Joe The Plumber Needs a History Lesson

Eek! As Caroline Manzo, that NJ Housewife so artfully put it, "I feel like I am in a whirlwind of stupid!"



Firstly, most of the Jews killed in the Holocaust were not even from Germany. A tiny percentage were (142,000 of 6 million). The overwhelming majority were from countries conquered by Germany.

And secondly, what were peaceful Jewish families supposed to do, even if they had a gun? The Nazis slowly ratcheted up their policies of persecution of the Jews in the countries they controlled. The entire power of a State was being used against peaceful civilians who had committed no offense against anyone. As a result, many Jews had no idea of their fate until the very end. Many hung on to the hope that the worst rumors they heard were not true. Why wouldn't they? Until then, they had lived entirely peaceful, normal, civilized lives. So, when were these peaceful families supposed to abandon that and take up violence and fight back?

Also, a significant number of Jews did fight back. They became resistance fighters, partisans. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is one example. But in the long-run it did little. No ordinary civilians would have been able to defend themselves for long against the military apparatus and resources of a State determined to kill them.

It's easy for Mr. Joe the Plumber to make such declarations with the knowledge today of what happened. But that is horribly insulting to the realities of history and the Holocaust victims' memories.