The United States Museum of Holocaust Kitsch

David Rieff

 

The historian Tony Judt once recalled that during a visit to Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, he saw “bored schoolchildren on an obligatory outing [playing] hide-and-seek among the stones.” He argued, “When we ransack the past for political profit — selecting the bits that can serve our purposes and recruiting history to teach opportunistic moral lessons — we get bad morality and bad history.” To which one should add: We also get kitsch. 

New Texts Out Now: Bedross Der Matossian, Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire

Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book?

Bedross Der Matossian (BDM): I have always been interested in the history of the late Ottoman period, in particular the era of Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) and the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918). Most of the scholarship about the period in the past has been written from the perspective of the dominant ruling elite/political center. It is only in the past decade that we see new studies that provide a broader picture of the period by incorporating non-dominant groups. It is with this intention in mind that I decided to concentrate on examining one of the most important turning points in the beginning of the modern Middle East from the perspective of the non-dominant groups.

Much has been written on the causes and initial implementation of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. There is, however, a dearth of material that appropriately addresses its complexity and its impact on the worldview of the different non-dominant groups in the post-revolutionary period. Existing scholarship on the impact of the Young Turk Revolution on the Ottoman society is divided into two groups. One views the Revolution as a factor that led to the debilitation of interethnic relations leading to the rise of ethnic nationalism among the non-dominant groups, while the other romanticizes the period as the beginning of “civic nationalism” under the rubric of Ottomanism which was interrupted by World War I. I argue in the book that both approaches fail to adequately problematize the Revolution and demonstrate its complexities.

World Jewry Cannot Become A Tool in the Hands of Anti-Armenian Propagandists

Rimma Varzhapetyan-Feller (*)

On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, when civilized humanity stands together with Armenia and the Armenian people, and honors the memory of one and a half million innocent victims, killed in the Ottoman Empire, Turkish-Azerbaijani propaganda has become more aggressive. Pursuing a goal to distract the attention of the international community and attract support from different Jewish community structures, targeted efforts have been exerted recently to cast a shadow on Armenian-Jewish relations through publications of ordered and one-sided articles in various media outlets. At the same time, one should mention that those attempts cannot but fail. The history of the two ancient peoples – Armenians and Jews – is full of similarities and mutual contacts, and, even with the utmost effort in the world, one can not derail those relations. Nevertheless, in the existence of a political agenda and irresponsible analysts – one cannot avoid comments based on void arguments, trying to prove the reverse.

What Pius XII Learned From the Armenian Genocide

Deborah Castellano Lubov

 

Though historians contest it, Pius XII is still accused of failing to do enough to help the Jews during World War II. In particular, he is criticized for too much silence.

But well-known German historian Michael Hesemann says the Pope's decision to be guarded in protest was a result of what he'd learned some years before, when while working in the Vatican Secretariat of State and as nuncio, he was privy to the Vatican's information on the Armenian genocide and its attempts to stop it.

Protests from Pope Benedict XV and his diplomats only made the situation worse for the Armenians and that was history Pius XII didn't want to repeat, Hesemann explains.

In an interview with Zenit ahead of Pope Francis' Nov. 28-30 trip to Turkey, Hesemann analyzes this massacre, and gives insight into the parallels with the Holocaust and Pius XII's actions during the war.

The Ottoman Spring

Sam Taylor

 

On July 24, 1908, a group of disaffected Ottoman military officers and members of the secretive Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) mounted a successful coup against the despotic rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II, and restored the constitution that he had suspended thirty years prior. What became known as the Young Turk Revolution brought euphoria and optimism to the multi-ethnic, multi-religious populations of the Ottoman Empire, who were enticed by the CUP with the promise, rooted in the rhetoric of the French Revolution, of ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.’

In Izmir, Ottoman Jews marched alongside government dignitaries, shouting “Long live the fatherland! Long live liberty!” In Beirut, Biblical and Quranic passages were posted side by side. In Jerusalem, Armenians, Greeks, and Arabs celebrated under a banner at the city gate that read, “Long live the army, long live freedom. Liberty, equality, and fraternity.” All over the Ottoman Empire, Muslims, Christians, and Jews marched in processions together, basking in the dawn of a new era.

Turkey's Kristallnacht

Uzay Bulut

 

Sept. 6, 1955 started just like any other day for the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews of ‎Istanbul—or Constantinople. ‎

‎”I resided in Cengelkoy with my wife and two children back then,” wrote Apostolos Nikolaidis ‎in the book I Nihta ton Kristallon. ‎”Just as protests were starting in Taksim, I left my shop in Karakoy and went home.”

Nikolaidis did not know that a horrid ethnic cleansing campaign was on the way. Just like Nikolaidis, ‎thousands of non-Muslims in Istanbul were not yet aware of the intent of their own state to ‎destroy their private property, businesses, and places of worship, to terrorize them into ‎abandoning their ancient homeland.

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Vartan Matiossian Lectures on Armenians, Aryan Myth

On Thursday, December 1, Dr. Vartan Matiossian presented a lecture titled “The Aryan Myth, Hitler, and the Armenians,” in an event hosted by the Zohrab Center at the Diocesan Complex in New York City. Tracing the definition of the origins of the “Aryan” race in particular, Matiossian began his remarks with an overview of the concepts of race and language since the late 18th century. The concept of the “Aryan Myth” emerged in the late 19th century, he explained, and contrary to opinions of the time, it is now considered a purely linguistic term.