July 22, 2008 at 04:56:17

Jews, Guns, and the Holocaust

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One of the largest arguments the gun people like to use in support of their belief that an armed citizenry is the best prevention against tyranny is the statement that if the Jews had been armed during the holocaust they could have successfully defended themselves.

The gun proponents want to believe, and very much want us to believe, that the Jews, if armed, could have prevented the holocaust.

Author Martin Cohen's research documents that well over one and one half million Jews carried weapons and fought against the German military. Author Nechama Tec, in her book "Defiance: The Bielski Partisans", discusses what she calls "the largest armed rescue of Jews by Jews".

Armed Jews did not prevent Hitler from coming into power, nor did armed Jews stop the ensuing genocide we know as The Holocaust. Armed Jews did cause discomfort to the Germans and those countries that allied themselves with Germany.

While the heroics of the armed Jews is commendable, the reality is they could not stop the extermination. Armed Jews could not stop the rise of the National Socialist government, they could not combat the German moral code of the time, and they could not save Europe's Jewry. This is reality.

We need to be significantly more grounded and rely less on suppositions.

I have a degree in theology and a Masters in Holocaust History.

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