Saturday, February 2, 2013

Lest We Forget

"History," wrote the literary critic Kenneth Burke, "is an endless conversation." Unfortunately, these days beyond university history departments not many people are interested in it. The movie "Lincoln" has reinvigorated the public interest in history, but with the Super Bowl just one day away, people's attention was diverted from the passing of an important, but not well-known figure.

Ceija Stojka, a Romani survivor of the Holocaust who became a writer and artist to describe the horrific experience of the Gypsies in concentration camps, passed away on January 28th. Thanks to her efforts, a voice was given to the 1.5 million Gypsies who met their deaths in concentration campus.  The Holocaust was awful not only to Jewish people, but to many others. This fact, unfortunately, becomes lost in the usually one-sided victimization retelling of that horrible event.

With AIPAC and other very powerful pro-Israel lobbyists around, there is no chance that the Holocaust will ever leave our collective awareness. Sadly, there is no such party or speaker to advocate for the Romani.

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