History, Memory, and Human Nature

Can a Polish Holocaust Law Save the Levantine Christians?

De: Bruce D. Abramson

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Is it possible to prevent a genocide? If the world believes that a potential genocide is brewing, how should it respond? Should it commit to protecting the potential victims at all cost? Should it take preemptive action against the potential genocidaires? Should it evacuate civilian populations that may not want to leave their ancestral homelands notwithstanding the danger? These questions are far from academic. Though the Islamic State has been defeated as a territorial entity, the Islamist desire for a Caliphate remains strong. So does the genocidal belief system that animated the Islamic State. Are the Christians--and other minority faiths--of the Levant merely biding their time? Is there a preventable genocide looming? If so, how should we act? Of perhaps even greater interest, can history teach us any lessons? What can we learn from the post-Holocaust experience of the Jews who returned to their homes in Poland--and fell prey to a Polish pogrom. Can we glean useful insights about human nature and the predictability of atrocities amidst privation? Can we set aside our moral judgments long enough to predict behavior we recognize as rational--even as we reject it as immoral? This essay explores such questions to arrive at a clear (if undesirable) conclusion. Under circumstances such as those we face today, planned evacuations and relocations of deeply vulnerable populations represent the "least bad" option.