Russian Star, Ivan Okhlobystin, of the Russian version of the popular U.S. sitcom “Scrubs” came out with a horrifyingly offensive suggestion of how to address the Gay public. He was quoted saying, “I would have them all stuffed alive inside an oven. This is Sodom and Gomorrah, as a believer, I cannot remain indifferent to this, it is a living danger to my children!” He went on to state that homosexuality is “a clear sign of mental abnormality.” One needs to first ask what he is honestly a believer of Orthodox Christianity and then seek an explanation from the leaders of his faith as to how they feel about his suggestion. I am not an authority of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Christian faiths in general. But I seem to remember something about “abhor the sin, love the sinner.” The honest thing is that as a Russian, whose soldiers during World War II were sometimes sent to the death camps as the animosity between the Russians and German, especially the Nazis, was off scale, he should be more sensitive and aware of the horrors which befell the victims of the Nazis. The horrific tragedy that this reference could be offered within one century after twelve million plus people, the vast numbers being innocent civilians guilty only of belonging to some politically determined and despised minority, were gassed and their bodies placed into crematoria which more resembled ovens than anything else. There is nothing more filled with opprobrium than somebody making a suggestion that any group of people should be murdered simply for belonging to a group in which scorn or hatred may exist. Perhaps it is necessary to remind people of exactly how the death camps came to be acceptable to the people of Germany who were considered to have one of the most enlightened societies just a decade earlier and which had among their population many of the greatest minds in science both hard as in mathematics and physics as well as the social sciences such as psychology and political science. Still, facing economic collapse and severe unemployment the nation of Germany fell prey to a madman and the result was they were forced to accept his hatreds and inhuman social doctrines.
Many are not all that familiar with how the death camps were incorporated slowly after desensitizing the German population until they simply fell in line either out of fear or possibly even finding they agreed with the policies as the propaganda had performed as intended. The Nazis did not come to power and start the death camps the next day or month or year. They began slowly and carefully first establishing a euthanasia program for people whose lives were determined to not be worth living due to severe physical or mental disabilities. Then they progressed to forced sterilization of those who were determined to be mentally insane or so mentally challenged as to not even be capable of caring for themselves selling these as being merciful as these people too who were considered to not be living lives worth living as well as not contributing to society while taking from the society. All the while the Nazis also carried out a campaign of delegitimization and dehumanization of the Roma, Jews, Homosexuals and others who were considered enemies of the state. They claimed initially that they were relocating these people for their own safety and benefit. Slowly the people came to accept the deportation of these unsavory peoples who were no longer seen as being truly human but more as a subhuman species which needed to be separated from the regular, normal, decent people for the good of society and their own benefit. After they has transported the dehumanized victims of the Nazis to camps simply beginning to murder them with industrial efficiency was a small step which few ever believed was actually being committed as the government was only acting for the good of the whole, the society and was protecting these others who were incapable of normal existence and were a threat to society.
When the Nazis were considering how to dispose of the Jews they had considered deportation to the Middle East, strangely enough to an area around where Israel exists today, but ran into resistance from the British and the French who had colonial control of these areas. Meanwhile, there were the members of the Nazi high command who were anti-Semitic and wanted a final solution concerning the Jews and they had an ally who carried some weight who not only thought the Nazis should murder all the Jews in Europe but also demanded that once the Nazis won the war in the Middle East and North Africa he wished they also murder the Jews residing throughout the Arab and Muslim lands. This individual also promised that the Nazis could rely on the support of the Muslim Arabs in removing the Jews by any means necessary. This ally of the Nazis was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini. Grand al-Husseini would go on to be the mentor and role model for Yasser Arafat who considered him to be as a father and would claim him as a relative usually an uncle. Whether this claim by Arafat was valid is inconsequential as his stating this relationship is sufficient for all believe that this was the closeness of the two anti-Semites as they were of the same ilk. Considering that one of the groups persecuted originally were the homosexuals this comment by Ivan Okhlobystin concerning murdering them using ovens bringing such implications of Nazi similar treatment in the past makes his comment even more nauseating and offensive. One can only imagine where going down such a road would lead this time and who would eventually be included on the hate list for similar treatment should Ivan Okhlobystin and those who applaud his hate-filled remarks were allowed to have any real power. There is enough hatred and the current increasing rise on anti-Semitism makes such comments all the more dangerous. As I said, the human race went down this path countless times in history though the chosen hatreds sometimes varied; the results and the horrors were always the same and after the Holocaust we were supposed to remember and by remembering we also promised “Never Again!” We did not say almost never again or anything halfway but apparently there are those who did not learn from past horrors and who would commit them again and lead to steps that would unravel society from a humanism into barbarism once again. I can only repeat, please, never again!
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 