Holocaust Favoritism Provokes Anti-Semitism. Victimhood Competition. Jews No Scapegoats. Holocaust Pushback by Greeks, Armenians, and Algerians.

Collective Victimhood and Social Prejudice: A Post-Holocaust Theory of Anti-Semitism, by Georgios Antoniou et al. 2020. Political Psychology 41(5)861-885

Holocaust Favoritism: Greeks, Armenians, and Algerians Resist. Lessons for Poles. 

This work details how Holocaust dominance creates a negative reaction among many peoples whose own sufferings are devalued and marginalized. I focus on a few issues.

HOLOCAUST FAVORITISM GIVES SPECIAL STATUS TO JEWS

What does it matter that the Holocaust dominates western societies? Plenty! Antoniou note the “…moral benefits emerging from victimhood status…” (p. 862). So, of course, other victim groups do not get any moral benefits from their own suffering. Is this fair?

LAYING THE BOGEYMAN OF THE JEWISH SCAPEGOAT TO REST

The usual line is that Jews are just scapegoats. In particular, whenever there is an economic crisis, the unwashed masses need a scapegoat, and who else but the ever-victimized Jews serve this purpose? To their credit, Antoniou et al. reject this common Jewish victim card. They comment, “Descriptive plots of economic series and anti-Semitic opinions showed that, if anything, anti-Semitism surges in good economic times.” (p. 862).

HOLOCAUST FAVORITISM PROVOKES AN ANTI-SEMITIC RESPONSE

The authors summarize their findings. They write, “We test both mechanisms in a case in which anti-Semitic attitudes appear puzzlingly high: Greece. We experimentally show that victimhood competition generates anti-Semitism, and that the high levels of prejudice cannot be attributed exclusively to the country’s long-standing financial crisis, but they are product of a widespread latent sense of collective victimhood, which precedes the crisis.” (p. 862).

At times, non-Jews engage in self-defense, as pointed out by the authors, “The comparison between the ingroup’s victimhood and the Holocaust creates outgroup prejudice and negativity.” (p. 864). Duh. How could it not?

HOLOCAUST FAVORITISM: JEWS DRIVE VICTIMHOOD COMPETITION

Antoniou et al. make these sage comments about the nature of victimhood, “In such cases, members of the ingroup keenly associate themselves with attitudes of deservingness and entitlement, and the ingroup’s victimhood is portrayed as unique, exclusive, and incomparable…” (p. 863).

This is 100 times truer for Jews than it is for anyone else! They have placed themselves at the top spot in the victim hierarchy. Moreover, Jews enjoy special access to the media that other victimized peoples do not have, and therefore are in a much better position, than other victimized groups, to impress and impose their victim narrative on everybody else. It is not a level playing field.

BLATANT HOLOCAUST FAVORITISM: THE HOLOCAUST TOWERS ABOVE ALL OTHER GENOCIDES

The Holocaust does not just displace other genocides from public awareness: It devalues other genocides whenever it puffs itself up (read: Holocaust self-importance).

Antoniou et al. comment, “Although instances of genocides and mass killings have been far from rare throughout history, it was the World War II (WWII) experience that attracted scholarly and institutional attention to the fate of victims. The Holocaust gradually became the premium historical analogy or the reference point to any episode of collective suffering… Its legacy created universal moral, legal, and cultural standards that postwar societies had to build their future upon, as it became apparent even for societies that have not directly experienced it, the United States being the most exemplary case…” (p. 863. Emphasis added).

They add that, “As the Holocaust represents the ultimate benchmark of victimhood, this quest for recognition might generate anti-Semitic feelings among the populations who consider themselves to have suffered the same, without their suffering having been sufficiently acknowledged by the international community.” (p. 865. Emphasis added).

Notice the usual expansive Holocaust-supremacist superlatives (identified by the added italics). Is it any wonder that some peoples resist this kind of racism?

MANY PEOPLES REACT AGAINST HOLOCAUST FAVORITISM

Not surprisingly, many Jews are not quite keen to let the sufferings of other people reach public consciousness. The authors comment, “It is important to add that competition works both ways. For instance, the State of Israel has not yet officially recognized the Armenian massacres as genocide, failing to admit that Armenians might have gone through a comparable or similar experience to the Holocaust.” (p. 866).

Resistance to Holocaust favoritism encompasses many different people. Antoniou et al write, “Even anecdotally, it is still indicative that in the ADL survey we cited in the introduction the rates of anti-Semitic attitudes in Armenia rise to 58% of the population, the highest in the region. Another example comes from France, where the main opposition to the introduction of the Holocaust in the secondary-education curriculum came from pupils of former French colonies background (e.g., Algeria). They juxtaposed the inclusion of this topic with the absence of a subject dedicated to their suffering by the French during the colonial period… All this leads us to our second expectation, namely that between-group competition over the magnitude of collective suffering will boost anti-Semitism.” (p. 865).

“In particular, we used a 5-point scale measuring agreement with the following statement: ‘Jews exploit the Holocaust to gain influence in the international arena.’” (p. 867). It’s a no brainer.

CONSEQUENCES OF MARGINALIZED NON-JEWISH SUFFERING

The authors asked the right questions as they conducted their study. Their questions included the following:

“History has been unfair to the Greek people. Considering yourself, to what extent do you agree with what is generally said, i.e., that Jews exploit the Holocaust to achieve better treatment in the international arena?” (p. 875). Notice the obvious: Holocaust favoritism is, all by itself, inherently unfair to all other peoples!

RESISTING THE JEWISH MONOPOLIZING OF SUFFERING

In the beginning of this study, the author cited an ADL survey that stated that a “startling 69%” of Greeks exhibited anti-Semitic attitudes. (p. 861). Why so? Could it be that Greeks are less Judeo-compliant and less self-effacing than most other nationalities? Maybe Poles could learn something.

Full article here: https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2023/10/18/holocaust-favoritism-provokes-anti-semitism-victimhood-competition-jews-no-scapegoats-holocaust-pushback-by-greeks-armenians-and-algerians-antoniou/