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Where Does Never Again Come From

Phrase associated with the Holocaust and other genocides

"Never again" is a phrase or slogan which is associated with the Holocaust and other genocides. The phrase may originate from a 1927 poem by Yitzhak Lamdan which stated "Never again shall Masada fall!" In the context of genocide, the slogan was used by liberated prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp to express anti-fascist sentiment. The verbal pregnant of the phrase is debated, including whether it should exist used as a particularistic command to avert a second Holocaust of Jews or whether information technology is a universalist injunction to preclude all forms of genocide. It was adopted equally a slogan by Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League.

The phrase is widely used by politicians and writers and it as well appears on many Holocaust memorials. It has also been appropriated as a political slogan for other causes, from commemoration of the 1976 Argentine coup, the promotion of gun control or abortion rights, and as an injunction to fight confronting terrorism later on the September 11 attacks.

Origins [edit]

During the liberation of Buchenwald, a sign states "Form the Antinazifront! Remember the Millions of victims Murdered by the Nazis / Decease TO THE NAZI CRIMINALS"[ane]

The slogan "Never once again shall Masada autumn!" is derived from a 1927 ballsy poem, Masada, by Yitzhak Lamdan.[2] [3] The poem is about the siege of Masada, in which a group of Jewish rebels (the Sicarii) held out confronting Roman armies and, according to fable, committed mass suicide rather than be captured. In Zionism, the story of Masada became a national myth and was lauded as an example of Jewish heroism. Considered one of the most pregnant examples of early on Yishuv literature, Masada achieved massive popularity among Zionists in the land of Israel and in the Jewish diaspora. Masada became a part of the official Hebrew curriculum and the slogan became an unofficial national motto.[4] In postwar Israel, the behavior of Jews during the Holocaust was unfavorably contrasted with the beliefs of the defenders of Masada:[2] [3] the former were denigrated for having gone "like sheep to the slaughter" while the latter were praised for their heroic and resolute fight.[5]

Betwixt 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies murdered about half-dozen 1000000 Jews in a genocide which became known as the Holocaust.[6] The Nazi endeavour to implement their terminal solution to the Jewish question took place during World State of war Ii in Europe. The first use of the phrase "never again" in the context of the Holocaust was in April 1945 when newly liberated survivors at Buchenwald concentration campsite displayed it in various languages on handmade signs.[7] [8] Cultural studies scholars Diana I. Popescu and Tanja Schult write that there was initially a distinction between political prisoners, who invoked "never again" as part of their fight against fascism, and Jewish survivors, whose imperative was to "never forget" their murdered relatives and destroyed communities. They write that the stardom has been blurred in the subsequent decades as the Holocaust was universalised.[eight] According to the Un, the Universal Announcement of Homo Rights was adopted in 1948 because "the international community vowed never once again to allow" the atrocities of World State of war Two, and the Genocide Convention was adopted the same year.[ix] [10] Eric Sundquist notes that "the founding of Israel was predicated on the injunction to call back a history of destruction—the destruction of two Temples, exile and pogroms, and the Holocaust—and to ensure that such events will never happen over again".[2] The slogan "never once again" was used on Israeli kibbutzim by the finish of the 1940s, and was used in the Swedish documentary Mein Kampf [de] in 1961.[11]

Definition [edit]

Never Once again! A Plan for Survival (1972)

According to Hans Kellner, "Unpacking the semantic contents of 'Never Once more' would be an enormous chore. Suffice it to say that this phrase, despite its non-imperative form as a speech act, orders someone to resolve that something shall non happen for a 2nd time. The someone, in the first example, is a Jew; the something is usually chosen the Holocaust."[12] Kellner suggests that it is related to the "biblical imperative of retentivity" (zakhor), in Deuteronomy v:15, "And call back that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm." (In the bible, this refers to remembering and keeping Shabbat).[12] It is also closely related to the biblical control in Exodus 23:ix: "You shall non oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt."[13]

The initial significant of the phrase, used past Abba Kovner and other Holocaust survivors, was particular to the Jewish customs but the phrase's significant was afterward broadened to other genocides.[13] It is notwithstanding a thing of debate whether "Never again" refers primarily to Jews ("Never again can we allow Jews to be victims of another Holocaust") or whether it has a universal meaning ("Never again shall the globe allow genocide to have identify anywhere against any group"). However, nigh politicians use it in the latter sense.[seven] The phrase is used commonly in postwar German politics, but information technology has dissimilar meanings. According to one interpretation, considering Nazism was a synthesis of preexisting aspects of German language political thought and an farthermost form of indigenous nationalism, all forms of German nationalism should be rejected. Other politicians argue that the Nazis "misused" appeals to patriotism and that a new German identity should exist built.[xiv]

Writing about the phrase, Ellen Posman noted that "A past though ofttimes contempo humiliation, and an emphasis on erstwhile victimhood, can lead to a communal want for a show of strength that can easily turn violent."[15] Meir Kahane, a far-right rabbi, and his Jewish Defense League popularized the phrase. To Kahane and his followers, "Never once more" referred specifically to the Jews and its imperative to fight antisemitism was a call to arms that justified terrorism confronting perceived enemies.[11] [iii] [16] The Jewish Defense force League song included the passage "To our slaughtered brethren and lonely widows: / Never once again will our people's blood be shed by water, / Never again will such things be heard in Judea." After Kahane's decease in 1990, Sholom Comay, president of the American Jewish Committee, said "Despite our considerable differences, Meir Kahane must ever exist remembered for the slogan 'Never Again,' which for so many became the boxing cry of post-Holocaust Jewry."[11]

Contemporary usage [edit]

According to Aaron Dorfman, "Since the Holocaust, the Jewish community's mental attitude toward preventing genocide has been summed up in the moral philosophy of 'Never Over again.'"[xiii] What this meant was that the Jews would non allow themselves to exist victimized.[17] The phrase has been used in many official commemorations and appears on many Holocaust memorials and museums,[eight] [2] including memorials at Treblinka extermination army camp[2] and Dachau concentration camp,[18] as well every bit in commemoration of the Rwanda genocide.[19]

It is in wide employ by Holocaust survivors, politicians, writers, and other commentators, who invoke it for a variety of purposes.[vii] [nineteen] In 2012, Elie Wiesel wrote: "'Never again' becomes more a slogan: It's a prayer, a promise, a vow... never again the glorification of base, ugly, night violence." The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum made the phrase, in its universal sense, the theme of its 2013 Days of Remembrance, urging people to look out for the "alarm signs" of genocide.[11]

In 2016, Samuel Totten suggested that the "one time powerful admonition [has] become a cliche" because it is repeatedly used fifty-fifty as genocides keep to occur, and condemnation of genocide tends to only occur later on it is already over.[7] For an increasing number of critics, the phrase has become empty and overused.[eight] Others, including Adama Dieng, have noted that genocide has continued to occur, not never again simply "time and again" or "again and once again" after Earth War II.[9] [20] [21] [19] [7] [17] In 2020, several critics of the Chinese government used the phrase to refer to the perceived lack of international reaction to the Uyghur genocide.[22] [23] [24] [25] On 1 March 2022, after the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre was hitting by Russian missiles and shells during the battle of Kyiv, Ukraine'due south President Volodymyr Zelenskyy argued that "never again" means not being silent about Russia's aggression, lest history repeat itself.[26]

Multiple Us presidents, including Jimmy Carter in 1979, Ronald Reagan in 1984, George H. W. Bush in 1991, Beak Clinton in 1993, and Barack Obama in 2011, have promised that the Holocaust would not happen again, and that action would be forthcoming to stop genocide.[nineteen] [9] [xi] Yet, genocide occurred during their presidencies: Cambodia in Carter's instance, Anfal genocide during Reagan's presidency, Bosnia for Bush and Clinton, Rwanda nether Clinton, and Yazidi genocide for Obama.[27] [9] Elie Wiesel wrote that if "never again" were upheld "there would exist no Kingdom of cambodia, and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia."[28] Totten argued that the phrase would only recover its gravitas if "no ane but those who are truly serious about preventing another Holocaust" invoked it.[7]

Other uses [edit]

In Argentina, the phrase Nunca más (never more than) is used in annual commemorations of the 1976 Argentine coup, to emphasize connected opposition to military coups, dictatorship, and political violence, and a commitment to republic and human rights.[29] [xxx] "Never once again" has too been used in commemoration of Japanese American internment and the Chinese Exclusion Act.[11]

Afterwards the September eleven attacks, President George W. Bush declared that terrorism would exist allowed to triumph "never again". He referenced the phrase when defending the trial of not-citizens in military courts for terrorism-related offenses and mass surveillance policies adopted past his administration. Bush commented, "Foreign terrorists and agents must never once more be allowed to use our freedoms confronting u.s.a.." His words echoed a spoken language that his father had given after winning the Gulf State of war: "never over again exist held hostage to the darker side of human being nature".[31]

The phrase has been used past political advocacy groups Never Once again Action, which opposes immigration detention in the United States, and by Never Again MSD, a group that campaigns against gun violence in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas shooting.[11] [32]

Run into also [edit]

  • Responsibility to protect
  • The war to end state of war
  • Never forget
  • Lest we forget

References [edit]

  1. ^ "A sign posted [probably in Buchenwald] that says, "Course the Antinazifront! Remember the Millions of victims Murdered by the Nazis/ DEATH TO THE NAZI CRIMINALS." - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". collections.ushmm.org. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e Sundquist, Eric J. (2009). Strangers in the State: Blacks, Jews, Post-Holocaust America. Harvard University Press. p. 601. ISBN978-0-674-04414-2. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved nineteen October 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Philologos (half dozen May 2020). "What Is the Source of the Phrase "Never Once again"?". Mosaic Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  4. ^ Zerubavel, Yael (1995). Recovered Roots: Collective Retention and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. University of Chicago Press. pp. 69, 116, 258. ISBN978-0-226-98157-4. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved x May 2020.
  5. ^ Feldman, Yael S. (2013). ""Not as Sheep Led to Slaughter"? On Trauma, Selective Retention, and the Making of Historical Consciousness". Jewish Social Studies. 19 (3): 139–169. doi:10.2979/jewisocistud.19.iii.139. ISSN 0021-6704. JSTOR 10.2979/jewisocistud.19.3.139. S2CID 162015828.
  6. ^ "Introduction to the Holocaust". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United states Holocaust Memorial Museum. 12 March 2018. Archived from the original on 11 Oct 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Totten, Samuel (2016). "What About "Other" Genocides? An Educator'due south Dilemma or an Educator's Opportunity?". Essentials of Holocaust Didactics: Central Problems and Approaches. Routledge. p. 197. ISBN978-ane-317-64808-6. Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved xix October 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d Popescu, Diana I.; Schult, Tanja (2019). "Performative Holocaust celebration in the 21st century". Holocaust Studies. 26 (ii): 135–136. doi:x.1080/17504902.2019.1578452.
  9. ^ a b c d Power, Samantha (1998). "Never Over again: The World'due south Most Unfullfilled Hope | The World's Well-nigh Wanted Human being". Frontline. PBS. Archived from the original on 25 May 2020. Retrieved seven May 2020.
  10. ^ "Universal Announcement". United Nations. Archived from the original on 27 May 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g "How the Holocaust motto Never Again became a rallying cry for gun command". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. eight March 2018. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  12. ^ a b Kellner, Hans (1994). ""Never Again" is Now". History and Theory. 33 (ii): 127–128. doi:10.2307/2505381. ISSN 0018-2656. JSTOR 2505381.
  13. ^ a b c Dorfman, Aaron. "Responding to Genocide". My Jewish Learning. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved six May 2020.
  14. ^ Art, David (2005). The Politics of the Nazi By in Deutschland and Austria. Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN978-1-139-44883-three. Archived from the original on ix July 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  15. ^ Posman, Ellen (2011). "Introduction: Never Once more". In White potato, Andrew R. (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN978-one-4443-9573-0. Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved 19 Oct 2020.
  16. ^ School, Lee C. Bollinger Dean University of Michigan Law (1986). The Tolerant Club. Oxford Academy Press, The states. p. 274. ISBN978-0-19-802104-nine. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  17. ^ a b Gubkin, Liora (2007). You Shall Tell Your Children: Holocaust Retentivity in American Passover Ritual. Rutgers University Press. p. 117. ISBN978-0-8135-4390-i. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 19 Oct 2020.
  18. ^ Baer, Alejandro; Sznaider, Natan (2016). Memory and Forgetting in the Postal service-Holocaust Era: The Ethics of Never Again. Routledge. ISBN978-one-317-03375-2. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  19. ^ a b c d Buettner, Angi (2016). "Never over again: Rwanda, genocide, and the Holocaust". Holocaust Images and Picturing Catastrophe: The Cultural Politics of Seeing. Routledge. p. 85. ISBN978-ane-351-93052-9. Archived from the original on 31 January 2022. Retrieved nineteen October 2020.
  20. ^ "Genocide: "Never again" has get "time and again"". Office of the Un Loftier Commissioner for Human being Rights. xviii September 2018. Archived from the original on iv June 2020. Retrieved six May 2020.
  21. ^ McCallum, Luke (6 April 2019). "Publications". International Clan of Genocide Scholars. Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2020. The twentieth century has been called "The Age of Genocide." In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the slogan "never again" was coined; yet since 1945 nosotros take seen the mass slaughter of Bengalis, Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnians, Kosovars, and Darfuris, to proper noun only a few.
  22. ^ Ibrahim, Azeem (3 December 2019). "Prc Must Answer for Cultural Genocide in Courtroom". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 20 Jan 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  23. ^ Dolkun, Isa (xiv September 2020). "Europe said 'never once more.' Why is it silent on Uighur genocide?". Politico. Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved iii February 2021.
  24. ^ Sartor, Nina (3 December 2020). ""Never Again" all over again". The Silhouette. Archived from the original on 7 Feb 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  25. ^ Kaye, Jonah (23 August 2020). "Uyghur Camps And The Significant Of 'Never Again'". The Detroit Jewish News. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  26. ^ Harkov, Lahav (1 March 2022). "Russian federation strikes Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site in Ukraine". The Jerusalem Post . Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  27. ^ Fishel, Justin (17 March 2016). "ISIS Has Committed Genocide, Obama Assistants Declares". ABC News. Archived from the original on x January 2020. Retrieved vii May 2020.
  28. ^ Rieff, David (1 February 2011). "The Persistence of Genocide". Hoover Institution. Archived from the original on 23 April 2020. Retrieved half-dozen May 2020.
  29. ^ Fernández Meijide, Graciela (24 March 2020). ""Nunca más", un compromiso vigente". Infobae (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 24 March 2020. Retrieved vi May 2020.
  30. ^ "Día de la Memoria en Argentine republic: el necesario recuerdo de la dictadura". France 24. 24 March 2019. Archived from the original on 18 Dec 2019. Retrieved half dozen May 2020.
  31. ^ Schneider, Rebecca (2006). "Never, Again". In Hamera, Judith A. (ed.). The SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies. SAGE. p. 25. ISBN978-0-7619-2931-4. Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved nineteen October 2020.
  32. ^ "Jews Protesting Detention Centers: Within Never Again Activity". Jewish Journal. 17 July 2019. Archived from the original on 23 April 2020. Retrieved vi May 2020.

External links [edit]

toutfend1999.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_again