American Author Criticizes German Peace Group Opposed to PETA's European Holocaust Exhibit
Dr. Charles Patterson of New York City, author of ETERNAL TREBLINKA, accuses the German peace group Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (Action Reconciliation Service for Peace) of "Nazi thinking" in its campaign against the PETA Holocaust Exhibit that is beginning its three-week tour of Europe. The PETA display, which began its tour in Stuttgart, Germany on March 18, will travel to 11 European cities, ending in Amsterdam on April 8.
(PRWEB) March 16, 2004 --Dr. Charles Patterson wrote a letter of protest to the German peace group "Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste" when he found out the group was attacking the PETA Holocaust Exhibit, which is based on his book, ETERNAL TREBLINKA.
http://www.EternalTreblinka.com
The PETA "Holocaust on Your Plate" exhibit is now on a three-week, 11-city tour of Europe, beginning in Stuttgart, Germany.
The controversial display, which has already been seen in 55 U.S. cities, consists of eight 60-square-foot panels, showing photos of animal factory-farm and slaughterhouse scenes side by side with photos from Nazi concentration camps.
The paired photos graphically depict the point made by the Yiddish writer and Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer: "In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka." (Treblinka was a Nazi death camp north of Warsaw.)
Patterson, who dedicated his book to Singer's memory, asked the group if its opposition to the PETA campaign meant they were also opposed to his book or the writings of Isaac Bashevis Singer upon which his book and the PETA exhibit are based.
Patterson pointed out to the group that the German Jewish philosopher Theodor Adorno also spoke about the Holocaust/animal analogy that the group opposes:
"Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they're only animals."
Dr. Patterson concluded his letter with what the Israeli newspaper Maariv had to say about his book: "The moral challenge posed by Eternal Treblinka turns it into a must for anyone who seeks to delve into the universal lesson of the Holocaust."
Mr. Johannes Zerger, head of the group's Department for Public Relations and Fundraising, wrote back on behalf of the group (called Action Reconciliation Service for Peace in English) to say that it stood by its opposition to the PETA exhibit "because in the name of the survivors and with a full comprehension of what people in the concentration and death camps did to other humans, we can only reject such an appropriation of the Holocaust for advertising purposes."
Mr. Zerger acknowledged that while "the conditions of raising and keeping animals for food production must be improved and the way animals are being treated during transportation and on animal farms is not an acceptable way to treat living creatures," comparing their plight with the genocide of the Jews "for dramatic effect" was highly inappropriate. "In order to promote the protection and rights of animals it is not necessary to make comparisons with the murder of humans in whatever form!"
Dr. Patterson wrote back to express his disappointment that the group had failed to address the issues he had raised about the interconnection between violence against people and animals. He wrote, "History shows that the atrocities humans have committed against each other--slavery and the Holocaust being two notable examples--grew out of and were fueled by the exploitation and slaughter of animals."
In response to Mr. Zerger's contention that "In order to promote the protection and rights of animals it is not necessary to make comparisons with the murder of humans in whatever form!" Patterson wrote:
"Herr Zerger, have you learned nothing from your country's history? What you write is fascist thinking pure and simple. It's the very same hierarchical thinking that produced the Holocaust.
"How ironical that your organization which provides services to survivors of the Holocaust is at the same time promoting the very same thinking that caused the Holocaust to happen!
"What you're saying is that the mass murder of animals is not as important as the mass murder of humans, an opinion that echoes the Nazi contention that the murder of Jews, Gypsies, and other 'sub-humans' was not as important as the murder of Germans.
"I suggest that you spend less time and energy trying to stop the PETA exhibit (or is this just a fund-raising ploy?) and more time studying and thinking about the meaning of German history.
"One Holocaust is enough. Never again."
Dr. Patterson says he hopes that this exchange of letters with the group will help them and others understand the common origins of violence against those considered "inferior" or "lower" beings, whether those living beings be animals or humans.
Here is the schedule of PETA's European Holocaust Exhibit Tour:
March 18 (Thursday)--Stuttgart, GERMANY
March 19 (Friday)--Zurich, SWITZERLAND
March 22 (Monday)--Milan, ITALY
March 24 (Wednesday)--Zagreb, CROATIA
March 26 (Friday)--Vienna, AUSTRIA
March 29 (Monday)--Bratislava, SLOVAKIA
March 30 (Tuesday)--Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC
April 2 (Friday)--Warsaw, POLAND
April 5 (Monday)--Stockholm, SWEDEN
April 6 (Tuesday)--Copenhagen, DENMARK
April 8 (Thursday)--Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
http://www.massenvernichtung.info
EUROPEAN TOUR CONTACT INFORMATION:
Jürgen Faulmann, Kampagnenleiter
PETA-Deutschland e.V.
Pforzheimerstrasse 383
70499 Stuttgart
Tel. +49 (0)711-866-6165
Mobil+49 (0)173-657-5668
Fax +49 (0)711-866-6166
http://www.peta.de
Dr. Patterson's book has been translated and published in the following countries:
Italy
UN'ETERNA TREBLINKA
Editori Riuniti, Rome
http://www.editoririuniti.it/product.asp?catalog_name=Collane&category_name=Primo+Piano&product_id=88-359-5324-3
Poland
WIECZNA TREBLINKA
Vega!POL" Publishing House, Opole
http://www.vivapol.most.org.pl/publikacje.htm
Czech Republic
VECNA TREBLINKA
Publishing House Prah, Prague
Germany
ETERNAL TREBLINKA has been translated into German and is scheduled for publication this summer by Zweitausendeins Versand Dienst GmbH, Frankfurt am Main.
Publishers in France, Spain, The Netherlands, Norway, Croatia, Israel, and India are also reviewing the book for possible publication.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING--
"I urge you to read Eternal Treblinka and think deeply about its important message."
--Dr. Jane Goodall
"Compelling, controversial, iconoclastic...strongly recommended...a unique contribution."
--Midwest Book Review
"Eternal Treblinka should be on every list of essential reading for an informed citizenry...for the compelling comprehensiveness of the life-and-death story it tells."
--National Jewish Post & Opinion
"Important and timely...written with great sensitivity and compassion...I hope that Eternal Treblinka will be widely read."
--Martyrdom and Resistance (Holocaust publication)
"Thorough and thought-provoking book"
--Ha'aretz (Israeli newspaper)
"It is seldom that such a comprehensive work of scholarship springs from a heart of compassion in the service of a noble and necessary idea. All the ingredients of your thesis--that the oppression of animals serves as the model for all other forms of oppression--have been available to thinking people for generations, but it remained for you to pull them together."
--Helen Weaver, author of The Daisy Sutra
"Powerful, moving, gut-wrenching, brilliant--destined to be a classic"
--Aviva Cantor, journalist and author
"You must read this carefully documented book"
--La Stampa (Italian national newspaper)
"...promises to be one of the most influential books of the 21st century."
--Dr. Karen Davis, United Poultry Concerns
"It grips like a thriller."
--The Freethinker (UK)
"This book is going to change the world."
--Albert Kaplan, Albert Kaplan & Co., Johns Island, SC
For more information about ETERNAL TREBLINKA, visit http://www.powerfulbook.com
To view the photo panels of PETAs "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign, visit http://www.MassKilling.com
http://www.excellenteditor.com
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