Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993 TAG: 9304290017
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Reed
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It assumes the Holocaust and Civil War are of equivalent importance to students of history in American or Israeli public schools.
The Holocaust is a matter of transcendent historical importance unparalleled in the history of human atrocities. The importance of the U.S. Civil War is greater to American students than anyone else. The lessons of the Holocaust are for students throughout the world.
I would like to see this assumption addressed head-on in your column. C.W., Roanoke
A: Thanks for bringing this up.
Any way it's measured, the Holocaust exceeds all other cruelties inflicted by man. With almost half a million deaths (according to the World Almanac), the Civil War pales beside the 6 million Jews of the Holocaust - and the total estimated 11.5 million people who were killed or died in the concentration camps.
As a significant motive behind World War II, the Holocaust affected an entire people and every nation; the Civil War's impact lay mostly in the United States, although it did serve to end slavery.
While I didn't address this issue in answering the question Monday about education standards in various countries, I did ask the questioner about his comparison of the Civil War and Holocaust. He has lived in Europe and visited some of the concentration camps. He was touched by them, as almost anyone would be.
The erroneous assumption implied in the question stems from a perspective common in America. The Civil War was here and its scope can be captured in the mind's eye. World War II and the Holocaust were Over There and can boggle the mind.
In hindsight, we look back at intelligence reports available around 1940 that indicated the Holocaust was under way, and we wonder why the rest of the world didn't intervene sooner.
Since then the world has faced similar circumstances in Cambodia and now Bosnia.
When it comes to saving people from persecution, it's easy to hesitate. We have doubts (are the reports accurate?), we have fears (should we commit our sons and daughters to someone else's Vietnam?) and we wonder if it is our place to intervene, forgetting that we did not hesitate when an oil-grabbing bully seemed to threaten us.
The lessons of the Holocaust indeed transcend all wars. We still struggle with them, though.
Roanoke's Vegas link
Q: What was Wayne Newton's address in Roanoke? K.P., Daleville
A: Las Vegas' premier entertainer lived for about two years on Rutrough Road Southeast, and attended Garden City Elementary School for about four years.
The family also lived briefly on Gearheart Road and Riverland Road, not far from the present-day miniature Graceland, according to old city directories.
The Rutrough Road house, a duplex when the Newton family lived there in 1950 and '51, still stands. The current owner asked that the house number not be published.
Newton has come by the place twice in the last six years to check it out, but the owner wasn't home, his neighbors tell him.
Got a question about something that might affect other people too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
by CNB