bad things, we might as well be THE Jews if we do sth good, hence, we're THE Jews. Also, they have been treated by all the "good" countries as an isolated group for centuries anyway. So it's not a surprise. And besides, the Poles themselves for the biggest part didn't see Jews as Polish, so to include them as Polish citizens AFTER the Holocaust would SEEM like an attempt to make the Holocaust aimed at Poland mainly or make it an exclusively Polish thing, which it wasn't. I'm not saying that it is, that's why I added "seem" in capitals; it just looks that way.
So did the mentally retarded, homosexuals etc., what makes one group special above all others to be counted as separate entity yet other groups counted as per their nationality, citizenship?
If you had read well, you could've seen that I mention these specific groups as well, even the fact that there were black ppl in the KZ's.
Why you are not thinking to include 27 millions of Russian victims as well? 27 millions against 20 thousand is a good reason to do it.
That's what I'm arguing for in my last two previous posts.
MareGaea:
Actually, that is not correct. Holocaust = Jewish, Porajmos = Gypsies
I still stand by this remark. The point was that the Holocaust is generally mentioned as the event that killed the Jews, while for Porajmos there is no other inclusion except Gypsies. I still thnk you didn't understand what I was saying.
And as for on-topic: I'm on topic as can be. If you want a seperate entry for the Poles, one cannot escape a seperate entry for the Russians, be they POW's or Civilians or the 1 mln Russian Jews that were killed. It's not a matter of exclusivity, but if you want that, you indeed should invent a term like I coined earlier, sth like "Polonocide". Or simply leave the Wiki entry as it is, as it does justice to the proportions within the whole of the Holocaust, because, if you want to keep strictly to civilians, the Jewish group of victims was the biggest in absolute terms: (according to the Wikilink I posted earlier):
Jews (total): 5,752,400 (of which Polish Jews: 3,000,000 and Russian Jews: 1,000,000)
Polish Civilians: 2,380,000 to 2,580,000; Russian Civilians: 12,254,000 to 14,154,000Actually, if you look at these figures in an absolute way, Russian Civilians were the biggest group, but those include partizans as well, just like the number of Polish civilians include resistance fighters, while the Jews didn't have large and organized partizan groups or the like, besides small factions here and there, which mainly have survived the war anyway. So you tell me: in absolute figures, the Russians would be the biggest victims, in relative terms it's the Jews; don't you think Wiki does justice to the proportions within the event of the Holocaust? If there is anything to be adjusted, it's minor things and there should be an entry for the Russian victims as the Polish ones are already covered in there.
>^..^<
M-G (fair's fair)