The head of the Israel Defense Forces personnel branch, Major General Elazar Stern, was quoted in Haaretz on Monday as saying that "every generation needs to see itself as if it had come out of Auschwitz."
The Haaretz report suggests Stern believes if soldiers saw themselves as having experienced the Holocaust firsthand, they would be more sensitive to their treatment of Palestinians.
But something troubles me about his comments. For the last several years I've been a volunteer for AMCHA, an Israeli organization that supports Holocaust survivors and their children. Every week I visit an elderly Holocaust survivor who herself was in Auschwitz. She is now a widower with one son and one granddaughter. She has a brother and sister in Europe, but hasn't been in touch with them for years and fears if she does so today she'll hear that they have died.
Stern's suggestion that a Holocaust-like experience is needed to remind soldiers of how to act in a humane manner - in a situation of war that is far from humane - reflects the poor state of values in Israeli society. It also fails to take into account the psychological trauma the Holocaust inflicted on those who experienced it directly and their families.
Although he didn't say it in this manner, Stern's comments can be understood as expressing disgust that the Jewish people, decimated by the horrors of the Holocaust, are not more sensitive to human rights issues.
Perhaps I'm overly sensitive to the issue, but whenever the Holocaust is used in a political or military context, I feel uneasy. I'm not sure we'd be better off if every soldier saw himself as having come out of Auschwitz. There's a lot of baggage that comes with it.
