The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

The Meaning of Holocaust

Holocaust, in modern English, has two meanings:

1. holocaust - An act of mass destruction and loss of life.
2. The Holocaust – is the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime from 1941 until 1945.

Unfortunately, most people only think of the second meaning when they hear Holocaust. I say unfortunately because while the Jewish Holocaust took over six million lives and is a stain on the history of humankind, the NAZI holocaust also took about five million lives of non-Jewish persons. These five million non-Jewish lives were as much of a holocaust as the Jewish Holocaust, and as much of a stain on the history of humankind. Both the Jewish and non-Jewish Holocaust by the Nazis were driven by intolerance and bigotry for those with whom they hated. Therefore, eleven million people were murdered from hatred by the Nazis.

This Holocaust did not start with murder but was precipitated by speech that marginalized then demonized the groups that the Nazis hated. Due to this marginalization and demonization, it became possible for the NAZI’s to engage in holocaustic actions. And much of this marginalization and demonization occurred by the suppression of the Free Speech and Assembly Rights of those that opposed the NAZI’s. It was also precipitated by violent terroristic actions of the NAZI’s against political parties or groups that opposed the NAZI’s.

Therefore, it is important that when you hear the term holocaust, you think of both the Jewish and non-Jewish Holocaust by the Nazis. You must remember that the Holocaust was not just about anti-Semitism, but it was also about intolerance and hatred of peoples that disagree with you. Any hatred has the possibility of spilling over to terroristic actions, wars, and possible holocaustic actions by those that hate.

The other term that is utilized for mass murder is Genocide. The term 'Genocide' was coined by Polish writer and attorney Raphael Lemkin in 1941 by combining the Greek word 'genos' (race) with the Latin word 'cide' (killing). Genocide, as defined by the United Nations in 1948, means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including: (a) killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The 20th century has seen many acts of Genocide, with the past to recent occurrences of Genocide being:

• Armenians in Turkey: 1915-1918 - 1,500,000 Deaths
• Stalin's Forced Famine: 1932-1933 - 7,000,000 Deaths
• Rape of Nanking: 1937-1938 - 300,000 Deaths
• NAZI Holocaust: 1938-1945 - 6,000,000 Jewish Deaths
• NAZI Holocaust: 1938-1945 - 5,000,000 non-Jewish Deaths
• Pol Pot in Cambodia: 1975-1979 - 2,000,000 Deaths
• Bosnia-Herzegovina: 1992-1995 - 200,000 Deaths
• Rwanda: 1994 - 800,000 Deaths

Whether it be a holocaust or genocide, the deaths were driven by hatred.

This is why the First Amendment Rights and the Other Bill of Rights of the Constitution are vital, for these Rights are a bulwark for the protection of "A Civil Society" and the basis for our “Freedoms, Liberties, Equalities, and Equal Justice for All”. As I have written in my “Terminology” webpage; Mainstream Cultural Media, Mainstream Media, Modern Big Business, Social Media, Political Correctness, Cancel Culture, and Wokeness, when these forces conflate, they pose a danger to our First Amendment Rights. At the very minimum, they engender the First Amendment Rights of Americans, but they also have the possibility to mutate into intolerance and bigotry, then hatred, that may bring about a holocaust in America.

Consequently, the conflation of the social forces of Mainstream Cultural Media, Mainstream Media, Modern Big Business, Social Media, Political Correctness, Cancel Culture, and Wokeness along political or ideological lines pose a danger to our First Amendment Rights. It would also require that the American people be acquiescent to governmental authority or the social forces of the conflation. The hubris of a government or society that believes that they can direct or control a free people is astounding. Only a subjugated or subservient people can be directed or controlled. If you believe in Freedom, Liberty, Equality, and Equal Justice for All, then you can never acquiesce, or you will become subjugated or subservient.

It is also a warning that all individuals must stand up for human rights or find themselves in the following conundrum:

"First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me"

- Martin Niemöller