“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

George Santayana

Tragically, during a week when survivors of an earlier period of “ethnic cleansing” traveled to Warsaw to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their armed rebellion against a madman bent on the racial and ethnic purification of Germany and its European conquests … we find ourselves witnessing the catastrophe overtaking Bosina-Herzegovina where a new generation of tyrants implements its version of ethnic cleansing.

Sixty years ago last month, in Dachau, a small town 10 miles from Munich, the Nazi established their first concentration camp and with it the beginning of their systematic persecution of Germany’s Jewish population.  While the existing media broadcast some information on Hitler’s abusive treatment of German Jews, its impact was muted as the media of the day lacked the capabilities of its modern counterpart, the truth being reported seemed too incredible to believe and for many, there was only marginal sympathy for Jews and other groups on Hitler’s hit list.

Today, by contrast, detailed articles, color photographs and graphic video footage of the deliberate victimization of Bosnia’s Moslem population by Serbia and their Bosnian Serb allies confront us daily in both the print and electronic media.  Once again, the overall public reaction has been one of passive indifference.  But, perhaps that’s to be expected in a nation where a up to a third of the public are open to the possibility the Nazi holocaust didn’t really happen.

In 1938, a Prime Minister Chamberlain returned from Munich, having appeased Hitler by effectively ceding the Sudentenland to Germany and declaring, “peace with honor … peace for our time”.  Eleven months later, Hitler’s forces invaded Poland, setting the stage for the 1943 Jewish revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto. 

Today, a UN-sponsored peace plan assuaging the Bosnian Serbs would permit Bosnia’s Muslims in towns coveted by the Serbs to be “resettled” in enclaves … after turning their weapons in to UN Peacekeeping forces.  Only after this UN plan was “approved” by outside powers did Serbrenica Muslim population learn their Bosnian Serbs enemies would not be disarming.  As happened a half century earlier, a plan promising peace is destined to condemn

more people and encourage despots.

In the years before 1942, the tendency among the Allies was to regard the ongoing persecution of Jews as part of the complex problem of oppression in the occupied countries.  However, soon after the January, 1942 Wannsee Conference where the details of the “final solution” were worked out, rumors of mass killings and the death camps began to filter through to the west.  By the middle of that year, the gruesome details behind those rumors were verified.  Yet, despite the horror and indignation of the anti-Nazi coalition and several conferences and numerous meetings on the subject, no direct action was taken to destroy the camps or liberate their prisoners … as it was not part of the grand military-strategic plan.

Today, despite undisputed evidence genocide on the part of Serbian and Bosnian Serb forces has, and continues to take place, Bosnia’s Muslim population continues to suffer and die.  Meanwhile, the leaders of many nations which could make a difference posture and meet, frequently using a need for a United Nations consensus as a convenient excuse for inaction … perhaps secretly hoping the limited supply of food and medicine convoyed into a few besieged

towns, their ineffectual economic sanctions and the imposition of the recently announced “no-fly” zone will keep vocal critics at bay until the situation resolves itself. 

The lessons of history seem, for the moment, to have been forgotten or, worse, never learned.

Yet, hope springs eternal … and perhaps the US government can muster the courage to act decisively, with or without European assistance.  Moreover, it might seek the active participation two antagonists groups who should have an deep commitment in the survival of the Bosnian Muslims.

The Israelis, who better than any other people understand what it’s like to be on the receiving end of a policy of racial/ethnic genocide, have said over and over, “Never again!” … and the Muslim nations of the Middle East have time and again claimed “solidarity and brotherhood” with of all Muslims.

Assuming their words are more than meaningless rhetoric, the tragedy in Bosnia presents them with an unparalleled, face-saving opportunity to put their disputes aside and work together to resolve the Bosnian tragedy and help ensure the survival its Muslim inhabitants.  In the process, they might find they have more in common than the differences which have kept them feuding for centuries.