The secular word Holocaust: Scholarly myths, history, and 20th century meanings

Journal of Genocide Research

Volumn 2, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 31-63

  Petrie, Jon ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 29044434481     PISSN: 14623528     EISSN: 14699494     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/146235200112409     Document Type: Article

References (110)

1. Lazarus, Emma. 1882. "The Dance to Death: A Historical Tragedy" ”. In Songs of a Semite, 37–38. New York: The American Hebrew. The first three quotations:
2. Du Bois, W. E. B., 1989. The Souls of Black Folk, 8New York: Penguin Books. "Dance to death" deals with the fate of the Jewish community of Nordhausen, Germany, in the plague year of 1349. Jews have been accused of poisoning the wells. Rabbi Jacob is addressing the Nordhausen town council who have just decided to burn the town's Jews. (Lazarus is best known today for the lines on the base of the Statue of Liberty: "… Give me your tired, your poor …") (b)[first published 1903])
3. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. 1974. The Great Gatsby, 166New York: Bantam. [originally published 1925])
4. Mill, John Stuart. 1871. Considerations on Representative Government, 267New York: Henry Holt. (Ch VIII, last paragraph). Perhaps Fitzgerald's principal working title for what became The Great Gatsby, "Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires," with its latent image of fire, suggested "the holocaust" for a summary description of the murder/suicide of Gatsby and Wilson. However, well-regarded writers of previous generations did not need an association with fire to employ "holocaust" in the sense of "destruction": "This mode of conducting … administrative business … is probably destined to perish in the general holocaust which the traditions of Indian government seem fated to undergo …" [first published 1861]) (Ch 14, Para 7)
5. Berenbaum, Michael. 1993. The World Must Know, 1Boston: Little, Brown & Company.
6. Marrus, Michael. 1987. The Holocaust in History, 3Hanover: Brandeis University Press. (italidzation exactly reproduced)
7. Bartov, Omer. 1998. "Antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Reinterpretations of National Socialisim," ”. In The Holocaust and History, Edited by: Berenbaum, Michael, and Peck, Abraham. 79–80. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. The Wiesenthal Center: www.wiesenthal.com/resource/gloss.htm#32 (January 1999). For a series of objections by various writers to "holocaust" as a referent to the Judeocide see
8. Katz, Steven. 1994. The Holocaust in Historical Context, Vol l, 1New York: Oxford University Press. note 1. The Katz footnote refers readers to Zev Garber and Brace Zuckerman's 1989 article in Modern Judaism and Gerd Kcrman's 1972 article in Societas for "the origin of the use of the term." Later in this essay key assertions in these two articles are refuted
9. Loftus, Elizabeth, and Palmer, John C., 1974. "Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction between Language and Memory,". Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 13 (5): 585–588.
10. Kay, Paul, and Kempton, Willett. 1984. "What is the Saphir-Whorf Hypothesis?,". American Anthropologist, 86 (1): 65–79. For more on the subtle influence of language and vocabulary on perception see
11. Garber, Zev, and Zuckerman, Bruce. 1989. "Why do We Call the Holocaust "The Holocaust'? An Inquiry into the Psychology of Labels,". Modem Judaism, 9 (2): 207–208.
12. Bauer, Y., eds. 1989. Remembering for the Future, Vol 2, Oxford: Pergamon Press. Zev Garber and Bruce Zuckerman' s paper, "Why do We Call the Holocaust 'The Holocaust'? An Inquiry into the Psychology of Labels," was presented at the 1988 Oxford conference, "Remembering for the Future…" and printed in
13. 1989. Modem Judaism, 9 (2): 197–211. A modified version of this paper is printed in
14. Garber, Zev. 1994. Shook: The Paradigmatic Genocide, Lanham: University Press of America. and is reprinted in This essay cites the Modem Judaism text. For the claim that "holocaust" is the translation of olah in the King James Bible and for the primacy of the religious meaning before 1950, p 199; for the awareness of "sacrificial connotations" at the time of first employment of the term: pp 200, 202
15. James. 1990. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Nashville: Thomas Nelson. Proof of the complete absence of "holocaust" in the King James Bible is the absence of an entry for "holocaust" in (Hundreds of entries are listed in Strong's Concordance under "burnt [offering(s), sacrifice].") For a concordance of the King James Bible on the web: www.concordance.com
16. Garber and Zuckerman. "Why do we Call the Holocaust "The Holocaust'?," ”. 199
17. McAdam, E. L., and Milne, George. 1963. Johnson's Dictionary: A Modem Selection, 16New York: Pantheon.
18. Fowler, H. W., 1965. "What concerns a writer is much less a word's history than its present meaning …etymological knowledge is of less importance to writers than might be supposed" ”. In A Dictionary of Modem English Usage 651
19. Crystal, David. 1995. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language 136 For more on the "etymological fallacy
20. Landau, Sydney. 1984. Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography 98–99. 103
21. Ozouf, Mona. 1989. "Revolution" ”. In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, Edited by: Furet, Francois, and Ozouf, Mona. 806–810. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. The Encyclopaedia Britamica of 1797 in its entry "Revolution" states: "That which is termed the revolution in Britain is the change … when the Protestant succession was established, and the constitution restored to its primitive purity" (Vol 16, p 150). For some remarks on the tension between "revolution's" meaning of "return" and its meaning of "extraordinary change" see
22. Boorstin, Daniel J., 1989. Hidden History, 231–233. New York: Vintage.
23. Korman, Gerd. 1972. "The Holocaust in Historical Writing,". Societas, 2 (3): 260 (Korman writes: "… the word holocaust had appeared now and then. In 1951 … Jacob Shatzky of YIVO spoke of 'the Nazi Holocaust,' but apparently he did not mean to apply the phrase specifically to the destruction of European Jewry. Between 1957 and 1959, however, 'Holocaust' took on such a specific meaning.") For a section of Korman's article and the 1957-1959 claim see
24. Roth, John, and Berenbaum, Michael, eds. 1989. Holocaust Religious & Philosophical Implications, 46New York: Paragon House.
25. Hartley Library: University of Southampton Special Research Collections (information brochure, nd [1998]), p 12-MS 175/142/1 in the collection, copywright J. Schonfield.
26. Goldstein, I., December 24 1942. Letters and Papers ofChaim Weltmann, Vol XX, December 24, 383London: Oxford University Press. 1979 Series A (1968), letter No 360. Weizmann, in ill health and unable to leave New York, was presumably writing to Goldstein on the eve of the letter's departure to a Jewish National Fund conference in Detroit. Goldstein gave a keynote address at this conference on December 26, 1942. In early December Weizmann, Goldstein, and Rabbi Wise had promoted a program of services and mourning for the "millions of Jews threatened with complete extermination"
27. 1942. The New York Times, December 2: 12 Col S) Definitive news of the Nazi extermination program reached Palestine, Britain, and the USA through different channels in late November 1942
28. E-mail posting, Gerd Korman, "Re: Holocaust," Ç-Judaic February 23, 1998. For this posting: "H-Judaic," select "February 1998," and sort by author or subject. http:// www.h-net.msu.edu/logs/Select
29. E-mail posting, Franklin Littell, "Re Earliest Reference to Holocaust," H-Holocaust May 3, 1995. For this posting: Select "H-Holocaust," select "May 1995," and sort by author or subject. http://www.h-net.msu.edu/logs/
30. 1953. Code Civil, 132 August 28: 144 "La tâche qui incombe à Yad Vashem consiste à perpétuer, sur le sol de la patrie, le souvenir de tous ceux, parmi le peuple juif, qui ont péri dans l'Holocauste …" and "… qui ont péri lors de l'Holocauste" in "Loi Sur la Commémoration Des Martyrs et des Héros-Yad Vashem 1953" (pamphlet 1953), p 1. This pamphlet cites
31. 1955. Yediot (Hebrew for news), 4-5: 27 Col 2-" … research into the problems of the European holocaust
32. 1956. "… main task". Yediot, 8-9: 32 Col 3
33. 1956. Yediot, 6-7: 29 Col 1 for "period of the holocaust" and p 32, Col 3; p 31, Cd 3; p 29, Cols 1 and 3
34. 1956. Yediot, 8-9: 32 Cols 1 and 3, p 30, Cols 1 and 2 for "Nazi holocaust" and "period of the Nazi holocaust"
35. 1956. Yediot, 8-9: 30 Cd 2 for "the Holocaust." (Page numbers in Yediot run right to left.)
36. 1957. Yad Vashem Bulletin, 1 April: 36 Eleven "holocausts" on one page (In the 1950s and early 1960s, what we now know as Yad Vashem was frequently "Yad Washem." To avoid confusion, this essay replaces the "Washem" of serial titles from these years with "Vashem" in both the main text and endnotes.)
37. 1957. Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, I: 18 "survivors of the European holocaust," p 169: "survivors of the European holocaust," p 175: "memoirs written by survivors of the European holocaust, works of research into the catastrophe."
38. 1958. Studies, II (1): 133 "archives of the Holocaust," p 295: "the study of the Holocaust," p 296: "a monument to the Holocaust."
39. 1963. Yad Vashem Studies, V: 374
40. 1957. "Holocaust and the Heroism". Bulletin, 2 December: 25 Cd 3. For shoah ugevurah
41. Offer, Dalia. 1996. "Linguistic Conceptualization of the Holocaust in Palestine and Israel, 1942-53,". Journal of Contemporary History, 31 (3): 573–577.
42. 1993. The Chicago Manual of Style, Fourteenth Edition, 260Chicago: University of Chicago Press. For a 1960 American/Israeli capitalized use see the penultimate sentences of n 34. The 1980 Congressional bill that led to the establishment of the United States Holocaust and Memorial Museum did not capitalize "holocaust"-see n 52. Another 1980 uncapitalized use: "this is a study not about the holocaust-a term singularly inappropriate …"
43. Laquer, Walter. 1980. The Terrible Secret 7
44. Berkeley, George, Bishop. 1732. Alciphron: or the Minute Philosopher, Vol I, 270–272. London: J. Tonson. A native English speaker's employment of "Holocaust" that can be seen as a precedent for Mauriac's 1958/1960 "hdocauste/holocaust": "ALC[IPHRON] [I] shou'd like well to see the Druids and their Religion restored … CRI[TO]. How wou'd you like … that now and then, a Number of Layman shou'd be crammed together in a Wicker-idol, and burnt for an Offering to their Pagan Gods? LYS[ICLES]… And I make no doubt but these Druids wou'd have sacrificed many a Holocaust of Freethinkers." (fifth dialogue, section 3)
45. Voltaire. 1986. "Holocauste". Le Grand Robert de la Langue Française, entry
46. Flaubert. 1972. "Holocauste". Grande Larousse, entry
47. Baudelaire, Charles. 1970. Nouveau Dictionnaire de Citations Françaises, 1004Hachette/ Tchou. No 11389
48. 1953. The New York Times, June 20: 17 Cd 2
49. Bloom, Solomon. 1955. "The Great Unsolved Crime,". Commentary, 19 (1) January: 8990 The referent of "the only … comprehensive account" is Gerald Reitlinger's The Final Solution; however, the review also covers Leon Poliakov' s Harvest of Hate. In 1955 these two books were the only comprehensive accounts of the Jewish catastrophe
50. William and Schack, Sarah. 1956. "The Books of Doom,". Commentary, 22 (4) October: 336 An unusual appellation in this article, "Third Destruction" (exactly reproduced, p 336) and a more typical referent from the same article, "the massacres" (p 337). Books on the Jewish catastrophe were not economically viable before the mid-1960s
51. Hilberg's. 1961. Destruction of European Jewry, was rejected by numerous publishers and printed only thanks to a subsidy from the Petschek Foundation
52. Wiesel's. 1960. Night, had poor sales in its first years
53. Wiesel, Elie. 1995. All Rivers Run to the Sea 325
54. Weiss-Rosmarin, Trade. 1949. Jewish Survival, 183New York: Philosophical Library. "We have buried …" is from For a discussion of American Jewry's avoidance of any engagement with the European Jewish catastrophe
55. Jick, L., 1981. "The Holocaust: its Use and Abuse within the American Public,". Yad Vashem Studies, XIV: 304–310.
56. Wyman, David S., 1996. "The United States," ”. In The World Reacts to the Holocaust, Edited by: Wyman, David S., 719–722. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins. Other chapters in this book briefly discuss the unwillingness of Jews in France and Britain during the 1950s to confront the Holocaust. For the avoidance of the Jewish tragedy in American classrooms
57. Korman, Gerd. 1970. "Silence in American History Textbooks,". Yad Vashem Studies, VIII: 183–202.
58. Poliakov, Leon. 1954. Harvest of Hate, 117Philadelphia: Jewish publication Society. (italics added)
59. Dunbar, Carl O., 1949. "The Menace of Atomic Warfare,". The Yale Review, 38 Spring: 538 "… such a holocaust"
60. Minear, Richard H., 1995. "Atomic Holocaust, Nazi Holocaust: Some Reflections,". Diplomatic History, 19 (2) Spring: 356 27, leaders of the Manhattan project used the word "holocaust" to refer to nuclear destruction. I have checked Minear's citation and believe he misreads his source
61. 1961. The Reporter, 25 (3) August 17: 52
62. 1961. Commentary, 32 (4) October: 283
63. 1962. Nation, January 20: 43 The cover of the November 4, 1961 Nation advertises two article titles in uppercasing, the first title: "SHELTERS WHEN THE HOLOCAUST COMES."
64. Lewis, Bernard. 1961. The Emergence of Modem Turkey, 350London: Oxford University Press. Augustine on-line: www.concordance.com/augustine.htm, Ch 14, section 22 of Albert Outler's 1955 translation. And (1915, not 1916, was the year of the principal massacres; Lewis corrected the date in the 1965 reprinting.)
65. 1963. The New York Times Book Review, May 19: 1 Arendt's New Yorker articles preceded by a couple of months Arendt's book Eichmann in Jerusalem. Per, "The series of [Arendt] articles … stirred controversy as a strong wind agitates the waters of a lake. The book … follows the articles as a gale succeeds a rising wind …" For more on the reactions to the articles and book see
66. 1992. Hannah Arendt Karl Jaspers Correspondence 1926-1969 510–511. 515–516.
67. Elon, Amos. 1997. "The Case of Hannah Arendt,". New York Review of Books, 44 (17) November 6: 25 Cd 4, p 29, Cd 1. Arendt on the sea change in American culture: "Kennedy's election has worked a major change in the atmosphere … Lowell… wrote me: The world is green again. This new atmosphere is also making itself felt among students …" (Hannah Arendt Karl Jaspers Correspondence, pp 421-422.) "The Deputy," a play questioning the Pope's unwillingness to publicly condemn the Nazi slaughter of Jews, stirred controversy and additional engagement with the Nazi Judeocide after the reaction to the Arendt articles had peaked. "The Deputy" was first staged in Germany in 1963 and in the USA in 1964. The apparent threat to Israel's existence in 1967 and the Arab Israeli war that followed the threat prompted renewed Jewish identification amongst many secular Diaspora Jews and partly as a consequence, greater interest in the Jewish experience in the Hitler years
68. May 15 1948. “ Israeli Declaration of Independence ”. May 15, 2 "The Nazi holocaust which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe…" (from the Col 3); "The Israeli Government opposes transferring the ashes of… camp victims … to a projected tomb in Paris for Jewish victims of the Nazi holocaust …", June 30, 1956, p 3, Cd 7; and a report on the dedication in Israel of a shrine "to the memory of our six million brothers and sisters who perished in the Nazi holocaust …" (May 30, 1959, p 5, Cd 5)
69. Katz. The Holocaust in Historical Context l "I am afraid I am the one who introduced the word into this framework …I cannot use it anymore… Whatever mishap occurs now, they call it 'holocaust'" n 1). Katz introduces this Wiesel comment with the remark: "Wiesel … is usually credited with introducing the term into the discussion."
70. Davies, Norman. 1997. Europe: A History 1025 states: "Elie Wiesel is credited with turning the term 'Holocaust' to its present usage." Garber and Zuckerman (p 202) assert that The New York Times credited Wiesel with "coining of the term, 'The Holocaust' to characterize the Jewish genocide." The New York Times article cited by Garber and Zuckerman makes no such claim
71. Garber and Zuckerman. "Why do we Call the Holocaust "The Holocaust'?," ”. 202 For the claim of "unmistakable religious/sacrificial overtones" see
72. 1963. The New York Times, October 27 Garber and Zuckerman, p 202, cite a private communication from Wiesel "recall[ing]" his first use in
73. Abrahamson, Irving, ed. 1985. Against Silence. The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel, Vol I, 185New York: Holocaust Library. Wiesel made a similar statement in an interview reprinted in
74. Against Silence, II267–270. The reprinting in of Wiesel's August 1963 New Leader and October 1963 New York Times book reviews could mislead: "holocaust" was not capitalized in the original printings but is capitalized in Against Silence. The Against Silence versions of Wiesel's 1960s Forward articles could also mislead (e.g. Vol II, p 181). These articles were originally printed and written in Yiddish and the "Holocausts" of the translations presumably date from the 1980s
75. Bettelheim, Bruno. 1961. "Comment,". Midstream, 7 (2) Spring: 86 "Anne Frank … I have no criticism … of the Franks. But I do have [of the glorification] of such passive acceptance …Hertzl did not passively accept the position into which his time had projected him, but… transcended it… This we all need to do … if we want to escape an impending holocaust"
76. Burcfick, Eugene, and Wheeler, Harvey. 1962. Fail-Safe, 230New York: McGraw-Hill. "When [the President] resumed speaking his voice was so slow that each word seemed to dangle. 'Those of us on this hookup are the only people who can save the world from an atomic holocaust"
77. June 15 1952. The New York Times Book Review of The Diary of Anne Frank June 15, 1 compared the Franks' fear of the "Gestapo's knock on the hidden door," to the American family's fear of the "knock of [atomic] war."
78. Mailer, Norman. The White Negro, 1–2. City Lights. first published in Dissent, Summer 1957) wrote: "… we shall never be able to determine the psychic havoc of the concentration camp and the atom bomb on the unconscious mind of almost everyone alive … A stench of fear has come out of every pore of American life."
79. Alvarez, A., 1962. The Atlantic Monthly, December: 70 wrote: "[P]erhaps the concentration camps have kept a tight hold on our imaginations … because … we see them as a small-scale trial run for a nuclear war."
80. Seidman, Naomi. 1996. "Elie Wiesel and the Scandal of Jewish Rage,". Jewish Social Studies, 3 (1) Fall: 2 "[T]he site and occasion of [God's] abdication"
81. Abrahamson, ed. Against Silence Vol I, 42–43. Wiesel, despite his 1978 protest about the neglect of the Gypsy experience in Holocaust literature, generally has resisted any employment of "Holocaust" to denote the Nazi murder of Jews and non-Jews. See
82. Fonseca, Isabel. 1995. Bury Me Standing 276 The source for the 1967 "The Holocaust has had a great impact…" is Abrahamson, VoI I, p 235. Possibly "h" should be substituted for "H," Abrahamson is not scrupulous in his reproduction of casing-see n 46
83. Jick. "The Holocaust: its Use and Abuse within the American Public," ”. 306 "No one is interested in Hitler": For the use of "Holocaust" in thesis titles see "Dissertation Abstracts International on CD-Rom." Per this data base, 15 theses in 1997 had "Holocaust" in their titles. According to Garber and Zuckerman, 21 PhD thesis titles 1970-1975 contain the word "Holocaust" (p 210, n 14). The figure per "Dissertation Abstracts" is four. Garber and Zuckerman's figures for "Holocaust" in thesis titles after 1975 are also incorrect
84. Linenthal, Edward T., 1995. Preserving Memory, 12New York: Viking. For a short account of the impact of the TV series The Holocaust see, For the change in The New York Times annual indexes see the subheading "Nazi Policies Toward Jews and Foreign Nationalities."
85. Abrams, Elliott. 1996. "Faith and the Holocaust,". Commentary, 101 (3) March: 68 "1991 … 85% of American Jews were reporting that the Holocaust was 'very important' to their sense of being Jewish-a higher figure than those attributing a similar degree of importance to the Torah, God, or the state of Israel."
86. Lopate, Phillip. 1989. "Resistance to the Holocaust," ”. In Testimony, Edited by: Rosenberg, David. 304–305. New York: Times Books. For a critical short consideration of assimilated American Jewish "sacramentalizing of the Holocaust" see
87. Shawcross, William. 1985. The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust, and Modem Conscience, 421London: Fontana.
88. Hadzewck, R., eds. 1983. The Great Famine in Ukraine: The Unknown Holocaust, 9Jersey City: Svoboda Press.
89. Kramer, Larry. 1990. Reports from the Holocaust: The Making of an AIDS Activist, 265London: Penguin. first published New York, 1989
90. 1981. Invitation to a Holocaust: Nostradamus Forecasts World War III UK A sampling of titles with "holocaust" referring to nuclear destruction-if a British publisher "UK" before publication date: Holocaust (1967); Specter of Middle East Holocaust: … Israeli Nuclear Weapons … (1973); Holocaust 2000 (1978-a book and a movie-nuclear Armageddon)
91. The Chosen Few: Surviving the Nuclear Holocaust. 1982. Nuclear Holocaust and Christian Hope UK 1983, How to Eliminate the threat of Nuclear holocaust: A Policy Proposal (1983); Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1895-1984 (1987). An alliterative 1997 headline from a San Francisco political tabloid: "Housing or Holocaust Weapons?"
92. Street Spirit, 3 (9) 1 Another headline from a Bay Area newspaper: "Oil Pipeline Holocaust in Nigeria [more than 250 killed]"
93. 1998. Oakland Tribune, October 19: 1 An Indian book title: Environmental Holocaust in Himalaya (1989). (The online Encyclopaedia Britamica employs the phrase the uninhabited site of the holocaust," referring to the site of a massive Alaskan volcanic eruption-see www.eb.com: 'Ten Thousand Smokes, Valley of…") And a headline from the front page of a Flemish newspaper's book review section: "Holocaust in Belgisch Congo"
94. 1998. De Standard [Antwerp], September 24 ("Holocaust" is a new word to the Flemish language. King Leopold's exploitation of the Congo resulted in six to eight million deaths.)
95. Elon, Amos. 1971. The Israelis: Founders and Sons, 215–217. 220New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
96. Hermanns, William. 1972. The Holocaust, vNew York: Harper & Row.
97. Wiesel, Elie. 1979. "Memory may perhaps be … our only hope to save the world from the ultimate punishment, nuclear holocaust" ”. In Against Silence Edited by: Abrahamson. Vol. VoI III, 155
98. Roth, John, and Berenbaum, Michael, eds. Holocaust 7277
99. Sanders, Ronald. 1988. Shores of Refuge: A Hundred Years of Jewish Emigration, viiiNew York: Schocken Books. chapter titles "worst holocaust": p 358
100. Roskies, David. 1989. The Literature of Destruction, a Yiddish khurbm 212 denoting World War I massacres of Jews in Galacia, is translated as "holocaust"
101. Minear. "Atomic Holocaust, Nazi Holocaust," ”. 356
102. 1963. Yad Vashem Studies, V: 191373
103. 1988. Kristallnacht and the start of the Holocaust. The New York Times, November 1: 20 Col 2
104. The limiting of "Holocaust" to concentration/death camp slaughter may reflect a surprisingly common misapprehension as to the extent of mass slaughter beyond the barbed wire of the camps. Garber and Zuckerman (p 208) write of "eleven million people … killed by the Nazis in the concentration camps." About four and a half million people-perhaps 85 percent of diese Jewish people-were killed in Nazi concentration and death camps. (See the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, pp 313, 463.) Mass murder of Jews-as I understand the term "mass murder" in this context-began with the Einsatzgruppen shootings in the summer of 1941. Assuming a "Jewish mass murder" definition of "Holocaust," the Holocaust started in the summer of 1941. If "Holocaust" is defined as "concentration/death camp mass murder of Jews," the Holocaust began in December 1941. (Assuming that the limited facilities at Chelmo are seen as a "camp.") If "Holocaust" is defined as "systematic mass murder of Jews and non-Jews," then arguably the Holocaust began in 1939 with the euthanasia program. And if "Holocaust" is defined as "Nazi organized mass killings with genocidal intent," then arguably the German decimation of Polish elites in 1940 began the Holocaust.
105. 1999. "The Politics of Uniqueness: Reflections of the Recent Polemical Turn in Holocaust and Genocide Scholarship,". Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 13 (1) Spring: 325119 Gavriel Rosenfeld writes: "[E]fforts to analyze the Holocaust as an example of genocide … [have] been hampered by the absence of a widely accepted definition of the term 'genocide.'" And in an endnote Rosenfeld refers readers to IS pages of a book text-a "brief survey" of genocide definitions
106. 1966. Bibliography …on the teaching of the Shoah, Los Angeles: Bureau of Jewish Education. "Shoah" in a mid-1960s title The first use of "Shoah" as a reference to the Judeocide in a PhD thesis abstract, per Dissertation Abstracts, was in 1989, the first use in a PhD title was in 1992. Per Article 1st data base, in 1997 seven article titles contain "Shoah" (but two ate references to Lanzmann's movie) and 170 titles contain "Holocaust," virtually all references to the Nazi murders. In 1994 two titles used "Shoah" and 1 IS "Holocaust." Katz uses "Shoa'h" occasionally in his 1994 Holocaust in Historical Context, e.g. p 491. For "Shoah" used as a synonym for "Holocaust" in contexts where "Holocaust" is a referent to both Jewish and non-Jewish Nazi slaughter see the inside of the dust jacket of Michael Berenbaum and Abraham Peck's, eds, The Holocaust and History. An example of British Jewish newspaper practice: "NATION'S SHOAH DAY: The Jewish community welcomed the… proposal to hold a national Holocaust day …"
107. 1998. London Jewish News, December 4: 1
108. Perhaps the first use of shoah in reference to events in Nazi Germany is in the 1934 Jewish Agency's translation of a Chaim Weizmann remark to the Zionist Actions Committee. In the context of a prediction of a new world war, Weizmann, speaking in German, described Hitler's rise to power as a Katastrophe. Katastrophe was translated into Hebrew as shoah. In 1937, Moshe Sharrett referred to the Nazi persecution of Jews as a shoah. And in June 1939, Ben-Gurion spoke of the possible destruction of European Jewry: "… a war will visit upon us a shoah … [Hitler will destroy] first of all the Jews of Europe" (Teveth, Ben-Gurion and the Holocaust, pp xxix, xxxvi). Teveth argues (p 98) that shoah as late as 1943 did not have the meaning of mass murder, and thus by implication that Ben-Gurion in 1939 was not thinking of mass murder when he used the word shoah. I find Teveth's reasoning unconvincing. Ben-Gurion had read Mein Kampf in 1933 and in 1934 warned that "Hitler's rule places the entire Jewish people in danger … perhaps only four or five years … stand between us and that day of wrath" (Teveth, pp xxxv, xxxvi).
109. Young, James. 1990. Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust, 87–88. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
110. McCaIl, Anthony. 1967. Holocaust, 162190New York: Trident. The "holocaust there," a planned pre-emptive nuclear strike against China is triggered by die "holocaust here,"-a planned assassination, bombing of an American installation, and destruction of an aircraft carrier, all, per planted evidence, organized by the Chinese government