Holocaust

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy

In re an exchange; so:

--- Spencer Thiel <spen at sirius.com> wrote:
> At 9:54 AM -0400 8/2/99, Mitchell R Coffey wrote:
> 
> >Holocaust scholars tend to include the genocide of the Gypsies.  The
> idea is
> >this.  Many groups were systematically targeted by the Germans and 
> >their allies,
> >and murdered in the concentration camps. Yet, only in the case of
> the Gypsies
> >and Jews were groups targeted with the explicit aim of exterminating
> an ethnic
> >group.
> >
> >Mitchell Coffey
> 
> At the risk of sounding naive, does sharing a religion qualify a 
> group as an ethnic group?
> -
> st.


No it does not.  But, of course, in Nazi ideology religion equated not
merely to ethnicity but to the concept of Race, and the exploitation of
an historical/hysterical fear of corruption through contact.  This
follows on a centuries-long, pan-european history of antisemitism
manipulated by various parties toward varied political ends.  Absurd
physical stereotypes have been refined through the ages in an ongoing
effort to define a clear physical mark by which the righteous and the
clean might infallibly recognise their hated adversaries.

We Americans have our own problems with the concept of Race, of
course....

Mark
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