The Final Solution, Hitler’s plan to systematically exterminate the Jewish people, is unprecedented in the history of humankind. By saying that, it doesn’t negate all other people who have been oppressed and murdered, simply for being who they are. That includes people of color, the LGBTQ community, and Native Americans, to name just a few. No one should deny that there has been oppression of all kinds, against many different groups of people. Persecution regarding religion, color, sexual orientation, has existed throughout history.

However, Hitler’s writing about how the extermination of Jews would take place, (The Final Solution) is in fact completely unique in the annals of history. The plan was to round up Jews from around the world, murder them in gas chambers and burn their bodies, along with the evidence of their existence. But not before stealing all of their possessions, shaving their heads and removing their gold teeth. All this while conducting the evilest human experiments because Jews weren’t considered to be human beings.

I’m addressing this because the Kentucky Courier-Journal wrote an op-ed on Holocaust Remembrance Day stating that “Jews do not have a monopoly on persecution and atrocities.” Absolutely true. Many groups have faced violence, oppression, and slavery. Many others were killed in the concentration camps. That is not disputed. But the Holocaust saw the slaughter of 33% of all Jews on earth. The ultimate goal was the extermination of every Jew. That is not something I proudly declare but is unique to history. The horrors carried out by Adolph Hitler and his Nazi’s regime, against the Jews, was simply and unequivocally, uniquely Jewish. That cannot be debated.

The op ed piece went on to state, “For one group, for one person, to claim that the hate and violence towards them is more important than another’s, only encourages more acts of violence against others, including Black people, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims, LGBTQ+, trans-gender and Native Americans. This list is not all-inclusive.” Again, no one would dispute that many groups in history have been persecuted but stating that the Holocaust was uniquely Jewish does not lessen or negate those people or history.

All groups deserve to have their painful histories, validated, but not on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Just as Kristal Nacht was uniquely Jewish. Black History Month was established so as not to forget the great contributions of African Americans to the foundation and formation of the United States of America. No one should say, why do they get a month! It’s vital that all Americans recognize the fact that slavery was a crime against humanity. It stole the culture and dignity of an entire group of people who did nothing to warrant this horror other than being born a person of color. This recognition of African Americans doesn’t lessen what was perpetrated on Native Americans. That story needs to be told as well, as do all the stories of oppressed and persecuted people.

So please don’t accept the Kentucky Courier-Journal narrative, which is derived from antisemitism. Jews don’t own slavery, violence or oppression but the Holocaust was, is and always will be unique to the Jewish People. Rod Serling, in his episode titled, Death’s-Head Revisited, which saw an SS officer return to Auschwitz to relive the “good ole’ days” as a Sadistic animal, described the Holocaust as a time when, “men decided to turn the earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the grave diggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twighlight Zone but wherever men walk G-d’s Earth.” Never Again!!!