On my way through security at the O’hare Airport, I witnessed a scene that made me cringe. Amid the tumult that is found in most American airports, I watched as a security guard detained an elderly woman for not removing her shoes. “Damn Nazis,” the woman muttered under her breath, as she was escorted to the side of the line. I was on my way over to Poland to begin a two-week Holocaust memorial trip called March of the Living. This woman was my tour guide.
In recent times, there has been a widespread tendency to overuse serious terminology. The word “Nazi,” for example, is no longer used sparingly. Just to remind everyone, the Nazis were the murderous fiends that caused the Holocaust. They were not, as some would argue today, the annoying blond haired men at the airport that make you take off your shoes for the x-ray machine.
The misuse of derogatory epithets has consequences that extend beyond common name-calling. In today’s world, Holocaust denial is on the rise, with part of the world doubting that the Holocaust ever happened. One way of preventing this bastardized view of history is by preserving the full meaning of the word Nazi.
Last year in YU, several provocative signs around my dormitory read “The Palestinian Apartheid.” These posters, reversing the common trend in Anti-Zionist propaganda, meant to draw a parallel between the once cruel, racist regime in South Africa and the “mistreatment of Jews” in Israel. Despite the powerful wording, any sane person would immediately find this comparison suspect. The apartheid in South Africa involved a white minority tyrannically ruling over a Black majority; nothing of the kind exists in Israel. Although it may seem convenient to accuse your adversary of committing apartheid-like crimes, the word must remain true to its history.
To further show how this word strays from its original meaning, many more people reverse this apartheid accusation and declare the Jews guilty of oppressing Arabs. While this argument has gained traction in many settings, the comparison bears few historical parallels. The presence of voting, Arab citizens should speak for itself.
Even though apartheid in South Africa ended fewer than twenty years ago, some people have already begun to distort its history. In order to preserve the full meaning of words (and their histories), we must understand the severity of the ones we use. To the credit of Holocaust awareness organizations, after more than 60 years the Holocaust remains a unique and singular event. By resorting to baseless name-calling, we are fueling the flames of ignorance and opening the door to a phony view of world history.