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January 30, 2004
A Canadian holocaust?
Jews and First Nations examine parallels on APTN.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The elected head of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre waded
into fraught waters on a nationally broadcast television call-in
program last week, arguing that the Holocaust cannot be compared
to other historical circumstances.
Robbie Waisman, a child survivor of Buchenwald, appeared on a Jan.
22 broadcast of Contact, an interactive Aboriginal People's
Television Network (APTN) show that tackles controversial topics.
The other guest was Alvin Dixon, a British Columbian survivor of
a residential school.
The program's host, Rick Harp, asked viewers whether Canada is guilty
of its own holocaust through its treatment of aboriginal Canadians.
The first caller set the tone for the discussion when he directly
equated Canadian policies with the Holocaust.
"They've killed as many natives as the Nazis killed the Jews
and they've done it for hundreds of years and got away with it,"
said Tim from Toronto.
"Yes, it's just as bad as the Holocaust," said Gabe from
Winnipeg. Many callers noted that the atrocities against aboriginal
peoples are not only an historical fact but continue to the present.
But Harp pointed out the feelings aroused when the term "holocaust"
is appropriated for use in contexts other than the Nazi genocide.
"There are those out there," he said, "who would
quite strongly suggest that the Holocaust is something unto itself,
it is so horrible it should never be compared to any other atrocities
past or present."
"Our histories are similar, yet they're completely different,"
said Waisman. "It is very difficult to compare something like
this. I'm a representative of one and a half million Jewish children
who died in the Holocaust. This in itself is so huge and so unique.
Never in the history of mankind had a group been targeted solely
because of their ethnicity and targeted for complete annihilation.
"Where the similarities exist between the aboriginal people
and the Jewish people is that they tried to take away your culture,
to take away your complete [connection] with your people and your
roots, they tried to completely break that down. That's awesome
in itself. We share that pain. And the Holocaust remains, for me,
at least, a very powerful lesson against hatred and against racism."
Waisman added that his purpose in participating in the program was
as an example of the resilience of the human spirit.
"When I was liberated at Buchenwald," said Waisman. "I
felt completely like a little animal ... I felt and acted completely
dehumanized and when somebody wanted to make a list and asked me
my name, I blurted out [my prison number]. I was so dehumanized,
I didn't have a name anymore."
The social services officials who treated the liberated survivors
said Waisman and the 422 other child survivors of Buchenwald had
seen too much and "would never rehabilitate," said Waisman.
Yet, in addition to the countless individuals like himself who went
on to lead productive, fulfilling lives, that small group of survivors
also included a future chief rabbi of Israel and Elie Wiesel, who
would go on to win the Nobel peace prize.
"I want those who were in the residential schools to take a
lesson from us," said Waisman. "Hatred will destroy you.
I know from experience. When I came out of Buchenwald I hated everything
and everyone. When I think back on all the horrors, I'm amazed that
I can be a normal human being."
Waisman, who has spent years voluntarily educating young people
and others about the Holocaust, credited a professor at the Sorbonne
who helped him overcome his consuming anger to make the best of
the gift of survival.
Dixon, Waisman's co-panelist, spoke of his path to the notorious
residential schools, which operated in Canada through most of the
first half of the 20th century and, in some places, until 1996.
Run largely by Christian churches acting on behalf of the federal
government, the schools were often brutal facilities whose purpose
was less to educate than to eliminate any trace of aboriginal culture,
language or tradition. In addition to innumerable cases of sexual
abuse and molestation that have become more openly discussed in
recent years, they were also, according to Dixon, little more than
child labor camps.
Dixon lived with his grandmother until he was 10, when she died.
He was quickly scooped up and sent to the Alberni residential school.
He and his seven siblings were split between four schools throughout
British Columbia and Alberta.
"I don't think I was on that school ground for much more than
a couple hours before I got strapped for speaking the only language
I knew," he said.
Like many of the viewers who called or e-mailed, Dixon refuted the
claim that words like genocide or holocaust are too loaded to apply
to the First Nations' experience.
"Obviously I don't agree," he said. "Because the
damage, the atrocities, are equally severe when you think of removing
little children from their homes and families and taking them as
far away as possible and not treating them properly. Out of the
residential school experience there was lots of physical, emotional,
psychological as well as sexual abuse inflicted on these children."
He added that Waisman's reference to camps applied to First Nations
as well.
"Residential schools were themselves camps," he said.
"We spent half our day working on the school grounds, in the
dorms, in the basement, in the kitchens, in the furnace room, on
the farm, milking cows. We used to have to kill pigs for our Christmas
dinner, so most of my memories are about work, as opposed to classroom
experience.
"There is such a thing as cultural genocide," Dixon continued.
"The first thing they did was kill the Indian in the child."
Though most callers agreed with the use of the term holocaust, some
did not.
"Using the word holocaust is a little unfortunate," said
a Jewish caller from Toronto. "I don't think you can actually
compare the actual events, [though] you can compare the reactions
of the survivors and what happens to them and the trauma that they
suffered."
An e-mail from Toronto was more direct.
"What Canada did to aboriginals can't be denied. However, it's
not the same as what happened to the Jews," wrote the viewer.
"It was not only taking away our culture and heritage, but
our lives. Six million people were killed for no reason other than
they were Jewish. Killed, not just put into schools or taken away
from families. Let us not forget that. To compare the two is an
insult to the six million who died and to your guest, who was one
of the fortunate to survive."
Waisman diplomatically tried to finesse the comparison. Near the
end of the program, Dixon seemed to concur.
"The idea wasn't to equate," he said. "I think the
idea was, for me, to draw parallels and there are many parallels
between your experience and ours."
Though numerous callers and e-mail messages were heard on the program,
Waisman said 80 callers were still waiting to comment when the program
ran out of time, which he takes as a sign that an enormous amount
of distress remains on the issue of Canadian governments' and churches'
treatment of aboriginal peoples.
"My reason for being here is to give hope that there is, through
education, through hard work, that we can work together to make
this a better world," Waisman said. "We want to use our
suffering as a springboard to go on to a positive thing. We don't
want to sadden anyone. We want to empower them."
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.
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