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Genocide and mass killings have become an historical fixture on the landscape of the last century and the present one. The Shoah (the holocaust taking place in World War II) and other genocides have left indelible imprints on the collective conscience. Robert Frey’s collection of multidisciplinary essays focuses on the definitional intricacies of “genocide,” as well as on the religious implications of the existence of mass killings. The collection forges a strong connection between the two iconic pillars of Auschwitz and Hiroshima, questioning their causes and exploring possible steps towards prevention.
The book is provocative on many levels. In drawing comparisons between Auschwitz and Hiroshima, the first two essays, “Ethics after Auschwitz and
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Hiroshima” and “Reflections on the Holocaust and Hiroshima,” explore the definition of genocide in the context of mass killings of civilians in wartime. Hiroshima is not generally considered to be a genocidal event and no action was ever taken to discipline those who developed the atomic bomb, sanctioned it, and executed its use. At the same time, the killing was arguably targeted at civilians in a way that did not allow for individual surrender. By expanding the term “genocide” to include mass killings like Hiroshima, Frey revises the traditional understanding that genocide is only the purposeful annihilation of a specific group.
Frey’s collection also explores the complexity of the duty to intervene in conflicts that become genocidal. The essays examine whether dilution of the meaning of genocide risks painting victims as collaborators or masks conflicts so that perpetrators are free to continue with their genocidal agenda. Dovilé Budryté contributes an essay that addresses the history of the Soviet oppression in Lithuanian society. In this Chapter, the attribution of genocide to the displacement of Lithuanian dissidents threatens to mask the anti-Semitism in contemporary Lithuanian national memory. While the construction of Soviet oppression as genocide was vital to the unification of Lithuanian independence forces, Budryté exposes the problems that may arise in using an overly broad definition of genocide.
On the other hand, the United States has often been accused of manipulating the term genocide to excuse its inaction. Essays that discuss this are neatly framed by the opening question of Hiroshima: has the United States neglected genocides in other parts of the world, especially in Rwanda, because of its own status as a perpetrator? While never directly posed, this question frames Frey’s selection of essays and the order in which Frey has arranged them. Frey starts with the accusation that the U.S. has committed genocide and then presents essays that further define genocide in ways that would implicate the U.S. as a perpetrator of genocide.
The book also includes a rich discussion of why genocide happens and what can be done to prevent it. The most common proposition is that modern managerial life and the technology that accompanies it have led to an atomization of decision-making processes. One essay proposes that business students be given the Holocaust as a case study in ethics courses. Frey includes an essay by William A. Rottschaefer entitled “Naturalizing Moral Agency” that deals with the biology of morality. In including this piece in the middle of a discussion about the Holocaust, the collection comments on the changing context of our society and the moral perils it presents. Our romance with technology can be seen in rhetoric about atomic power: one author points out that “enlightenment” cannot have the same meaning in a post-Hiroshima world for those who have seen the flash of light of an atomic bomb. In Steven Carter’s essay “Romancing the Apocalypse,” the beauty of atomic explosions is seen as eschatological: how can we condemn the use of the atomic bomb when we accord it divine provenance?
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The effect of Auschwitz and Hiroshima on religion is a third theme that is woven into this collection. Carter’s concern that our theological imagery has led us into a dangerous love affair with mass death is complemented by Blumenthal’s essays that examine the impact of the Shoah on Jewish faith. Blumenthal concludes that the problem of evil, so starkly portrayed in the Shoah, has deep theological consequences. If God is somehow excused from participation in the Shoah, then by implication there exists an excuse for collaborators and perpetrators. Blumenthal contends that the theological approach necessary is one of challenge—recognition that God was in fact involved and present as a God of history during genocidal periods, and that a person must challenge God’s actions through prayer and questioning. Blumenthal presents this theological posture as the one that is most likely to aid in the prevention of genocide because it is the posture that will prevent the eschatological thinking Carter highlights as so dangerous: if God does not intervene, was killing divinely ordained?
Through definitional preciseness, concerned with avoiding a definitional process that dehumanizes conflict, and the adept marshalling of theological arguments, Frey’s collection poses important and haunting questions. His multidisciplinary approach is a provocative introduction for the student interested in the topic of genocide and willing to grapple with its complexities.
—Sarah Rice
HLSHRJ@law.harvard.edu
This file was last modified: Tuesday, 02-Aug-2005 14:59:46 EDT