When do you cross the Holocaust line?

The College Days' latest issue hit the web last night. [For the uninformed: College Days, Wiconsin's Oldest College newspaper, is the student paper at Ripon College, where I went to school from 1998-2002. I was co-Editor-in-Chief of the paper for a year and a half.]

I have an opinion about the whole film-permissions thing, but I'll save it for later. Suffice it to say that I'm gonna pull out the 40+ pages that are my senior sem (about the decline of social capitol and the concept of community and civic engagement at Ripon College) and smack Sarnowski upside the head with them. He may have a point, but he's going way too far. Someone needs to find him something constructive to do with his time.

Anyway, one of the first things I always read when I browse the Days' site is Sonya Sorich's column. Sonya's a senior now, and she started writing for the paper while Gina and I were its editors. She's the real deal: she's astute and has a keen eye for understanding the craziness that revolves around her, and she has a real knack for articulating what everyone's thinking. She's the columnist that the paper has always needed, and she's going to be sorely missed when she graduates in May.

In this week's column, she talks about memories of the past semester, and lists her "top five." It's an interesting read, but it made me pause when I got to "No. 2." It reads:

2) Food Service. Once the massive fly exodus exited the Pub after fall break, few of us had reason to complain about food this semester. The newly decorated Pub (a.k.a. "The Max") was quickly followed by an impressive Terrace (a.k.a. "Central Perk"). The Pub resurrected the popular breakfast meal exchange, and the Terrace played on campus laziness by offering surprisingly edible delivery. Gone are the days of Camp Auschwitz-inspired food lines at Ripon College. New trends in food service even rival the selection available at Save-A-Lot. Add a $1 pregnancy test, Sodexho, and I'm sold.

The Auschwitz analogy bugs me.

First, as Creecy pointed out when I discussed it with him, it's pretty unnecessary. She could have made her point about how bad the food choices used to be without comparing Sodexho to the Nazis. Then there's the fact that I should probably take offense...

A part of me wants to say, "Sonya, you really don't get it. Auschwitz was a place of incomparable horror, and you sound ignorant and insensitive when you compare the food at Ripon College -- even the worst food the Sodexho could ever serve -- to the treatment of the hundreds of thousands of innocents who were held at Auschwitz (and the million or so that were murdered there)."

But then, I think the Jewish community spends a lot of time flapping their mouths and getting hypersensitive about this sort of stuff. And I think that Sonya's a great writer (actually, an award-winning one) who's very intelligent and very well-educated.

So I guess I'm just not sure where the line is. Is it never ok to compare anything to the Holocaust? Should Jews take offense whenever someone gets called "Gestapo-like"? Or is it sometimes ok? Or is it only ok when Jews do it? I guess I'm just not sure.

I'm hoping for comments on this one.

Comments

[Esther]

I'll feel free to comment, Josh.

I spend a considerable amount of time reading non-fiction Holocaust books, have taken a significant number of courses on the topic, and spent a week in poland visiting the remnants of Auschwitz and other Holocaust-related memorial sites. So I think I might have a few things to say.

You are right, the Jewish community does tend to spend a large amount of their time being hypersensitive to comments relating to the Holocaust. A lot of the time, it is unnecessary for us to get upset about it because most people have some level of education on the Holocaust and aren't making uneducated comments - just politically incorrect, or insensitive ones. I'll say right now that I am always offended by these sort of comments because I personally don't think any of us have the right to situationally compare our lives or society to that of Nazi Germany and the concentration camps where our ancestors lost their lives.

What you said is absolutely right. Auschwitz was a horrible place. None of us could ever fathom what it would have been like to wait in line for soup made from grass which would be eaten out of the same bowls we had relieved ourselves in the night before.
Sonya might be a very well educated and awarded writer. No doubt she has worked hard in the four years she's worked on the Ripon newspaper. But she is not educated enough in the history of the Holocaust to be making such comments in her column. (I can tell that based on the fact that she used the phrase "Camp Auschwitz". Auschwitz was a labor concentration camp, not a day camp for kids during the summer.) She's also writing to an audience of mid-western non-Jewish students, who may or may not understand the implications of her comparison.

She should be informed of her insensitivity, and the Jewish community will live even if she still doesn't get it. But next time she may want to remember that the people who suffered in Auschwitz would have been monumentally grateful for any food from the Sodexho.

[Rachael Adele]

I agree with you, Josh, that the line was completely unnecessary. Jews can be hypersensitive concerning the Holocaust, and it takes a lot of discretion to know where to draw the line. Knowing Sonya, and her normally very deliberate writing style, I would say this was an oversight. My guess is that if this was brought up with her, she would immediately agree with the points posted on this blog and have an apology published.

[Sonya Sorich]

Hi Josh,

Thanks so much for contacting me in regard to the opinions posted on your blog. It's nice to know that there are still people willing to offer feedback in a fair and mature manner. I appreciate your willingness to directly contact me, as well as the manner in which you expressed your views in the blog.

Please note that I never intended to offend anyone through my reference to Auschwitz in this issue's column. As you've hopefully gathered from my writing, my column is never negatively directed toward specific individuals or groups of people. While not everyone will always agree with the ideas I present, I hope that audiences recognize that I strive to constantly write with integrity.

As much as I try to maintain this integrity, however, there are always instances in which certain lines of journalistic clarity are blurred. The Auschwitz reference is such an example. During our early stages of copy editing, someone questioned the reference, leading me to extensively contemplate its inclusion. While doing so, I constantly wondered if I was being too "sensitive" or too "politically correct."

Earlier this year, someone wrote a fairly angry letter to the Days, criticizing my use of the term "ghetto." The writer argued that, by referring to our campus as "ghetto," I appeared racist. Although some of my friends encouraged me to disregard the criticism as irrelevant, I took the issue very seriously. In your blog, you said that you'd like to tell me that I "don't get it," referring to Auschwitz. In a large sense, you're correct. While I can easily pinpoint phrases that will directly offend groups with whom I am directly connected, it is often difficult to prematurely recognize the way in which other references that I include may be interpreted. The fact that I am able to use "Auschwitz" and "ghetto" in a loose context should not, by any means, undermine the way in which the inappropriate use of such terms can offend large sectors of our population.

Like most columnists, I have yet to devise some brilliant way to resolve the dichotomy between walking on eggshells and politely respecting conflicting viewpoints. I worry that, if I over-analyze every single reference I include, I'll lose the edge that defines my identity as a writer. At the same time, though, I don't want to become so desensitized that I lose my understanding of basic respect in the process. I think about these issues each time I write my column.

I'd like to address one final issue you discussed in your blog. You suggested that the Auschwitz reference was unnecessary. In a certain sense, I agree with this. I would have never included the reference if the column had not been retrospective. However, the line was actually referring back to an earlier column, in which I discussed a group of freshmen applying the Auschwitz metaphor to the commons. In hindsight, I realize that I should have contextualized the example for the sake of outside readers' clarity.

Thanks again for your feedback. I hope this doesn't lessen your perception of my journalistic abilities. While I never intend to offend anyone through my column, I appreciate the fact that my writing often unintentionally directs audience attention to broader social issues worthy of discussion. Please keep reading - and, more importantly, responding.

-Sonya

[Tim]

First off, I am more than likely not nearly as capable a writer as anyone who has commented here, so just bare with me. I'm neither the most sensitive nor the most PC individual in the world, but I do notice where there are lines that should not be crossed. There have been plenty of times when I have looked at a line and stepped over it fully knowing where I was going. I don't do this to perpetuate the massive amounts of stupidity floating around the state of Wisconsin, but to take solid, deep, cold jabs and to do it as shocking as possible. Again, I do see lines and there are ones I won't cross, such as: dawning a confederate flag (Wisconsin fought with the North!), brandishing a swastika, or pulling at the side of my eyes so they become slanted.

With this being said I do feel people are hypersensitive in many cases. Using a fairly similar case, calling someone a slave driver is used so often I can't even begin to count, yet I have never had this conversation with any of my "black" friends. I know, and assume they know (because I think of my friends as fairly intelligent), that it is simply showing my greatest dissatisfaction with the way someone speaks to me or orders me around. I am in no way ignoring 200+ years of hardship, simply bitching. I have always fought against the idea of being PC, because not being PC doesn't make you a bigot or a racist, there are many other things that can be said and done to prove that. I don't want to be PC, I want to call something as is. I don't use African American, because I don't know any black persons from Africa. I don't want to be called German American; I was born in the United States and I'm happy with being just WHITE. I certainly don’t want to be referred as Caucasian. We can get into the fact neither race is truly black or white, but then again I don't give a flying fuck nor should you, because that is being hypersensitive and none of my friends have ever questioned me on my intent.

To hit on the true subject at hand, is a reference to Auschwitz crossing a line that should result in a debate on the sensitivity of humanity? I happen to be the physical manifestation of the phrase "Choose your battles wisely." We know why the reference was made in Sonya's article, it meant no harm, and it was done without malice, so why strike out at it like an enemy? I'm not nearly as educated on the subject as some who have already commented, but I have spent a fair amount of time on the subject enough to know, as anyone else “should”, that the holocaust was horrific and that Auschwitz reined supreme as a monstrosity to humanity. Is that an understatement? That is just tough, because in the end I know I wouldn’t put the worst of humanity in that situation and I can be extremely cruel if given the slightest provocation.

The original situation is not a wise battle, but it is hypersensitive to be offended by the Auschwitz comment, because of its intent as a figure of speech to show the long lines to get food that most of the students despise. In the end she did not call the Commons Auschwitz, she did not say it was as bad and as horrible as Auschwitz nor did she say it was the next Auschwitz. Again, what do I know, I didn’t live through its horrors and this is just the opinion of a white-male of non-Jewish-descent.