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Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins at sundown on April 27. The distinct terms, Shoah and Holocaust, carry very different meanings despite both referring to the same horrific event. KSMU’s Samantha Nichols tells us more about the linguistic issues as well as how the local community can observe this day of remembrance.
To remember a genocide that killed an estimated 11 million people less than 100 years ago is an incredibly difficult task. The scope of what happened throughout Europe at the hands of the Nazis is so incomprehensible that the Hebrew word to identify what is referred to as the Holocaust is intended to capture the sheer unknowability of the tragedy.
“Shoah” means calamity and is often the preferred term within the Jewish community. Mara Cohen Ioannides, advisor of Hillel of Southwest Missouri, noted the problem with using the word “Holocaust,” which comes from the Greek language.
“It’s a sacrifice that’s pleasing to the gods, so, by using that term, the implication is what happened during World War II is acceptable or appropriate,” said Ioannides.
Despite the clearly troubling connection between a word that refers to a pleasing sacrifice and the six million Jewish lives that were lost, the linguistic implications of the word “Holocaust” are not universally understood within the Jewish community.
“I for one grew up and have said ‘Holocaust’ my entire life and so has my family. It wasn’t until on Monday that I learned that that’s not the appropriate way to refer to it,” said Nogin.
Simon Nogin, president of Hillel of Southwest Missouri, learned about the etymology of “Holocaust” from Ken Elkins, adjunct professor of Holocaust Studies at Missouri State, at a screening of the documentary “Refuge: Stories of the Selfhelp Home.”
Ioannides noted that the lack of awareness for some members of the Jewish community is not necessarily surprising. Not only has the word “Holocaust” simply become so commonplace, she explained that most American Jews don’t know Hebrew.
“There is an image of Jews as Hebrew speakers, which is a really fascinating thing because there’s no image of Catholics as Latin speakers,” said Ioannides.
Nogin said he will actively work to change his rhetoric, but the solution to such a complicated linguistic problem might not be as simple as urging everyone to switch from “Holocaust” to “Shoah.”
“The more I ponder it, the more troublesome it becomes because, then, the Jews are claiming this event and it wasn’t exclusively Jewish,” said Ioannides.
In addition to the six million Jews who were killed, the Nazis murdered millions of Romani people, Slavs, persons of color, people with mental and physical disabilities, Poles and many other non-Jewish groups.
Some Romani people use the word “Porrajamos” to refer to the “Holocaust,” but this term is certainly not used by all Romani People. Ian Hancock, a linguist and Romani scholar, noted in his essay “On the interpretation of a word: Porrajamos as Holocaust,” that this term was offered at an informal lunchtime gathering in a discussion about what to call the “Holocaust” in Romani among many other suggestions.
“I think it depends on perspective what one wants to call it. I can see saying ‘Holocaust’ as incorporating all these people and all these kinds of things that happened. And I can see using ‘Shoah’ to specifically point out the Jewish part,” said Ioannides.
Regardless of what term is used, Yom HaShoah is a very important day within the Jewish community. As the number of survivors dwindles, the future of how and how often the catastrophe will be remembered is unclear. While the number of personal and direct connections will continue to decrease as time passes, Ioannides commented on the importance of continuing to remember as a means of fighting inaccuracies about the Holocaust.
“If for no other reason than you can’t let the deniers win because the deniers are just as bad as the Nazis. And the whole point of remembering is to say ‘We’re here to remember they didn’t win,” said Ioannides.
The local community can take part in remembering by attending an interfaith service at Christ Episcopal Church at 7p.m. on Sunday, April 27. Ioannides estimated that the service has existed for at least two decades. The service will offer a time for prayer and Holocaust survivors and their families will be present.
The conversation over what word to use is sure to continue as humanity seeks to grapple with the Holocaust. Perhaps the inability of people to come up with a universally satisfying term is consistent with the incomprehensible nature of what happened.
For KSMU News, I’m Samantha Nichols