Hi Anthony,

Thx for the response; you pose a good and interesting question.

(Not sure whether I have a good and interesting answer.)

In addition to saying “pretty much: all of the above,” regarding the suggestions you make, I think this fits into the larger context of events/people “falling out of history,” most especially when the subject is uncomfortable or contentious.

As an American, my general feeling is that we remain more militantly ahistorical than many “older” countries; we often don’t want to remember—and are disdainful of or irritated by people who are committed to keeping memories alive.

Then too, there’s the “sociopolitical” aspect, from a variety of points on the political spectrum: some conservatives find Holocaust denial a useful tool—for obvious reasons; some progressives, particularly of late, feel (not entirely w/ out reason) that the Holocaust has been used first to “re-create” a Jewish homeland, then, in an ongoing way, as justification for Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians; finally (maybe this is just me, but) I suspect there is broad embarrassment regarding our (global) hypocrisy regarding genocide.

It used to be de rigueur to chant “Never Again” in response to the Holocaust. Except, y’know . . . Cambodia and Rwanda and Bosnia . . . and on and on and on. Yes, the scale is different, but I think any fair observer would have to say that we have **not** “put an end to genocide” since WWII.

The idea, of course, is “easy,” the reality rather less so. I believe that we did put an end to the genocide in Bosnia, for example, but we did that via . . . bombing.

It’s a tough balancing act: “fighting” to uphold human rights standards across the world vs. not having “a global ‘police force,’” whether that’s the US or the UN or NATO or whatever.

Hope this goes some distance to answer your question. Again, thanks for responding.

Best,

Don