The truth can be manipulated in many ways. As long as there are people that accept the presentation of selective facts, then this manipulation will continue.
The Holocaust was a horrible thing, one that will not go away. As long as facts can be distorted in the interests of survivors of a very real attempt to eradicate a race from the face of the earth these issues will remain forefront.
With all due respect, one wonders why this is so. The Baltic countries and Ukraine are having outrageous charges levied against them. Meanwhile, in the case of Estonia, a country where religious tolerance is proven, a nation that is proud of its history, there seem to be few defenders against slander that has been levied.
Caution is key, granted. I think back to one of the more outrageous distortions of history, a recent film by Allan King called “The Dragon’s Egg”. The editing and translation of that movie, dealing with a German concentration camp near Klooga boggled the mind. A veteran who was conscripted against his will into the German army is depicted as wanting to kill all those in the concentration camp. Selective editing leaves the impression that all Estonians felt that way. And there is no reference to the people who protected Jews, harboured them in their farms and homes, knowing full well the consequences.
During the 1970’s I encountered in Toronto the bias that all Balts were anti semitic. Kurt Vonnegut was very popular then, and some of my schoolmates, to whose bar mitzvahs I had gone, were astounded to read in one of Vonnegut’s books about Andor Gutman, an Estonian Jew. They thought that all Jews had been killedor deported from Estonia during the war. In other words, an Estonian Jew was a rarity. No amount of explanation would convince by schoolmates otherwise.
An Estonian historian of some note, working and teaching at a prestigious American university recounted an experience to me around the same time. He received accreditation to state archives in Tallinn, and spent a number of weeks performing research. Of no small consternation to him were Russian speaking Jews working with state documents, seeking information about people that had collaborated with German forces during WW II. He actually brought the point up with the head archivist, who shrugged and said that these researchers were to be given all opportunities. The head archivist would not reveal whose orders they were.
Canadian citizens who served as conscripts, in other words forced to wear an occupying country’s uniform, can be barred from entering the United States. A pure case of discrimination, of being guilty without a trial. A Texas based organization sent out mass mailings protesting against the remains of Estonian war hero Alfons Rebane being interred in his homeland. Rebane fought against communism, his only crime was wearing a German uniform. Many more similar examples could be brought up here.
In 1990 the undersigned was in Kohtla-Järve as an accredited journalist covering a meeting of the citizenry, Russian - concerned about the winds of freedom, perestroika and ghlasnost that were invigorating Estonia. Old men in their Soviet uniforms yelled at Estonian speakers, calling them Jew killers. The Estonians maintained decorum, not dignifying such insults with a response. Suppose it helped that an elite Soviet unit of Spetznaz commandos was present and on alert...
So, how long does this complacency continue? It would be foolish to argue that no acts of anti-semitism have occured on Estonian soil. But were they performed by native Estonians? Germans? Russians? As long as Simon Wiesenthal and others of his kind are allowed to levy scurrilous charges without proof a small, proud country, known for tolerance and compromise will suffer global condemnation.
The complacency of the West allowed the Holocaust to take place. It is imperative to view the past with historical accuracy, rather than knee-jerk, outright manipulation.