2000_12 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper December 2000

              December 2000
Hye Sharzhoom
5
Holocaust and Genocide Scholar Dr. Israel Charny Discusses Aspects of
Denial of Genocide  -—-——■———-^—
Staff Report
Dr. Israel Charny, Executive Director of the Insti
tute on the Holocaust and
Genocide, Jerusalem, spoke on
"Academics Who Deny the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust"
in a public lecture at 7:30 PM on
Monday, October 16.
Charny presented several innovative ideas during his lecture.
He discussed the typologies of
genocide and the stages that de-
niers of the genocide go through.
He also discussed specific examples of deniers of both the Jewish Holocaust and the Armenian
Genocide.
Charny emphasized that he will
never forgive or forget those who
deny the Genocide. He felt that
people who deny the Genocide, are
in effect denying human history.
Armenian Art student Alicia
Ramos commented, "I appreciated
having his humor throughout the
lecture on a topic that is so serious
to humanity. The lecture was well
laid out and organized."
"I liked the way his talk was
geared to the 'intellectuals who
deny genocide'... I was amazed at
how Dr. Charny included people's
emotions in his stories about his
other lectures," added Ramos.
Laura Williams, also a student,
commented, "As a speaker, Dr.
Charny was very interesting to listen to: a good blend of humor and
seriousness."
Dr. Charny is widely respected
and credited as a prime mover in
the development of the field of
Genocide Studies, in which he has
persevered in his leadership for
thirty years, often notwithstanding
considerable resistance from those
who have sought to establish the
uniqueness of the Holocaust at the
expense of denying the genocides
of other peoples or minimizing their
significance and comparability to
the Holocaust.
He is editor-in-chief of the
recently published Encyclopedia of
Genocide, a path-breaking two-
volume reference work that focuses
on the Holocaust and the Armenian
Genocide while critically examining the entire historiography of all
genocides, including the phenomenology ofthe denial of genocides.
The work promises to be the premier reference work on the subject
for some time to come.
In 1982 Dr. Charny organized
the first International Conference
On Holocaust and Genocide in Tel
Aviv, where he fought off efforts
by the Turkish government to prevent lecturers from presenting papers on the Armenian Genocide.
That incident created a national
scandal in Israel when Turkey
threatened the safety of Jews in
Turkey were the conference to continue as planned. While many scholars did drop out, the incident served
to galvanize interest for the further
study of denial of genocides, a field
Dr. Israel Charny
in which Charny, as a psychologist, has since offered significant
contributions and been the primary
proponent and driving force.
Dr. Charny's U.S. lecture tour
was organized by the Armenian
Genocide Resource Center of
Northern California, a newly established educational resource cen
ter, that engages in outreach programs to document and teach the
Armenian Genocide.
The talk was sponsored by the
Armenian Studies Program at
Fresno State, as part of its Fall
Lecture Series, and was held in the
Alice Peters Auditorium, on the
Fresno State campus.
Dr. Yair Auron Analyzes Jewish Response to the Armenian Genocide
Through New Research "^^—■-^^—■*■
By Barlow Der Mugrdechian
Hye Sharzhoom Advisor
Dr. Yair Auron, senior lecturer at The Open Univer
sity of Israel and the Kibbutzim College of Education, was
the guest of the Armenian Studies
Program as part of its Fall Lecture
Series on Wednesday, November
15. The presentation was held in.
the new Smittcamp Alumni House.
The purpose of his talk, "The
Banality of Indifference: Attitudes
of Ihe Jewish 'Yishuv,' the Zionist
Movement, and the State of the
Israel towards the Armenian¥jeno-
cide," was to summarize and analyze the positions of the Jewish
Yishuv (the Jewish community of
Palestine prior to the establishment
of the State of Israel), the Zionists
and also the position of the Israeli
government toward the massacres
committed by the Turkish government against the Armenians during
the First World War.
In his research, Auron utilized
never before published documents
and eye-witness accounts from
World War I. These now have been
published as part of his latest 400
page book, The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide, (Transaction Pub-
Ushers, 2000). Composed of ten
chapters, the book opens new
grounds for research on the Armenian Genocide and reveals the feelings and attitudes of Jews towards
the Genocide.
According to Auron, his book
raises "theoretical and philosophical questions, particularly in the
introduction and final two chapters, which relate directly and indirectly to the specific subject of our
research: the debate over the concept of genocide and the uniqueness of the Holocaust in comparison to other instances of genocide,
including the Armenian Genocide."
During his talk, Auron specifically addressed a series of questions on the Armenian Genocide
that he called "difficult and delicate." These included: 1) Who perpetrated the Genocide ofthe Armenians? 2) Who knew about it? and
3) What was the role of the Germans?
He also compared the similar
characteristics of the Jews and Armenians, in particular noting the
the Armenian genocide," Auron
said.
On the eve of World War I, there
were some 85,000 Jews out of a
population of 700,000 in the area of
Palestine (Eretz Yisrael) west of
the Jordan river. Half of the Jews
were part of the "Old Yishuv" and
half were part ofthe "New Yishuv,"
immigrants who had arrived at the
end of the nineteenth century and
the beginning of the twentieth.
Dr. Yair Auron
fates of the two peoples. But he
also pointed out that the Jews succeeded in surviving the rule of the
Ottomans in Palestine, while the
Armenians suffered a Genocide.
His research is the result of his
own ongoing effort, in his own
words, to "examine a subject that
has been repressed and ignored in
the Israeli historical and collective
memory, as well as in the collective
memory of the world."
"I was troubled by a sense of
oppressive discomfort and criticism
ofthe evasive behavior, verging on
denial, ofthe various governments
of Israel regarding the memory of
According to Auron, "Yishuv
knew about the fate of the Armenians, and feared a similar fate."
The evidence suggests that they
knew what was happening to the
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Mordecai Ben-Hillel Hacohen, a
Jewish journalist in the Yishuv,
reported on the chain of events affecting the Armenians ofthe Ottoman Empire as early as 1916.
Aaron Aaronhnson, a high official in the local Ottoman administration and the leader of the Nili spy
group, was also aware of reports by
US Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau as well as the compi
lation work by James Bryce and
Arnold Toynbee regarding the fate
of the Armenians.
Auron devotes a significant
chapter is his book to "The Forty
Days of Musa Dagh: Symbol and
Parable." Franz Werfel's novel
influenced many young people who
grew up in Palestine in the 1930s.
"For many Jewish youth in Europe, 'Musa Dagh' became a symbol, a model, and an example, especially during the dark days of the
Second World War," Auron said.
"Jews in particular have lauded
Werfel' s book and have sometimes
emphasized the author's Jewishness
claiming that 'only a Jew could
have written this work.'"
"Recognizing the Armenian
Genocide is of a major historical,
moral and educational significance." He added that such recognition is essential "for the non-recurrence of similar instances in the
future," Auron said.
He described the attitude of the
various Israeli governments to the
Armenian Genocide as "characterized by evasiveness and denial."
"The State of Israel has officially refrained from relating the
Genocide. A combination of factors connected with Israel's relations with Turkey and concepts of
the uniqueness ofthe Shoah [Holocaust] have brought about an al
most total absence of any mentioning of the Armenian Genocide on
state television," he said.
There are members ofthe Israeli
government, such as Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, who share Auron's
feeling that it is a moral imperative
for Israelis to be more aware of and
sensitive to other occurrences of
genocide.
Auron went on to say that he
believed it essential to "develop a
greater sensitivity among our youth
to the suffering of others and to
strengthen universal, humanistic
values which are an integral part of
the Jewish tradition." In this regard, he noted the statement of
Israeli's Minister of Education
Yossi Sarid at an April 24, 2000
memorial gathering of the Armenian community in Jerusalem which
concluded with a commitment to
ensure that the Armenian Genocide be included in the Israeli secondary school history curriculum.
Dr. Auron's has been touring
North America to promote the publication of his book, The Banality
of Indifference: Zionism and the
Armenian Genocide, whose translation from Hebrew into English
was sponsored by the Zoryan Institute. The book was described as
"pioneering research" by the former
prime minister of Israel Shimon
Peres.
Atom Egoyan to Make Film
on Armenian Genocide
Atom Egoyan ("The Sweet Hereafter," "The Adjuster,"
"Calendar") will begin filming his ne— oroject, "Ararat," in June
2001. Producer Robert Lantos describe:, the film as 'a contemporary piece that deals with the events of the Armenian holocaust.'
Egoyan has also written the original script.