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A group of politicians and activists gathered at the city-owned Holocaust Memorial Park in Sheepshead Bay to protest the Parks Department's plans to make additions to the memorial to more prominently commemorate other groups killed under the Nazi regime on top of the Jewish victims currently being honored there now.
Barry Lituchy, vice president of the park's Holocaust Memorial Committee, says that there was an earlier understanding that the park—which was dedicated by former Mayor Ed Koch in 1985—would solely honor Jews.. Now the Parks Department has signed off on a plan to add five granite markers to recognize the 5 million Holocuast victims that included other groups the Nazis targeted such as homosexuals, the disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses and even Gypsies. Currently there are 234 granite markers that commemorate the 6 million Jews who were killed.
Liutchy called those pushing to make the changes as "nameless, faceless bureaucrats" who are attempting to "curry political favor" with the additions. He and the other protesters were calling on Mayor Bloomberg to block the plan. Bloomberg had no comment on the issue.
Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose mother is a survivor of Auschwitz, spoke the strongest words in favor preserving the memorial in its current state. He said, "These people are not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the Holocaust. It is so vastly different. You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims...The Holocaust is a uniquely Jewish event." Hikind believes that if there is a memorial for the other victims, it should be at a different site.
The Advocate says that Hikind "has long been an outspoken opponent of gay rights" and "has equated the state's marriage equality bill with allowing incest."
Theresa Scavo, president of Community Board 15, who lobbied for the additional recognition, said, "The Holocaust memorial means you memorialize anyone who died in the Holocaust." A spokesperson for the Parks Department said that the decision to create the additional markers came from a desire "to reinforce its educational purpose to remind us of the historical circumstances of the Holocaust."
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dov hikind is al sharpton with a star.
Brilliant! LOL
"These people are not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the Holocaust."
What a hateful remark, "these people" died in the Holocaust and why exclude them from the memorial as if they were inferior. Dov Hikind is a zionist and thinks gentiles are inferior. This memorial should not be permitted if it isn't inclusive.
Not being "inclusive" shouldn't be a reason to deny an entire memorial that has already been around since 1985.
That being said, I do believe it should be expanded to include everyone. This Hikind guy sounds like a real douche--and let's remember, every group has its douches.
yep, agreed.
Jackie Robinson didn't play for the Mets...
"These people are not in the same category as Jewish people with regards to the Holocaust. It is so vastly different. You cannot compare political prisoners with Jewish victims...The Holocaust is a uniquely Jewish event."
Oh yeah, the Nazis definitely didn't try to kill all the gypsies and gays and handicapped people. Instead of sending them to the concentration camp to be gassed, they sent them to party camp where everyone made cupcakes and sang German folk songs!
there was a high level decision to exterminate jews. as in genocide. from every level of the german government down to alot of the populace. other persecuted groups were murdered without such a vast plan. the organization and planning given to the jewish genocide WAS on another level and in that way, it was a uniquely jewish event.
then again, can one evil be worse than another?
Untrue. You might want to look up Aktion T4, for instance, which was the Nazis' very well organized, crafted and executed extermination plan for the mentally ill and disabled. You also might want to look up the Romas and learn how Mengele specifically targeted Gypsy children for experiments at Auschwitz.
So those poor souls that were at the camps, who were also tortured and died, who were there because of their heritage, creed or personal beliefs, don't deserve the same respect and honor as the people right next to them in the crematorium who were Jewish? Right.
Everyone ended up in those camps, and the gas chambers killed everyone just the same whether or not they were Jewish. When 5 million non-Jews died, next to 6 million Jews...how can anyone say it's only a Jewish event? That's almost a 50-50 ratio.
One of the purposes of remembering the Holocaust is to caution against excluding others based on their creed, ethnicity or background. Excluding some of the victims defeats that purpose.
I guess there goes the concept of strength through unity.
Seriously.
It's so sad that we have to turn the holocaust into a competition of "who suffered the most".
what a hateful, disgusting thing to do. to claim a horrible event in history as solely targeting one group, when it clearly did not.
if you're going to memorialize one group then you should memorialize all those that were persecuted and murdered.
"The Holocaust is a uniquely Jewish event"
WRONG given the fact that a large number of Non-jews died because they too were not members of the master race, as well as people with deformities. Jews weren't the only ones who were singled out by Hitler for extermination. Dov Hikind is a dumbass of the highest order and needs to get his facts straight.
Presumably the Holocaust should be renamed the "Jewcaust," so as to avoid any potential confusion or conflation of others' suffering with the "exclusive" victim class.
Communists were also singled out for extermination because of their political beliefs and their resistance to the Nazi occupation.
If the Holocaust was a uniquely Jewish event, then we should go back in time and allow only Jews to be involved with the rescue and recovery of what was left of their community. I have a lot of Jewish friends, that I love dearly, but none of them (to my knowledge) are petty and bigoted like Mr. Hikind appears to be. These people, just like Dov's, died because of Hitler's hate. Does Dov Hikind really want to be known as the asshole that said his people matter and those people don't?
Come to Midwood/Borough Park and you'll see that he's not the only one who thinks that his people matter and others don't.
Well, it's refreshing to see revisionists of a different kind. The ones that completely deny the Holocaust ever happened were starting to become old-hat.
Strange thing to want to corner the market on genocide victimhood.
Not really strange. There are benefits to cornering the market on genocide: it allows you to form your own nation on a land previously occupied by others which had nothing to do with said genocide.
you remarkable douchebag. you terrorist loving, violence encouraging, history ignoring, fucking shmuck idiot piece of shit.
ahem, you sir, don't know what you're talking about.
Yes, as soon as someone disagrees with the Jewish perspective, they are "terrorist loving"
Propaganda anyone?
You are a Zionist piece of shit. Zionism is racism-plain and simple.
No justice, no peace motherfucker.
There is the Armenian Holocaust, where over 1 1/2 million Armenian were killed by Turks and let not forget the American Indians are the victim of Genocide, etc. Why does Hikand believe he is the only one affected or perhaps his suffering count only and not of "these People"
Myopia is a well-known affliction among the inbred clans of Borough Park and Williamsburg.
This is a predictable reaction. Many of us naively think it's ours; Hikind and his bearded ilk apparently believe this city is all theirs. No easier way to turn the Holocaust inevitably to comedy.
please write to Dov Hikind and tell him that such statements will not be tolerated:
HikindD@assembly.state.ny.us
hikind is right, the holocaust is uniquely jewish. to say that the genocide targeted everyone is to say it targeted no one. please make "the persecution of gays memorial" somewhere else.
They suffer, they count. Your hatred and bigotry is disgusting.
building walls much?
building walls much?
Double Bubble.
If the Jews want to buy the memorial from the city and make it for themselves, that's just fine with me. Don't waste my tax dollars on willful ignorance and exclusivity.
They will be excluded not because of being inferior, they are just not God's chosen. See how it works.
The Holocaust was an event where a nation tried to turn the world into a graveyard. There aren't higher categories of dead people.
No other victim's gonna cut in on Hikind's racket. Dat memorial's his top earner.
Nanking.
6 Million Jews
5 Million Others.
How is it possible that that extra 20% has been enough to totally eclipse the suffering of the 5 million? I guess I know; Constant and steady P.R. But think; if the Nazis hadn't targeted Jews, the genocide of 5 million would stand as the most horrific crime by itself. I don't see why we can grieve and commemorate the whole 11 million.
I would go further and add Nanking, the Armenians, the Ukrainians, the Baha'i in Iran and the over 30 million victims of Communism in the Soviet Union, Red china, Cambodia, etc. There seems plenty of horror to share.
It's funny nobody mentions that the majority of the 6 million victims were in fact Polish. The numbers are: Polish Jews - 3 million, Polish Catholics - 2.5 million, other Slavs, Gypsies and gays - 0.5 million. It's really disturbing to me that respectful newspapers and other medias always say it was only the Jews. That's a great example of how one can shape/change history using his/her prejudice and purposeful ignorance.
Excellent point. Hitler and the Nazis had a specific goal to exterminate every Polish person, regardless of religious/ethnic background, and gave that directive in 1939. There was a very organized and systematic campaign carried out over several years to slaughter the Polish, and both Hitler and Himmler spoke on it. People tend to forget that.
its true...I dont want to milk it, but members of my polish grandmothers family were EXECUTED because they were Catholic. But nowadays apparently all Polish people during WWII were anti-semites who helped kill jews. Such shite.
Thanks for pointing that out; it is so important.
We should also remember that Stalin decided to decapitate Polish society by killing over 20,000 of Polish Doctors, Lawyers, Professors, and Army officers. FDR and Churchill decided to ignore that fact in order to defeat Hitler; a pact with the Devil if ever there was one.
Stalin also was hell bent on exterminating the Ukrainians and the Russian Kulaks, anyone who once owned or who even had parents or family who once owned land or businesses.
P.S.
By "funny", of course, you mean tragic.
Yeah, just being sarcastic
the holocaust is an INDUSTRY...here is a funny video the 'lobby' doesnt want you to see
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090967.html
This story absolutely enraged me.
Im not Jewish nor did I have any family die in the Holocaust. But this is pure bullshit. That's like saying that only the people who died in 9/11 that matter are the ones that died in NYC.
I thought Diaz took the Douche of the Year award but I want to spit on this guy.
interesting comparison to 9/11.
i think the fdny and nypd who died saving others deserve a unique distinction. some comments on here by ignorant folks like felix reflect the need to contemplate the old adage "walk a mile in someone else's shoes." Try to imagine the horror the victims suffered, then think about whether to post something hateful.
BTW, there was a nice story back in the mid '90s about a Jewish group joining forces with the Roma to get recognition for their suffering and persecution at the hands of the Nazis. Since the Roma (the less-pc term is "Gypsies") are traditionally a disenfranchised minority it was useful to have someone on their side who was a bit more established politically.
I'm really appalled. Yeah, ok. You don't like Jehovah's witnesses (I don't care for their religion). You don't like homosexuals.
Are there lives worth less than a Jewish life because you don't like them?
We do think of the holocaust as a uniquely Jewish experience because that's what we are taught not because it's true.
Wait now, city property, taxpayers' dollars, etc. and it has to be kept exclusive to one particular division of fable-believers? How.....? Oh, never mind, they have their own tax-funded towns, schools, "community patrols" anything they want. There's only separation of church & state in a unidirectional manner, and only with one group. Never mind. What do I know? Since I don't adhere to their branch of (or any) fables, I'll never get anything from my tax dollars. Just like my unfortunate Y chromosome and melanin deficiency keeps me down.
6 million Jews.
5 million others.
The Holocaust is an industry and the Jews have a monopoly on it.
This is deeply offensive to me, as a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors - a good number of my family were killed in camps or in various round-ups. Hikind's words disgust me.
And, "even Gypsies"? What kind of comment is that? Roma people died in huge numbers in the Holocaust, and continue to experience discrimination and persecution in Europe.
No one gets to be the Victim In Chief here. The Nazis persecuted many people. If they'd had their way and been able to reach more of the world, they would have had everyone else in their death factories eventually. Every life that was lost was a world destroyed, not just the Jewish ones. How utterly, unbelievably tasteless. Mr. Hikind, shame on you. Your ugly comments don't represent me and my family. Your comments make my stomach turn.
And, yes, sadly, the Holocaust has become an industry for some. It's a shame. It's now used as a dodge for all kinds of bad behavior in the Middle East, for example, and it's used to teach young Jewish children that everyone is out to get us, still. It is very sad to see. But those of us who know peoples' very personal stories of that time period, know better, and we know that holocausts continue to happen, all over the world.
remarkable comment, peace.
Thank you ticktick, for putting the "holocaust industry" into perspective - and RIP to your fam that died in the camps
It's a total misunderstanding. I was at this Holocaust Memorial Park and read all inscriptions there. I found words like "homosexuals" and "gypsies" on several existing stones (dedicated to the memory of victims at some concentration camps)as well as on the base of the main monument.
The question is whether should we emphasize/focus/distinguish the sufferings of non-Jewish victims of Holocaust? Should we install markers for Serbian priests and Byelorussian partisans? If the answer is yes, then let's call this park "World War II victims Memorial Park"
If you call it "World War II Memorial Park", we'll need to include the 23 million Soviets and 20 million Chinese who died.
F that.
If they died in the same Nazi effort to rid all those different then they deserve the same recognition. If not, then they don't.
Does Gothamist have a new staff member that lives in Sheepshead Bay? Seems like a lot of stories about Sheepshead Bay lately.
I never had a discussion with anyone that assured exclusivity to Jewish dead in the Holocaust Memorial Park. I believe that park, dedicated to the victims of the Nazis, should recognize the deaths of Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled and Jehovah's Witnesses, who were marked for death simply because they were members of those groups. It is ridiculous to think their deaths do not have equal significance and should not be included as victims of the Holocaust.
Edward I. Koch
Exactly, Mr Mayor.
Yet once again 2.5 Polish Catholics aren't included. I don't even know what else is there to say to prove my point if the former mayor omits such a tragedy. Poland lost 1/5 (6mln)of its citizens. Just because war didn't last 20 years and Hitler didn't have enough time to kill all of Poles it doesn't mean it wasn't Holocaust.
I recently visited Dachau and even the Germans highlight and acknowledge how the Nazis targeted Homosexuals, Gypsies, mentally handicapped, and other groups. The right of one group (although the largest minority), should not overshadow all other affected groups.