Holocaust or holocausts?

[Dave Monroe]

Why do I even bother?  Maybe it's because you're such
a pain in the ass, I don't know, but(t) ... but given
that the libraries are closed, lessee what we can find
on line that we might have consulted anyway.  The ol'
Merriam-Webster Collegiate's pretty standard 'round
these parts ...

http://m-w.com/

Main Entry: ho·lo·caust 
Pronunciation: 'hO-l&-"kost, 'hä- also -"käst or
'ho-l&-kost
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French holocauste,
from Late Latin holocaustum, from Greek holokauston,
from neuter of holokaustos burnt whole, from hol- +
kaustos burnt, from kaiein to burn -- more at CAUSTIC
Date: 13th century
1 : a sacrifice consumed by fire
2 : a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of
life especially through fire <a nuclear holocaust>
3 a often capitalized : the mass slaughter of European
civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during
World War II -- usually used with the b : a mass
slaughter of people; especially : GENOCIDE


Which, again, is pretty representative.  Now, I'm
supposed finally to have online access to the OED, but
I don't have my passcode or whatever yet, but, hoo
boy, when I do ... but, really, is it being argued now
that ONLY Jews were victims of the Holocaust, or that
anyone who died or otherwise suffered from Nazi
atrocities OUTSIDE the confines of the camps
constructed or converted to use expressly for the
purpose of mass exterminations were victims of the
Holocaust?  So where does that leave everybody else
who died, say, noncombat deaths at the hands of the
Nazis?  And so forth ...


 <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> on 7/15/01 2:28 AM, KXX4493553 at aol.com at
> KXX4493553 at aol.com wrote:
>
> This *definition* is also the one given in the three
> dictionaries (Oxford, Collins, Macquarie), two
> encyclopedias, and Brewer's Phrase and Fable (20th
> C. and Millennium Edition), which I've looked at.
> 
> Which makes me ask again how honest the following
> statement is:
> 
> on 7/14/01 5:36 PM, Dave Monroe at
> davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:
> 
> By the way, pretty much any dictionary,
> encyclopedia, history, account, whatever in my
> experinece (which isn't any more limited than
anybody
> else's here, I  imagine) does actualy take into
> account the deaths of non-Jewish prisoners in the
> camps (concentration, labor, whatever)

So, well, pretty damn honest, I'd say.  But really,
Jacksoff, why do you insist on wasting my time with
this shit?  Can't shake the feeling that this is like
dealing with the guy who inevitably falls into the
pool or gets a pie in the face or some similar
comeuppance at the end of any self-respecting Rodney
Dangerfield movie ...

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/