Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians? In short, a comparison of the Lochner and Nuremberg versions of the August 22, , Obersalzberg speech, strongly suggest that the one leaked to Lochner by the confidant of Beck was a strongly doctored version designed for propaganda purposes.
Halder was, by that date, firmly in the ranks of the anti-Hitler German officers, and presumably the would have had no interest in censoring his own diary had Hitler in fact made such statements. While it way never be possible to completely reconstruct the reasons behind these addenda to the Obersalzberg speech and the manner in which they were made, nor why Lochner was chosen as the conduit to transmit them to the West, one thing is certain: The only versions of the obersalzberg speech containing any reference to the Armenians derive from a single source-Louis P.
Therefore one cannot help but share the opinions of the Nuremberg prosecutor and William Shirer and reject the Lochner version. Why and how has bunch a spurious quotation of forty-five years ago become so important that it has been cited by no fewer than twenty-two members of the U. Congress in ? The answer is complex and closely linked to American ethnic politics. Unhampered by the limitations of logic or truth, these spokesmen attempt to justify current Armenian violence against innocent diplomats to Armenian suffering in the course of the First World War.
In terms of logic or the lack thereof , this is comparable to the descendants of peoples who suffered under the last Russian czars running around shooting Soviet diplomats today. Both the Soviet Union and the Republic of Turkey began their existence as revolutionary states in the wake of the First World War the former emerging from the ashes of the Russian empire, while the latter was created from the ruins of the years-old Ottoman empire, the political entity in existence at the time of the alleged genocide.
A significant portion of Armenian propaganda efforts in recent years has bee devoted to establishing a linkage between their own historical experiences and those of European Jewry during the Second World War.
The following examples will serve to illustrate the mileage hitherto obtained by Armenian-Americans in this regard:. As noted earlier, seven of he twenty-two members of the U. Holocaust Memorial Council, in a speech delivered in the Capitol rotunda stated.
No one remembered them, as no one remembered the Jews. Rejected by everyone, they felt expelled from history. The curricula adopted by the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey all stress the spurious Hitler quote as the tie that binds the Armenian an Jewish experiences. This is, to say the least, ironic, as the continued repetition of the spurious Hitler quote, as it is used today, certainly defames the Turkish people.
On September 10, , the U. In regard to the label itself, the fact remains that years and ; rather, the governing power in the region was the multinational state known as the ottoman Empire. In support of H. At the time of this writing the U.
Senate is considering the adoption of their half of this joint resolution. Leaving aside the larger question of whether or not the fate of the Ottoman Armenians in was in fact anything that could conceivably be termed a genocide, and focusing only on the matter at hand, the spurious Hitler quote, we find that three things come immediately to mind. The first is the obvious danger inherent in partisan ethnic politics as currently practiced in the United States.
To appease a handful of potential voters, some American politicians are willing to allow themselves to be used as tools of ethnic pressure groups, regardless of the truth or falsehood of the information they are fed. Secondly, one cannot help but marvel at the patience of the Republic of Turkey, which, beleaguered by economic and social problems of its own, also has to cope with misinformed American politicians lecturing her on her own history.
It is safe to say that if the U. Finally, given the serious problems facing our nation, e. Congressmen and Senators, it is not impertinent to suggest that the Congress would be better served if its members were to confine their activities to the business at hand heave the writing of history to the historians. S : When Hitler first proposed his final solution, he was told that the world would never permit such a mass murder.
S : But, regrettably it was soon forgotten, not by the surviving Armenians, but by most of the rest of the world. Holocaust Memorial Council, made a telling point. H : It should be a source of concern to all of us that to this day Turkey does not acknowledge, despite eyewitness accounts, either the facts or its historical responsibility; for the line from Armenia to Auschwitz is direct. The holocaust of European Jewry has its precedence in the events of to The horrendous events of World War II overshadowed the Armenian genocide, and it is only recently, through the peaceful efforts of the Armenian groups, that the rest of the world has once again begun to recognize the collective agony of the Armenian people.
H : Mr. Speaker, I know that the actions of the Ottoman Government did not lead directly to the forced starvation of the Ukraine by Josef Stalin, the gas chambers of Auschwitz, the gruesome slaughter of the Cambodians. H : The silence with which the community of nations greeted the decimation of the Armenian people may have emboldened those who would later perpetrate similar acts. It certainly had an effect on Adolf Hitler who while planning the extermination of millions of Jews was asked how the world would respond a program of mass murder.
H : The repeated denials of these well documented crimes of the Ottoman Turkish regime call to mind the Nazi maxim that a big lie if often repeated becomes truth. Hitler himself cited the Armenians massacres as evidence that humanity cares nothing for the murder of a people. It is known that Hitler cited that fact that the Armenian genocide was little known, little discussed and little remembered in his time.
We can only imagine the conclusions he drew from this fact. H : Today, historians argue about the number of Armenians actually killed. Others claim that no genocide took place at all. This is a devastating conclusion to the survivors, whether they be Americans, Lebanese, Egyptians, French or citizens of any other country…..
A world blind to the lessons of history saw them repeated on a wider scale. Quoted in the Armenian Reporter, July 26, , p. I have dwelled on the Armenian genocide not because it is unique as a flagrant abuse of human rights, but precisely because it is not unique.
Those failures spread the shame of these unspeakable crimes against humanity far beyond those directly responsible for them. The madness and brutality of the perpetrators of each genocide had their own tragic basis.
Now, today, years too late for the millions killed in the Nazi gas chambers and Khmer Rouge execution centers, we stand to say that we speak of the annihilation of the Armenians.
And of the Jews, and of the Cambodians. We stand to remind the world of these crimes against humanity, that we may prevent future crimes.
H : Even Adolf Hitler used past events to shape his own policies. Hitler said, in a chilling remark made in H : It is of paramount importance that we do not let this tragedy be forgotten with the passage of time. He justified his plan to doubting coconspirators with the reasoning that no one remembered the Armenian genocide which had taken pace only 15 years earlier.
Lochner, , p. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. Only thus shall we gain the living space [ lebensraum ] which we need. Ghenghis Khan had millions of women and children killed by his own will and with a gay heart. History sees only in him a great state builder. What weak Western European civilization thinks about me does not matter.
I have given the order, and will have everyone shot who utters one word of criticism that the aim of the war is not to attain certain lines, but consist in the physical destruction of the opponent. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. The Times, November 24, , p. Ghengis Khan had millions of women killed by his own will and with a gay heart.
History sees in him only a great State-builder. What the weak European civilization thinks about me does not matter. I have given the order, and will have everyone shot who utters one word of criticism….
II, pp. III, pp. VII, pp. Destruction of Poland in the foreground. The aim is elimination of living forces, not the arrival at a certain line: Even if war should break out in the West, the destruction of Poland shall be the primary objective.
Quick decision because of the season. The victor shall not be asked, later on, whether we told the truth or not. In starting and making a war, not be Right is what matters but Victory. Have no pity. Brutal attitude. Their existence has to be secured. The strongest has the right. The original document containing it L-3 was submitted to the Nuremberg tribunal but withdrawn as evidence in accordance with Rule The person who found the discarded document in the US National Archives, Carlos Porter, noted that the document was probably a forgery since the original German was incorrect in a number of grammatical ways and it had unusual vocabulary.
The typewriter used was not a German one, having no capacity for accents, and suspicious spaces existed within the composition. The Nuremberg tribunal rejected the document as evidence against the Nazis in favour of two other official versions found in confiscated German military records. Neither of these, which have detailed notes of the address, contains the Armenian reference.
In addition, a third account by General Halder was used to prove consistency with the other two accounts used as evidence and this again makes no mention of the Armenians. This strongly suggests that the Armenian reference was added later by someone who wished to associate Hitler with the events of in the Ottoman Empire.
We know from the Roger Casement experience that forgeries are powerful weapons and that paper never refused ink! The word was coined by the Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to deal particularly with the recent systematic killing engaged in by the Nazis.
I think this is important so that history and propaganda are not blended together as they so often have been in relation to these unfortunate and catastrophic events. Above: Milar Magrath—a supreme opportunist. But the Turkish foreign ministry responded angrily, saying in a statement they "reject and denounce in the strongest terms the statement", saying it had been "made under the pressure of radical Armenian circles and anti-Turkey groups". It warned the move would "open a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship".
A further deterioration of relations between the two countries may be the most significant outcome of Mr Biden's statement, which is largely symbolic and comes with no additional sanctions.
Why Armenia remembers 'genocide'. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Armenia's mass killings - explained in 60 seconds. What happened in ? Image source, EPA. Armenia marked the th anniversary of the mass killings at a ceremony in the capital Yerevan on Saturday.
What did Biden say? What has the reaction been?
0コメント