The Calamity in Kosovo: Should We Compare it to the Holocaust?

By Frieda Soble

Whenever a horrifying manifestation of human cruelty occurs in the world today, everyone seems to want to compare it to the Holocaust. There was Rwanda. There was Somalia. There was Bosnia. And now there's Kosovo. But is it appropriate to give these heart-rending occurrences of brutality that ultimate appellation of evil by comparing them to the Holocaust?

It is entirely appropriate and certainly sensitive for Jews and others to take notice of the suffering inflicted upon the Albanian residents of Kosovo by the leaders of Serbia. And it is, as President Clinton has stated, a "moral imperative" for America to come to their aid. But should we compare this instance of man's inhumanity to man to the experience of the Jews in Europe between 1933 and 1945?

On the one hand, the widespread use of the term &Holocaust& as the ultimate appellation for suffering does justice to the oppression of the Jews during the Holocaust. But if it is used too nonchalantly, the term will lose its true historical meaning, that is to say, its accuracy.

Because the atrocities committed during the Holocaust were so abhorrent and because they were probably the first such series of human degradations to be made readily available to millions of people through both still photography and film, the Holocaust has become known more for the fanatic cruelty of the Nazis toward the Jews than for its deeper implications. It was a unique event in the history of mankind. Many characteristics set it apart from all other instances of cruelty, inhumanity, and degradation.

Certainly the atrocities committed during the Holocaust were as brutal as any in history, but that is not what makes the Holocaust what it was. We must remember that the persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust had no practical value to the Germans. It was entirely ideological. Unlike in Bosnia or Kosovo, the Jews were not seeking to gain or retain any measure of power. They were simply citizens of all the various European countries in which they lived, trying to make as good a life as possible for themselves, just as all their neighbors were doing, and eager to contribute to the economic, civic, and cultural affairs of those nations. They asked for nothing. They offered to give everything, even their lives in combat, for the nations in which they resided.

The Jews of Europe had no aspirations of defeating the governments that were in power there, be they democratic, communist, or even fascist. While Zionism was always a theme for certain streams of European Jews, it posed no threat to the countries which ultimately tyrannized them. To the contrary, it was only Britain, one of the Allies fighting against the Nazis, which stood to lose something because of Zionism‹the favor of the Arabs who supplied their precious oil.

The history of the peoples of the Balkans is long and complex. Our confronting the current fighting and destruction in Kosovo should focus on the human suffering occurring there now and how it can best be alleviated and prevented in the future. That includes both providing immediate aid and assisting with finding a way to achieve ultimate peace between the parties involved.

As human beings, we seem to want to see everything as black or white. We want a villain and a hero. We want to identify the villain swiftly and clearly. We want to call him names and recall the horrible things he has done in the past, so as to almost reprove ourselves for not seeing the handwriting on the wall and knowing that this current situation would indeed come to pass.

Perhaps this is the natural human condition, the survival instinct. Identify your enemy early and decisively. Then rout him with all your might. But with Kosovo and other hot spots in the world today, it just isn't that simple. Certainly, the Serbs are now imposing unspeakable horrors upon the population of Kosovo. And they should be brought to task for it without delay. But the situation in the Balkans will not be resolved by simply ending this immediate crisis.

Claims to the land of Kosovo go back centuries, if not millennia. Where does the ultimate right to an area of real estate lay? Is it who was there first? Is it who is there now, a sort of finders keepers rule of law?

Should the decision be turned over to a higher authority to which all the peoples of the world are subject, like a more powerful U.N.? Or should it go to a higher authority yet, a supernatural authority to which many people pledge unquestioned devotion but who for others is simply a nonexistent entity. And of those who do pledge allegiance to this supreme being, what about the disparate groups who seek from Him differing solutions to the same problem?

There are no easy answers to these questions. But the needs of the refugees now flooding out of Kosovo must be met immediately. There is only one response when it comes to humanitarian aid for them‹everyone must help to the best of his or her ability.

To the ultimate question of whether they should have autonomy or even independence in the land that they claim, there must be further exploration. Exploration and not war. How to get the Serbs to accept that principle is, of course, a dilemma.

Comparing the calamity in Kosovo to the Holocaust can certainly serve the purpose of arousing the public to the horrific devastation that is occurring there. But there is a danger in using the term "Holocaust" without providing further explanation of it. We must never forget that the Holocaust was more than atrocities. It was the attempted elimination of all Jews everywhere. It was the defamation of the Jewish religion while at the same time erroneously defining the Jewish people as a race. It was the ill-begotten use of advanced dexterity with propaganda, the marshalling of a downtrodden nation with pseudo-scientific theories of its racial superiority, and the ultimate expression of deep-seated prejudice.

Let us protest against the Serbian oppression of the Kosovars--and the oppression of any group wherever they are in the world. But let us be careful when comparing other calamities to the Holocaust. Its integrity as a unique event in the history of the world stands to suffer as well.

Frieda Soble is the Executive Director of the Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies. She lives in Plano, Texas, where she misses her two grown-up daughters who live in Boston.