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Why is a Holocaust museum putting on a George Floyd exhibition?

What does George Floyd have to do with the Holocaust? Credit: Orlando Sentinel

January 27, 2021 - 7:45am

When a George Floyd exhibit was announced at a Florida Holocaust museum — overlapping with today’s Holocaust Memorial Day — it provoked uproar within the Jewish community. Featuring photos taken at the spot in Minneapolis where Floyd died, the exhibition’s implied comparison between Floyd and the Shoah left many feeling outraged. In a later statement, the Museum offered its rationale:

When someone faces an act of antisemitism, racism, or any form of identity based hate, whether it results in death or not, there is an uprising of many emotions. We felt it was important to bring the human experience of the aftermath to our museum. 
- Holocaust Memorial Center, Florida

Critics argued that the comparison relativised the Holocaust in spite of the museum director’s saying in a later statement that it was “not a comparison of pain”. But the incident was the culmination of a trend in which Holocaust museums around the world are adopting an increasingly universal progressive narrative in their shows.

Over the last few years, there have been museum discussions about Bullying PreventionWhite Myths Black Lives: The Root of Racial Oppression in America, and a poetry event in which students were “empowered” to write about their “unique identities and backgrounds.” An image of the Capitol storming event greeted recent visitors to USHMM’s website, and Steven Goldstein of The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect publicly blasted the Trump administration. Even Israel’s YadVashem is embroiled in a controversy over the alleged removal of a photo showing the 1941 meeting of Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin Al Husseini.

With a recent survey suggesting that 56% of US millennials had never heard of Auschwitz, and 31% of Americans believing that two million or fewer Jews perished in the Holocaust, it is time for museums to focus on education about the events of the Holocaust itself. They should not present the Holocaust as part of a universal genocide phenomenon, but instead, depict it for what it was — history’s most horrific antisemitic crime, an atrocity targeted at the Jewish people.

Just before Jews were sent to the Auschwitz gas chambers, men, women and children were violently forced to undress; supervising them were the Sonderkommando, who would later drag the victims’ dead bodies to the crematorium. One Jewish Sondercommando who miraculously survived has testified that the tortured souls’ only wish was to tell the world “what these evil people did to us” — museums must focus on honouring the six million victims’ dying wish, and concentrate on telling their story.

Hannah Gal is a London based journalist with credits including The SpectatorUS, The Guardian, The Jerusalem Post and LotusEaters among others

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Andrew Thompson
Andrew Thompson
3 years ago

Will the museum mention he once held a gun to a heavily pregnant woman’s stomach whilst his friends robbed her house?

Nicholas Rynn
Nicholas Rynn
3 years ago

Not a hope.

John Dowling
John Dowling
3 years ago

View the police bodycam and street cam video here to see what actually went on before and after Mr Floyd’s death.
Powerlineblog. com/archives/2020/09/the-george-floyd-documentary
Take out the space before com for the link to work.
However, I guess some will view it and still be in denial that he died of a drug overdose and the police officers had a difficult task with this gentleman.

Stephen Tye
Stephen Tye
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dowling

Very revealing – thug dies of overdose, police blamed, riots ensue. So very predicable.

George Lake
George Lake
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dowling

Well he didn’t have .357 Magnum bullet in the neck, unlike Ms Babbitt, did he?

dorothywebdavies
dorothywebdavies
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dowling

Don’t call him a gentleman – even sarcastically.

Peter Scott
Peter Scott
3 years ago

‘Why is a Holocaust museum putting on a George Floyd exhibition?’ (which insults the memory of millions who were slaughtered abominably and not like him a repeat criminal with his body chock-full of fentanyl; so that almost any restraint would result in his death)

Answer – because the cravens running the museum, like most other people in our spiritually very decayed society, have not got the courage to not do it.

Su Mac
Su Mac
3 years ago
Reply to  Peter Scott

Yep, 1 vociferous woke person on the board and they are doomed to obey, comply and agree or be chased out and humiliated…rather like an episode in the 1930’s…

stephen f.
stephen f.
3 years ago
Reply to  Su Mac

woke macht frei

Benjamin Jones
Benjamin Jones
3 years ago
Reply to  stephen f.

Brilliant.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago

Why? Because the western mind is in an advanced state of collapse, degraded and destroyed by a combination of the Frankfurt School and its downstream effects, and the endless printing of fake money. The lunacy is now so deeply embedded and widespread that it is hard to see any way back.

pauls7973
pauls7973
3 years ago

Of all the people to put up as a martyr – I mean, really? True, many martyrs had their flaws but you would be hard pressed to find a worse one. MLK would be cringing.

Joe Francis
Joe Francis
3 years ago

Because we’re not just in a culture war, we’re in a history war. Like Orwell says, he who controls the past..

Pete Kreff
Pete Kreff
3 years ago

I think there are a lot of people for whom something in their personality makes it essential for them to believe that other people, our societies, the world are terribly evil, probably because this allows them to feel extraordinarily righteous and virtuous by opposing it.

It’s why people are so keen to equate the slightest manifestation of injustice with the greatest horrors the world has witnessed.

It’s why people are so reluctant to acknowledge the plain and undeniable truth that our western societies are far better places to live than everything that went before them: far more human rights and legal freedoms that are the same for everyone from the richest and most powerful to the very lowest; far less abandonment of the poor and the vulnerable; unprecedented opportunities to live your life basically however you want, with no secular or religious power to tell you it’s wrong or not permitted; and you’re far less likely to be the victim of a serious crime.

It’s why people exaggerate the bad aspects of our societies: they say we live in a “rape culture”; they talk of it being “open season” on black people for the US police; they claim there is enormously widespread racism, discrimination and oppression.

It’s why they claim that simple opposition to or disagreement with an idea is “hate” and that all behaviour they dislike is “violence”. And it’s why their response to opposition or disagreement is sometimes so vicious.

Only by creating this image of a hell on earth do they feel get a sufficiently strong buzz of virtuousness and righteousness by opposing it.

But that raises the question: why is this need to feel virtuous and righteous now so strong that it blinds people to the reality of our societies? Is it some sense of guilt? A sense that their lives are meaningless?

But why would this sense of guilt be so overwhelming right now? Why would people think their lives are meaningless now, when they have so many opportunities for self-realisation?

It’s puzzling.

Alison Houston
Alison Houston
3 years ago

Because the BLM approach to identity politics is the new fashion. This approach lumps the whole of the white race into one category of oppressor. It takes no account of ideology as a motivating force nor of individuals for their own behaviour. It is in that sense no different from the approach of the Nazis to the Jews.

Since BLM are the creation of the intelligence agencies in America and Western Europe one can see the way things will be played out. The white, working class Trump voters will be portrayed as the new Nazis, for merely being white and uneducated, all the most vile opinions will be attributed to them, they will be so thoroughly demonised that punishments will be severe, though we won’t see a return of gas chambers Guantanamo style treatments might be on the agenda.

The pictures of George Floyd at the Holocaust memorial museum are a warning, history is about to be repeated through the looking glass and portrayed as some kind of justice or ‘karma’, as Jonathan Haidt might choose to express it.

jackmiz2020
jackmiz2020
3 years ago

The Holocaust……6 million Jews put to death in an attempt to erase the Jews from the planet….. the death of Floyd should not be mentioned in the same breath….don’t dilute the importance of the history of the Holocaust, especially in today’s rise in Anti Semitism through out the world.

stephen f.
stephen f.
3 years ago

Everyone involved with this appalling decision should be sacked.

Andrew D
Andrew D
3 years ago

Maybe they thought it was George Freud?

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Andrew D

Very good. One step further and you come to George Fraud, which more accurately describes the situation.

Su Mac
Su Mac
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Now that kind banter is what comments pages are for… 😁

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago

When someone faces an act of antisemitism, racism, or any form of identity based hate, whether it results in death or not, there is an uprising of many emotions.
None of which applied to George Floyd. He did not deserve death, but come on; this was a guy who was combative and belligerent, who had committed some heinous acts himself, and who happened to be black. None of the rest would change had he been white. And where are the memorials for the 75% of civilians killed by law enforcement who are non-black?

Sheryl Rhodes
Sheryl Rhodes
3 years ago
Reply to  Alex Lekas

I watched the video of the police interaction with George Floyd and what immediately struck me as a criminal prosecutor was that when police first found him, he was sitting in the driver’s seat of a van with other passengers. Think about that. In no way would police be able to let Floyd drive away–to abandon their interaction with him–when he was so obviously seriously impaired by drugs or alcohol. This fact has never been part of the narratives I’ve seen about how the police should have treated Floyd.

The other thing that struck me was their overall considerate behavior towards him. They spoke respectfully and were concerned about his physical condition from the start. They tried over and over to have a rational conversation with him and to get him to cooperate, but Floyd was alternatively more calm, then less calm; rationally responding to officers but then making nonsense statements. I was REALLY surprised when, after he kept insisting that he wanted to get out of the police car and lay down, that they let him do that! In my long experience with police protocols in a large Eastern US city, police would have been very unlikely to do that. They would simply force an arrestee into the back seat and lock him in.

Stephen Tye
Stephen Tye
3 years ago

I suggest the body cam footage from the arrest is put on mainstream TV. The police did nothing wrong, it was a fair arrest of a drugged up thug. All that rubbish of ‘can’t breath’ started before Floyd was put in the car, and was a result of being hopped up to his eyeballs on 11mg/ML fentanyl a fatal dose that caused his lungs to fill with fluid.

The BLM riots that followed were a nonsense, simply using this incident as an excuse.

The police officers have been charged with murder, but there isn’t a jury in the world that would convict them, so get ready for more riots when the not guilty verdicts are given out.

Jane Doe
Jane Doe
3 years ago
Reply to  Stephen Tye

The autopsy findings were 11ng/ml not mg. Final report by the medical examiner said cause of death was police subdual restraint and neck compression. The Armed Forces med examiner reviewed those findings and agreed adding that cardiovascular disease and drug intoxication were contributing factors.

Annette Kralendijk
Annette Kralendijk
3 years ago
Reply to  Jane Doe

The final report indicated cardiopulmonary arrest as the cause of death.

Stephen Tye
Stephen Tye
3 years ago
Reply to  Jane Doe

Yes 11ng, fat fingers. Nevertheless people who died from fentanyl overdose had readings from 0.75 ng/mL to an astounding 113 ng/mL. The average death dose was 9.96 ng/mL. Same point, different figures.

The ME autopsy report on Floyd stated there were no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation. The police restraint, on top of his coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease and the drugs in his system caused his death.

George Lake
George Lake
3 years ago

No room for Ms Ashli Babbitt, wrong colour?

stephen f.
stephen f.
3 years ago
Reply to  George Lake

David Dorn-a retired policeman-a “black” man, but not BLM….the list becomes endless if you include the many thousands killed by their brothers in largely leftist cities every year….but this does not fit the “woke” narrative.

Martin Woodford
Martin Woodford
3 years ago

Quite astonishing, in their desperation to appear woke, the memorial has managed to debase the memory of everyone murdered in the Holocaust. No one sensibly believes that Floyd should have been killed, but he was also a violent criminal. There would be a very long list of people who’s lives and appalling deaths should be remembered before we get around to George Floyd.

Matt Hindman
Matt Hindman
3 years ago

It is because they have a new concept now called Intersectionality. Individual issues can no longer be separated from each other. Basically, it is how you get things like “Lesbians for Palestine.”

Gerry Fruin
Gerry Fruin
3 years ago

Be hard to find a more stupid, cretinous decision made, we have to assume by people who have no intelligence at any level. Impossible to find words to express the feelings to this abomination.
All those involved have to be very sick indeed and should be sacked on the spot.

Annette Kralendijk
Annette Kralendijk
3 years ago

Perhaps the museum is trying to reduce attendance?

Sidney Falco
Sidney Falco
3 years ago

edit

Andrew Baldwin
Andrew Baldwin
3 years ago

Having a George Floyd exhibit in a Holocaust Museum is clearly inappropriate.
If 31% of Americans believe that two million or fewer Jews died in the Holocaust, that is truly shocking. It did make me think though about what range reputable historians would put around the number of victims. When Joachim Fest gave an estimate of five million Jewish victims in his biography of Adolph Hitler, was that within the acceptable range, or is he a 17% Holocaust denier? Sorry, I don’t mean to be frivolous on such a tragic subject, but I would like to know. I imagine demographic estimates of losses, which include births that never occurred because of the Holocaust, would generate substantially larger estimates than six million.

Andre Lower
Andre Lower
3 years ago

In these times of crafty misinformation, it is indeed hard to establish the facts regarding George Floyd’s death. However, the hideous amount of racism that cripples society in the USA is not disputable – and that is why Floyd’s death galvanizes the whole world.
I dislike the woke wholeheartedly, but denying the fact that the racial hatred in the US is on par with the hatred driving the Holocaust does not do anyone any favor.

Marcus Millgate
Marcus Millgate
3 years ago
Reply to  Andre Lower

On what basic did you come to this conclusion?

Andre Lower
Andre Lower
3 years ago

There are several – the obvious belief in white supremacy (on the very same lines of arian supremacy), the self-forgiveness for countless coward murders, the uncontrollable anger when the basics of the racism logic gets criticized, etc. But you might have a counter argument, and if so I’d like to read it. Fire away.