Ulrich Baer
...During the 1980s and ’90s, (click here) a shift occurred in American culture; personal experience and testimony, especially of suffering and oppression, began to challenge the primacy of argument. Freedom of expression became a flash point in this shift. Then as now, both liberals and conservatives were wary of the privileging of personal experience, with its powerful emotional impact, over reason and argument, which some fear will bring an end to civilization, or at least to freedom of speech....
Areas of Research/Interest: (click here) Poetry; photography; literary theory; continental philosophy; visual culture; new media; trauma and testimony in all media in history, and culture; literature as a mode of knowing; globalization; environmentalism; texts and images of social justice
Fortunately, a democracy is not built on one remembrance as Mr. Trump believes, it is built on a collective understanding of the majority of the people. It is certainly not built to last on lies.
If a Holocaust survivor states her experience then it is so. The beauty of the verbal record is that emotional dialogue exists within it. I do not consider mass murder and genocide a reasonable place for a sovereign country. If the Holocaust survivor, whom is not named in Mr. Baer's piece, states her experience as a mission of faith in fear of any potential to die at the hand of strangers simply by stereotype; I believe she is far more believable than Mr. Baer who has washed history clean of the people and instead only reported facts as an inventory.
Calculating the numbers of individuals (click here) who were killed as the result of Nazi policies is a difficult task. There is no single wartime document created by Nazi officials that spells out how many people were killed in the Holocaust or World War II....
...Number of Deaths
Jews: up to 6 million
Soviet civilians: around 7 million (including 1.3 Soviet Jewish civilians, who are included in the 6 million figure for Jews)
Soviet prisoners of war: around 3 million (including about 50,000 Jewish soldiers)
Non-Jewish Polish civilians: around 1.8 million (including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish elites)
Serb civilians (on the territory of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina): 312,000
People with disabilities living in institutions: up to 250,000
Roma (Gypsies): 196,000–220,000
Jehovah's Witnesses: Around 1,900
Repeat criminal offenders and so-called asocials: at least 70,000
German political opponents and resistance activists in Axis-occupied territory: undetermine.
Homosexuals: hundreds, possibly thousands (possibly also counted in part under the 70,000 repeat criminal offenders and so-called asocials noted above)
Facts are always important and are exceptionally helpful in forensics, but, the emotional turmoil, pain, longing and realized conclusion of one's life at the time of extermination is far more important than a laundry list of facts that conveniently files history away so we can all feel good again about the world we live in. So good, in fact, that a White Supremacist is in the USA White House inspiring men and women of an extremist cult to rise up again and begin again the destruction of human beings that do not match the Aryan perfection.
Today, in Russia, the Jehovah's Witnesses are filing an appeal to a Russian Supreme Court decision that bans them existing in that country. Can you deny your god if you have one? Can you set aside a childhood of religious teachings that is suppose to serve as your soul's guide to everlasting life?
The idea a Holocaust survivor can be overruled in a social setting disgusts me. It along with Russia's ignorant and arrogant communists makes me vomit.
I will listen to experience of a survivor to such extreme circumstances any day of the week over an academician that dismisses LIFE for bare facts. No, thank you, Mr. Baer.
I only hope there are recordings of the Holocaust survivors that will last forever without deterioration because no future needs to repeat that horror again!
Non-Jewish Polish civilians: around 1.8 million (including between 50,000 and 100,000 members of the Polish elites)
Serb civilians (on the territory of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina): 312,000
People with disabilities living in institutions: up to 250,000
Roma (Gypsies): 196,000–220,000
Jehovah's Witnesses: Around 1,900
Repeat criminal offenders and so-called asocials: at least 70,000
German political opponents and resistance activists in Axis-occupied territory: undetermine.
Homosexuals: hundreds, possibly thousands (possibly also counted in part under the 70,000 repeat criminal offenders and so-called asocials noted above)
Facts are always important and are exceptionally helpful in forensics, but, the emotional turmoil, pain, longing and realized conclusion of one's life at the time of extermination is far more important than a laundry list of facts that conveniently files history away so we can all feel good again about the world we live in. So good, in fact, that a White Supremacist is in the USA White House inspiring men and women of an extremist cult to rise up again and begin again the destruction of human beings that do not match the Aryan perfection.
Today, in Russia, the Jehovah's Witnesses are filing an appeal to a Russian Supreme Court decision that bans them existing in that country. Can you deny your god if you have one? Can you set aside a childhood of religious teachings that is suppose to serve as your soul's guide to everlasting life?
The idea a Holocaust survivor can be overruled in a social setting disgusts me. It along with Russia's ignorant and arrogant communists makes me vomit.
I will listen to experience of a survivor to such extreme circumstances any day of the week over an academician that dismisses LIFE for bare facts. No, thank you, Mr. Baer.
I only hope there are recordings of the Holocaust survivors that will last forever without deterioration because no future needs to repeat that horror again!
