In 2010, I wrote a letter to the editor in response to The Badger Herald’s decision to post a Holocaust-denial ad. Unfortunately, I’m writing again because an article published today (and also promoted on social media) showed the newspaper’s lack of responsibility and sensitivity in regard to the Holocaust yet again.
The article, “UW prof recalls Nazi youth past,” is not blatantly anti-Semitic, but the Herald’s decision to publish it on Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day – makes it very clear that either the Herald’s leadership did not know it was Yom HaShoah, or it did not care. Regardless, it is an unfortunate gaffe to not mention the Holocaust even once in the article. The closest mention is a quote from Professor Hermand: “I am embarrassed that the overwhelming majority of Germans allowed the Nazi doctrine. There was so little resistance. There was no rebellion. Until the last day of the war, the soldiers and the workers supported World War Two. And that is an embarrassing fact for me.”
I feel badly for Professor Hermand. It must have been an unimaginable situation for a 10-year-old in Nazi Germany. It must be embarrassing to live with the German past. But on a day we remember 11,000,000 murdered people, 6,000,000 of them Jews, we should not need to sympathize with someone who was lucky to be born with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Jonah Braun ([email protected]) graduated with a B.A. in journalism in 2011. He was also a Badger Herald Sports Editor in 2009.
