Speaker debunks Holocaust myths
Benjamin Cook
Issue date: 4/22/09 Section: News
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In conjunction with the Jewish Studies Program, the grant from the Berger Family allows a speaker to come to Colby once a year to discuss an issue relating to the Holocaust. At this year's lecture, Hayes, a professor of history and German, and the Theodore Z. Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor of Holocaust Studies, delivered a lecture entitled "The Holocaust: Myths and Misunderstandings."
As a historian, Hayes explained that his
job consists of two goals: discovery and clarification. Throughout the course of his presentation, he focused on clarifying what he believed to be eight common misinterpretations of the Holocaust. "A historian's work is never done," Hayes said. "Refuting historical myth is never easy."
The first conception that Hayes challenged was that anti-Semitic sentiment played a major role in the rise of Hitler. Although there were anti-Semitic political parties, "they never got more than four percent of the vote," Hayes explained.
Besides, Hitler was not affiliated with a party that was exclusively anti-Semitic. After Hitler gained a position of power, "anti-Semitism became legitimate and advantageous." However, it was not used to strengthen the Nazi party until after Hitler seized control of the government.
Hayes continued, arguing that contrary to popular belief, killing the Jews was not Hitler's goal from the start. "Of course we cannot read Hitler's mind," Hayes said.
"But it is by no means clear that he intended [to execute] until he needed to."
According to Hayes, the defining moment was when Hitler wanted to move the German territory eastward into largely Jewish populated areas. At this point, Hitler's expansionary policies resulted in a perceived need to remove the Jews.
Another notion that Hayes attempted to clarify was the idea that the Allies could have saved more Jews. Although he acknowledged that more could have been done to help the Jews, Hayes asserted that given the public consensus, it was unrealistic to do. "Few politicians could have gotten elected by saying so," Hayes said. The general sentiment was "if we take the German Jews, in that will drive the Poles to send more Jews as well." This anti-refugee mentality prevented the Allies from being able to help the Jews in a more significant way.
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