Review of In The Aftermath of Genocide - Armenians and Jews in Twentieth-Century France - Essay Example

Review of In The Aftermath of Genocide: Armenians and Jews in Twentieth-Century France In Maud Mandel's In The Aftermath of Genocide: Armeniansand Jews in Twentieth Century France book, she provides a clear insight into two different religious groups and their tragedies. Both Armenians and Jews suffered greatly during the first half of the twentieth century. There are some similarities and many differences among the two and Ms. Mandel has shed some light on the comparisons and contrasts of each minority group in France. It is important to look at the history of Armenian and Jews religious, origin, language, and economic biographies. Armenians are one of the oldest Christian communities in the world whom originated from Asia Minor in the Mediterranean. Their language is Indo-European and most were peasant farmers in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The Jewish roots can be traced to Israel and Judah but for more than two thousand years, they have been a community that has made many shifts in their dwelling centralization. They have migrated from eastern Europe to western Europe, Russia, United States, and most recently, Israel. Their primary language is Hebrew and are more of an urban population compared to Armenians. They made their living as merchants, financial lenders, and craftsmen. As different as they may have seemed they certainly shared tragic histories of modern times in the Ottoman Empire and Europe where they experienced massacres and genocide. From 1915-1923 the Armenian Genocide demolished over half of Ottoman Armenians. The Holocaust in the Second World War annihilated two thirds of Jews in Europe. There are similarities for both as far as the method of execution and the motive for killing are concerned. This violence and persecution against both groups produced refugee populations that struggled to survive and create a better existence in a new country. Before the First World War, four thousand Armenians lived in France. After the First War and Armenian genocide, over sixty five thousand evacuees sought refuge in France. For the most part, they were left alone but the Jewish population was a different story. In 1939, there were over three hundred thousand Jews living in France-half of which had emigrated since 1919. After the Germans invaded Holland and Belgium, approximately fifty thousand more Jews came into France. The Nazis had accomplices in Vichy who persecuted and slain the Jewish people. Of those in France before the war, a quarter of a million survived the German occupation and Vichy affliction were joined by thirty five thousand more immigrants from 1944 to 1949. France was the perfect place for two minority groups to settle after having sustained such violent encounters. France was modern republican, democratic country that was known for assimilating immigrants and opposing a sequestered ethnic development. They also accepted more refugees per capita than any other nation. With such a focus on integration within the French community it seems as if the Armenians and the Jews would have lost their individual communities and dissolved their heritage into an ethnoreligious whole. They did not. The Armenians had a slightly more difficult time adjusting to life in an urban setting. The rural, peasant population had to learn how to become working class citizens in the city. This was coupled with having to learn a new language, find housing, relocate relatives. They were an ethnic minority "orphans of the nation" without "passports or visas to facilitate their movements, no consulates to represent them, no treaties to protect them, nor could they return to the lands from which they came". The Jews had to rebuild their lives in the same land they were victimized. They were the "internal outsiders" in France. They suffered state sanctioned oppression that could result in the loss of citizenship, civil rights and deportation because they were Jewish. The Armenians- being of Christian origin- did not suffer any great loss. They both experienced their own type of struggles. Armenians battled to "work to put food on the table, create new families, and establish basic communal institutions." The reconstruction of Jewish life focused on the areas of; restoring rights, reintegrating surviving deportees, establishment of welfare activities, return of stolen property, punishing those who profited illegally from Vichy laws. One of the similarities between the Jews and the Armenians is the way each of their native homelands of Israel and Soviet Armenia attempted to create relationships with their community across the globe. The majority of both populations were living in France but neither were ready to go back to their homelands and live like refugees. But, eventually Soviet propaganda gave way to the Resistance which enticed about 10 percent of the French Armenians to go back home. Most of them returned to France after their ideals were squashed by the reality of the Soviet Republic. Although they still supported Soviet Armenia from a distance they kept their profile low. France was not a friend of the Soviet Union and they wanted to continue living the better life they found in Europe. The Jews were not as hushed in their support of Israel as the new state was supported by France until 1967. A small percentage of French Jews left for Israel and most did so before the Six-Day War. Many pro Zionist sensibilities were spreading among the Jews after the Holocaust. They began to feel a strong want to identify with their national homeland but ultimately suppressed it. Most decided they would rather express a transnational allegiance to Israel from afar so as not to conflict with their citizenship in France. Despite the assimilationist nature of France, both Armenians and Jews were engaged in efforts to support their respective homelands and express their minority identity. However, their approach to doing so was differed greatly. The Armenians were subdued but their family structures, lifestyle and cultural patterns, and settlement choices distinguished them from other cultures. The Jews felt bold about expressing their identity because of their integrated relationship with France. Their religious customs were the only distinctive identity that made Jewish people stand out. Though Maud Mandel's research shows that an influx of American Jewish money through fundraising, French Jews are discovering ways to make themselves visible through synagogues and Jewish specific institutions. Maud Mandel places a lot of emphasis on the similarities between the Jews and Armenians in France. She seems to have an instinctual ability to compare the two religious groups rather than highlight the differences. This is likely because the Armenians and Jews are the only two cultures whom have suffered horrific genocides and brutal slayings in the last one hundred years. They both have suffered the post traumatic stress of these vicious deeds and that has tendency to bring people closer. It is only natural to highlight their similarities particularly because they both had such a large population of their community in France. It is advantageous for us to learn about their similarities because they are of minority groups. The education about others outside of our ethnicity will help us to learn to be more tolerant and less ethnocentric about our backgrounds. Most do not know and do not understand how a community rebuilds after a genocide like the Armenians and Jews experienced. Ms. Mandel's work shows us how we can be more sensitive to other cultures and how to sympathize with those who have suffered much anguish from past events. We learn about the history of immigration and communal institutions through her writing but she paints in broad strokes. It would be nice to see a little more detail within these areas as her comparisons are indicative of the larger diaspora of Armenians and Jews. She makes it known the differences in experiences but not as much the difference in the cultures. Although they both suffered a great deal they are not one in the same. We may learn a little more with the two cultures having been fused into a discussion of the minority experience of twentieth century France rather than the only focus on the rebuilding process in the aftermath of genocide. All in all this book is necessary read for everyone. I believe it is important that we know about history and be able to respond to all minority ethnic groups especially as it pertains to such a deadly history. Ms. Mandel did a fine job highlighting how the Armenians and Jews handled their past and how they are moving full speed ahead toward their future. Read More