Surprisingly, I was perplexed and shocked more than I was angry. Had the youth been neo-Nazis, Germans, skinheads, or the like, I would have been predictably upset that such illegal hate, racism and anti-Semitism occurred. What perplexed me was the fact that the perpetrators in this instance were fellow victims of Hitler and the Nazi regime. It had may as well be a Reform Jew shouting “Heil Hitler” an Orthodox Jew – something which would never occur, as both Reform and Orthodox Jews were victims of Hitler and the Nazis.
Op-Ed: The Irony of Blacks Yelling “Heil Hitler”
After reading the article on this site, in which a Jew was targeted with Naziesque slurs, I was reminded of a similar one, in which I witnessed a group of bochurim on Tahalucha who were shouted at with the similar chants of “Heil Hitler!”
Surprisingly, I was perplexed and shocked more than I was angry. Had the youth been neo-Nazis, Germans, skinheads, or the like, I would have been predictably upset that such illegal hate, racism and anti-Semitism occurred. What perplexed me was the fact that the perpetrators in this instance were fellow victims of Hitler and the Nazi regime. It had may as well be a Reform Jew shouting “Heil Hitler” an Orthodox Jew – something which would never occur, as both Reform and Orthodox Jews were victims of Hitler and the Nazis.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., although there was no systematic program for their elimination as there was for Jews and other groups, “the fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder.”
Additionaly, African German children “were marginalized in German society, isolated socially and economically, and not allowed to attend university. Racial discrimination prohibited them from seeking most jobs, including service in the military. With the Nazi rise to power they became a target of racial and population policy. By 1937, the Gestapo (German secret state police) had secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized many of them. Some were subjected to medical experiments; others mysteriously ‘disappeared’.”
According to the Museum’s web site, “Adult African Germans were also victims”, and “some African Americans, caught in German-occupied Europe during World War II, also became victims of the Nazi regime.”
This being the case, how is it that in the United States, where all races, religions and cultures are afforded the basic human right to live without fear of persecution because of their beliefs, one group of Hitler’s victims would yell “Heil Hitler” at another group of fellow victims?
After pondering this issue for some time, it occurred to me that the only possible explanation for this seemingly paradoxical incident is the lack of education on this important historical issue.
There is, apparently, an enormous educational movement detailing the victimization of Jews by Hitler and the Nazi regime. There is, to some extent, education surrounding the slaughter of the disabled population, Gypsies and Poles.
However, there seems to be little, if any, education and emphasis regarding the victimization of the Black population at the hands of Hitler and the Nazis. The African-American youth in these situations seem to be of the opinion that the Jews alone were murdered and persecuted by Hitler, but were not aware that their very own ancestors were also persecuted by Hitler, who believed that both Jews and Blacks resulted in “a loss of racial pride” among Aryans.
Had they been aware of their own history of persecution alongside the Jews, these youth and teenagers would, no doubt, join hands with their Jewish neighbors and raise one voice against all forms of hate, racism, persecution, and, more specifically, Nazism and Hitlerism.
——————
References:
1. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – “Blacks During The Holocaust” – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
2. “Hitler’s Black Victims: The Historical Experience of Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans and African Americans in the Nazi Era” by Clarence Lusane – Amazon Books
This Op-Ed reflects the views of its author, it does not necessarily reflect the views of CrownHeights.info nor of its Editors.
A reader that wishes to make his or her voice heard on any topic of their desire is welcome to submit his or her Op-Ed to News@CrownHeights.info.
Crown Heights Resident
I’d really like to see people recognizing that historically, both Jews and blacks have been marginalized and oppressed, and that this is a common denomenator among the residents of Crown Heights. Both groups look too disdainfully on each other without recognizing the common ground that could lead to peace and mutual understanding. I mean, of course, kol v’chomer, chos v’shalom, we are a chelek elokai and they are goyim etc etc. But still: if we want to get along, (both sides!) it would do us good to acknowledge, and embrace, a certain commonality of sentiments.
Fellow Lubavitcher
Nice article. I didn’t think the comparison to the Reform and Conservative Jews was an appropriate example. They are our fellow Jews, not strangers. It doesn’t strike me as the "Chabad way" to make that comparison.
madd
here’s the difference: a jew is murdered all jews cry, a black is murdered its 99.9% certain that another black ("sorry" african american)killed him (think rwanda,etc)
yes
The blacks seem to be uneducated in this aspect of history, but i think that be they aware of the reality of their popularity or lack there of in the holocaust, they wouldn’t use this statement to express their antisemitism, but they would find some other way to express it….
Everyone needs an education
I think we need some education within our own community in regard to other races. Madd’s comment is one great example of this. Race is not the relevant issue. Brutality, murder and prejudice is the issue. It’s one thing to say certain cultures promote violence, but it’s the culture that is to be blamed not the race.
Mendy Hecht
The real reason these punks say these things is because they hear it from their parents and relatives. (The idea that "if only they knew…" they wouldn’t say it is ridiculous–these kids are not some kind of thoughtful, sensitive intellectual liberals. They’re just kids!) The parents and relatives, in turn, hate Jews because it was the Jews who did everything for the blacks–we created the NAACP, we were the providers of critical funding to Martin Luther King, we were at the forefront of the civil rights movement of the 60s, we went to prison in Selma with their leaders, our Reform "rabbis" held (posul) sifrei Torah while publicly appearing with black leaders at protests, and some of us were even killed by racist cops in the South for helping blacks during the 60s struggles. So black people owe us everything, and they resent that big time for it. And when you owe a man everything–your success, your happiness, your freedom, your rights, your prosperity–that generates resentment because it tells you that you couldn’t have done it on your own, which makes you feel stupid and inferior and incapable.
Lovely. But...
If the point of this article was to compliment the Jewish community in its effective education of our youth, and to contrast that to the dearth of basic historical knowledge of other ethnic groups, etc. then thank you Crownheights.info for featuring this wonderful compliment to our educators and our community.
If not – why the heck is this article up here?
Mr Friedman, in so articulately pointing out the lack of education in the black community on an exclusively Orthodox Jewish website – what exactly are you trying to accomplish?
We now know you can write. Even do a little research, as evidenced by your beautiful footnotes.
But your article serves no purpose. Whatsoever.
Perhaps a website dedicated to cultural and social issues arising in the African-American community could benefit from your article. And maybe even do something about it.
But what were you hoping to accomplish by posting it here?
Perhaps I’ll go have a heart-to-heart sit-down with my black neighbors tonight.
Or nominate you for a Pulitzer.
Hmmm
Interesting point of view – I didn’t realize historically that they were persecuted in World War 2 as well. I am not making any distinctions, however, we know what they are considered and meant to be accor to Torah.
MORDECHAI
NICE ARTICLE. YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT EDUCATION WOULD STOP THEM FROM SAYING HEIL HIT… .BUT THEY PROBABLY WOULD SHOUT SOME THING ELSE. LIKE "HEIL ARAFAT" OR OTHER TERRORISTS OR STALIN OR ANOTHER JEW KILLER.
.........
whatever next time they get in your face-ch"v just tell them to go swing from a noose. seriously, uneducated? understatement of the year.
mendy... TO CROWN HEIGHTS RESIDENT
I dont think that we have to strive for the african americans and the jews to get "along", how about if they would just stop killing , harrassing, mugging, robbing us…., i think that would be good enough for now. so lets stop with this common ground that you speak of.
Boruch ben Tzvi(A H)haKohaine Hoffinger
B"H
Mendy Hecht-E X C E L L E N T!
Especially when one of their biggest leaders, M.L. King was a womanizer and Communist. They’re not proud of their leaders! This creates a POWERFUL jealousy!
BigBen
Nice article, but Mr.Friedman must be living in a fantasy world. These punks don’t give a flying sneeze about the blacks that were turtured or killed in WWII. They just hate jews (and whites) cause that’s what they hear on their radio (WBLI) and at home and at school, etc… They need to be procecuted for this as a hate crime that’s how you "educate" them.
so i-m a racist, so what
It’s about time we stopped pandering to Blacks, worrying about being called racists & bending over backwards to be PC. Who cares about them?? If you were all honest you’d openly agree with me. I don’t suggest we attack them, but we sure should stop giving a flying potato what they think. they hate us anyway, so I say think what you want & where you’re able (safely) say it too.
anonymous
So Mr. Friedman, your’e explaining why black people say Heil Hitler. Because they don’t know what Hitler did to them.
They say it for one reason. They are happy with the horrors that Yemach Shemo perpetrated against the Jews.
They don’t give a hoot about their fellow blacks. Look how they kill each other. We have to bless Hashem if it’s just curses they shower us with. They do much worse to their own.
As for Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, apparently they either don’t care.
The only time they raise their voice is when a white person or police officer harms or appears to have caused them harm.
Chabad Black Jew
B"H
I am truly appalled by the views expressed here. So many of you lumped all Black people together in a singular negative light. All of us are uneducated? All of us hate Jews and white people? All of us are jealous of you? We certainly don’t owe you the world as someone wrote. Though I do acknowledge and appreciate the support Jews provided during the Civil Rights Era some of our success was certainly by our own sweat and blood. Yes, some black youth need a better education and upbringing with the responsibility of such resting squarely on their parents shoulders but not everyone can be cast in the same light. I am simply appalled and many of you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Crown Heights Teen
To Chabad Black Jew:
When we say "blacks", we don’t mean all the blacks in the world. We mean those that live here, in Crown Heights, who have an intolerably high crime rate — against us.