Letter to National Post re Frank Diamant's letter of Jan 7th

Unwittingly, Frank Dimant makes an excellent argument for no special gallery for the Holocaust. It is true that the Holocaust was different as it was executed more scientifically and methodically than other holocausts, and was aimed at the extermination of a whole people. However, the anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust was probably based on cultural and religious differences – similar differences to the competing territorial claims, opposing political viewpoints and divergent cultures that Mr. Dimant refers to as the usual causes of hatred killings. Mr. Dimant tries to make the case for having the museum emphasize an unusual cause for killings within a country, as it goes to the source of hatreds. I don’t think it does. It is just an example of a particularly horrifying case of efficient killing of “the other”. Unwittingly Mr. Dimant’s argument makes the case for warning Canadians of the dangers of the more common internal killings, those based on common differences. It is most important to warn Canadians to be wary of and to combat the usual sources of hatred – hatreds and prejudices that have in the past and may in the future, arise in Canada. The museum should therefore give equal prominence to the horrible results of the many, many ethnic,religious, territorial, ideological and other sources of hatred-killings.