The key word there is ‘almost’. I am not in any way suggesting that Walz is an actual Holocaust denier. He is in fact very sensitive to survivors of the Holocaust. But he misunderstands its uniqueness compared to other forms of genocide. To lump what happened to the Jews of Europe just before and during World War II together with other crimes against humanity does a severe injustice to the Jewish victims and survivors.
By coincidence. I happened to attend the annual presentation of ‘Names - Not Numbers’ last night. Each year, high school students (mostly seniors) from Fasman Yeshiva High school (HTC) are tasked with interviewing actual survivors and then making a documentary film about it.
They are instructed by professional journalists and documentarians in the techniques of interviewing and editing. The final product is then presented to a large audience just before Tisha B'Av during the nine days.
As is the case every year -.the interviews this year were riveting. Needless to say the survivors who are mostly well into their nineties - were children 80 years ago during the Holocaust . Without getting into detail, what it was like for these survivors during the Holocaust experiences was beyond description. To say that their experiences were harrowing would be an understatement. It is impossible for me to describe the increasing human degradation, misery, and literal torture they had to endure just to survive. I don't know how any survivor could have come out sane after those kinds of experiences. But they not only survived they eventually thrived.
I don't think that in the history of mankind there was ever anything remotely like what the Jews of Europe (victims and survivors) had to endure during the Holocaust. It is a truly uniquely horrible experience perpetrated against the Jewish people by fellow human beings. All of it on purpose.
Tim Walz does not believe that the ‘Jewish Holocaust’(as he refers to it) was anything special. That all genocide is the same. and is basically a violation of human rights. He therefore advocated for a change in Holocaust education to reflect that view as noted in a JTA story. The following is an excerpt:
In 1993, while teaching in Nebraska, he was part of an inaugural conference of U.S. educators convened by the soon-to-open U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Eight years later, after moving to Minnesota, he wrote a thesis arguing for changes in Holocaust education. And as governor, he backed a push to mandate teaching about the Holocaust in Minnesota schools.
Through it all, Walz modeled and argued for careful instruction that treated the Holocaust as one of multiple genocides worth understanding.
“Schools are teaching about the Jewish Holocaust, but the way it is traditionally being taught is not leading to increased knowledge of the causes of genocide in all parts of the world,” Walz wrote in his thesis, submitted in 2001.
The thesis was the culmination of Walz’s master’s degree focused on Holocaust and genocide education at Mankato State University, which he earned while teaching at Mankato West. His 27-page thesis, which JTA obtained, is titled “Improving Human Rights and Genocide Studies in the American High School Classroom.”
In it, Walz argues that the lessons of the “Jewish Holocaust” should be taught “in the greater context of human rights abuses,” rather than as a unique historical anomaly or as part of a larger unit on World War II.
Like I said. Walz is not a Holocaust denier. But he clearly denies the uniqueness of it.
Walz seems like a nice guy... a real Mentch who cares about people. But his ‘folksy way’ doesn’t impress me. He is a strong advocate of a progressive agenda – like favoring LGBTQ rights over religious rights for example. And folding the ‘Jewish Holocaust’ into a general category of all genocides. Basically a function of human rights violations. This leaves me with serious doubts about how he really views Israel’s war in Gaza. He hasn’t done it yet. But how far away is he from calling Israel’s defensive war in Gaza ‘genocide’? And comparing it to the Holocaust?
Not real happy about this. The more I find out about the Democratic ticket, the less I like it.