Holocaust

[Paul Mackin]

Are we saying that  the word "holocaust" (with no initial caps) makes  
little sense languagewise when applied to cases of ethnic cleansing or
genocide apart from the European Jewish case--which has adopted the
capitalized word as its own--and that the lower case usage  should be
retricted to having the meaning of sacrifice or destruction by  fire?
If so I agree.  (I've probably violated this rule at times)

Wouldn't the rule have the good effect of helping to by-pass the
controversy over whether the Jewish case is in some respect unique? Seems
to me it would help.

				P.

On Sat, 31 Jul 1999 FrodeauxB at aol.com wrote:

> Kai,
> Thanks for the answer. I understand your statement much better now. While 
> there is room for debate on the use of the word Holocaust, there are other 
> ethnic cleansings which need to be recognized and addressed. Overuse of a 
> word not only cheapens it, but can cause the concept or event it is used to 
> signify to be forgotten. We need another word-is ethnic cleansing OK for this:
> The church registers' pages are yellowed, the ink faded, the handwriting 
> difficult and in French, but the names filling those pages are familiar to 
> anyone in south Louisiana even 230 years after Acadians smuggled the books 
> out of Canada.
> Thibodeaux, Hebert, LeBlanc, Landry, LaBauve, Gautreaux.
> The history is also familiar: in 1755, the British army began forcing 
> French-speaking residents of Acadia into exile in an 18th century version of 
> ethnic cleansing. Redcoats razed settlements an effort to erase any trace of 
> the French as they scattered the Acadians amongst English colonies along the 
> Atlantic seaboard.
> The settlement of Grand Pre (cf. "Evangeline") on the west coast of what is 
> now known as Nova Scotia was in that first wave of 6,000 to 7,000 expulsions 
> that bleak fall of 1755. Parishioners of St. Charles aux Mines Catholic 
> Church managed to sneak out a set of registers that recorded the births, 
> baptisms, marriages and deaths in that community from 1707 to 1748.
> After a stint in Maryland, the registers' guardians were among the first wave 
> of 210 Acadians to settle in St. Gabriel in Spanish Louisiana in 1767.
> Beginning today and continuing for the next 15 days, the Congres Mondial 
> Acadien will host almost 250,000 Acadians and Francophones from the US, 
> Canada, Belgium, France and other countries as family reunions, concerts, 
> lectures, exhibits, folk story telling and other events and celebrations 
> commemorate the culture and heritage of the Acadians, culminating on August 
> 15 with Fete Nationale des Acadiens/National Day of the Acadians (see 
> www.acadienmemorial.org). There were  approximately 3,000 Acadian refugees 
> who ultimately settled in Louisiana. Some 500,000 Cajuns remember the 
> diaspora of their forebears. Some still live on, farm, and hunt parts of the 
> land originally settled by their ancestors. As Allen Babineaux, retired state 
> judge and major player in the Congres said, "They tried to erase us. We are 
> here. We live."
> Vive la Acadiens! Vive la Louisiane!
> 
>  
>