Yair Auron: The Holocaust and the Great Calamity
Sako Arian
10:59, August 9, 2013
Holocaust – A Difficult Title
In his book, The Banality of Indifference; Zionism and the Armenian
Genocide, Israeli historian Yair Auron writes:
`It is hard for me to understand and accept the longstanding policy of
my government rejecting the genocide perpetrated by Turkey against
Armenians. I had hope of finding greater compassion regarding the
sufferings of the Armenian people, given the similarity of our fate,
of finding more attempts to help and assist, even given the limited
resources that the Jewish people had, especially the Zionist movement
and the Jewish community of pre-state Palestine. Instead, I found an
unacceptable indifference and an attitude where the individualistic
dominated over the universal.’
These are the words used by the courageous Jewish historian to portray
his inner crisis to struggle for the truth that for many years has
collided with the iron doors of Israeli state indifference. Travelling
a long road, the Jewish intellectual has reached an important
conclusion, according to which peoples that have been subjected to
genocide must be the ones who struggle the most to prevent future
genocides and extend a hand of assistance to all those who have,
either before or after them walked the bloody road of crucifixion.
The Jewish people have no road of crucifixion – It has replaced the
long road of pain with the road of powerful struggle, and it has
conquered that road with arduous blood and sweat.
I will never forget the following lines of Armenia’s poet Romik
Sardaryan, who, in 2006, wrote: `Israel has a powerful past, but it’s
unforgiveable that today it seeks revenge of its history from its
neighbors.’
Poet Sardaryan uttered these words at a time when Israel was using its
most powerful weapons to rain down fire on all of southern Lebanon,
using as a pretext the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah.
Even before this, the attitude of the writer of these lines towards
Israel was negative. (Sadly, my readers in Armenia will not be able to
understand the fundamental reasons for this attitude, which resulted
in us bearing the traces of the bloody Israeli talons on Lebanese
soil)
I write this preface to explain, in a word, just how difficult and
complex a subject the Holocaust of the Jews is to write about. This
burden becomes even more cumbersome when for a moment one relives the
hate towards Israel that has taken root in Arab circles. This hate is
the pages torn from a living diary. Its titles are quite clear – Gaza,
Lebanese Qana, Palestinian Deir Yassin, Khiam Prison, the painful
cries of protest of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, and the march
of struggle of the strong Palestinian people merged in the songs of
blood and olive trees. For Arabs today, Israel is enemy number one,
and the West has no need to hear these voices from hell or to even
attempt to understand the basic reasons for this hate. The reasons for
such accusations of enmity run deep and I’m certain that this article
is not at all inclined to examine these reasons.
The total image given to the Genocide, deep within us, has been turned
into a stereotype. At minimum, the pain is transformed, travels to new
expanses, changes color, changes form, but remains the same in
general. We are the inheritors of pain and, no matter how epic such
words might seem, it is true, especially for those whose ancestors
were driven from western Armenia. We have carried this pain, this
instinctive `white blemish’ with us till today. The same is true for
the Jews for whom the issue of grief, the Holocaust, has served as the
most unifying of factors, allowing them to recognize one another and
live together.
It is in that same pain that more than six million Jews were
annihilated. The event became one of historic significance and,
doubtless, a new starting point for yet another rebirth from torment,
death and injury.
Yair Auron Comes to Yerevan
The book launch for the Armenian version of Auron’s book in Yerevan
was an historic occasion. The author took the stage and addressed the
assembled crowd, conveying his heartfelt words. (I should add that
Banality of Indifference was first published thirteen years ago in
Hebrew. It was subsequently translated into English and Russian. Anna
Safaryan translated it into eastern Armenian. Karen Baghdasaryan, an
Armenian businessman in Russia, covered the publication costs.
At the reception, Auron thanked the Armenia press for its coverage of
the book, noting that `it would have been nice if reporters in Israel
showed the same interest in the book.’
The true importance of the book was described by Dr. Ashot Melkonyan
(Director of the State Academy of Sciences’ Institute of History and a
corresponding member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences) who uttered
the following thoughts in a short conversation I had with him:
`There was a certain kind of expectation in the public and in the
field of historiography regarding the words of the Jewish academician
since the Jewish people, who experienced a genocide, should have been
the first to comprehend, from a political, economic and moral
standpoint, what happened to the Armenians in 1915. With this in mind,
Yair Auron finally had the courage and used such a bold title for his
work, Zionism and the Armenian Genocide. In fact, he substantiated
that the phenomenon of the return home of the Jewish people, a two
thousand year-old dream, didn’t necessarily assume that it had to take
place at the expense of another, including that of the Armenians.’
The wound of Gaza is the same wound as `the lament of Adana’
The genocide theme will remain a priority as long as there is the
issue of recognition. Today, that demand is one-sided. While new
voices are being heard from the Turkish side and, with the road blazed
by Hrant Dink, I am sure that a new space will be created in Bolis and
other Turkish towns in this important process of recognition that has
begun. Today, the Turks have a need to recognize us, and naturally, if
we still aren’t talking about an agreement, we must talk about a
conversation. This conversation will begin somewhere.
Perhaps, the importance of this conversation is still not understood
by the Diaspora, or almost unacceptable, however, to hold on to that
wound in our gut, to live that melancholy of grief alone, I believe
is no longer serves as a life raft. The grief of the Genocide has even
grown tired of us. It would have been absurd to hear all this from
Auron, a person who sees and condemns the Genocide perpetrated against
Armenians, had he reservedly and silently passed over the Palestinian
issue.
In this respect, I believe it is important to cite the following
passage from his preface relating to the Palestinian issue, a tangled
web that causes him such anxiety.
The future of the Israeli state is greatly dependent on a resolution
of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on the elimination of control
regarding the Palestinians. This is an unacceptable realty in human
and moral terms, as well as from a Jewish perspective and especially
from a Holocaust legacy perspective. However, the majority of Israeli
youth respond not to the call of Yehuda Elkana that `this must never
happen again’, but repeat the Zionist lesson of the Holocaust that
`This must never happen again to us’.
Only by following such a set of standards can a true path to the
future be opened. Auron steers clear of setting double standards and
in this he can serve as an example for others.
Turkish society has much to cull from Auron in this regard. While it
condemns the plight of Palestinians in Gaza it wishes to pour cold
water on the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. Such an
approach is nothing more than empty verbal gymnastics and denial.
But this thick wall of silence will crack somewhere. Auron writes
about genocide to sound the alarm or to prevent such a calamity from
occurring in the future. In this respect, he points out that it’s
unacceptable to remain silent about the tragedy that has happened and,
going further, he believes that remaining silent and inactive can be
regarded as complicity.
In conclusion, I want to broach the following thought contained in
Auron’s book that speaks about the murder of an entire world when just
one person is murdered. If the murder of just one individuals is so
profound and tragic (equal to the pain of murdering an entire world),
then what will the Turks, who have carried the burden of multiple
genocides in their souls, think about this – about a pain that must
cease to be a stereotype?
And I write all this not with enmity because, in the end, the traces
of blood are not on my hands, on Yair Auron’s hands, or the hands of
others.
Those with the traces of blood on their hands know all this.
But it is important to lend an ear, to listen.