Animal rights and the Holocaust

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A character in one of Singer's stories described the treatment of animals by humans as "an eternal Treblinka".[3] Similarly, the eponymous character in J. M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello compared the Nazis' treatment of Jews to methods used by the meat industry to herd and slaughter cattle.[4] The comparison began immediately after the end of World War II, when Jewish writers recounted the lack of resistance by European Jewish victims of the Holocaust, who were led to their death as "sheep to slaughter",[5] the ADL argues, however, that the subsequent use of Holocaust imagery by animal rights activists is a "disturbing development".[6]




Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz, a pacifist, conscientious objector and Holocaust victim who was sent to Dachau for "being a strong autonomously thinking personality",[9] wrote in his "Dachau Diaries" (kept at the University of Chicago Library[10]) that "I have suffered so much myself that I can feel other creatures' suffering by virtue of my own".[11] He further wrote, "I believe as long as man tortures and kills animals, he will torture and kill humans as well—and wars will be waged—for killing must be practiced and learned on a small scale".[11]

Belgian writer Marguerite Yourcenar also made the comparison, she wrote that if we had not accepted the inhumane transportation of animals to the slaughterhouses we would not have accepted the transportation of humans to the concentration camps.[12] In another article, making the same connection, she wrote that every act of cruelty suffered by thousands of living creatures is a crime against humanity.[13]




The Consistency in Compassion Campaign (CCC), a project of the Northwest Animal Rights Network of Seattle, Washington, argues that "the Holocaust stands for much more than the one event, it represents a place and time when supremacist thinking was so embedded in a culture that they were blind or apathetic to the evil that existed in their everyday world. This kind of thinking is not exclusive to just that time and place, the great blind spot of our country and Western Civilization for that matter is the mistreatment and disregard for non-human animals in nearly every capacity."[6]

PETA and the use of Holocaust imagery[edit]


PETA has twice used Holocaust imagery in its campaigns; in July 2003, a PETA television public service announcement called "They came for us at night" aired on U.S. cable networks, narrated by a man describing what it felt like to be transported without food or water.[15]



Abraham Foxman, chairman of the ADL, said the exhibition was "outrageous, offensive and takes chutzpah to new heights ... The effort by PETA to compare the deliberate systematic murder of millions of Jews to the issue of animal rights is abhorrent."[17] Stuart Bender, legal counsel for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, wrote to PETA asking them to "cease and desist this reprehensible misuse of Holocaust materials."[2] There were also differing opinions within the animal rights movement. Roberta Kalechofsky wrote: "While I sympathize with PETA's aim—and am a member of PETA—I objected to this use of the Holocaust... The agony of animals arises from different causes from those of the Holocaust. Human beings do not hate animals, they do not eat them because they hate them. They do not experiment on them because they hate them, they do not hunt them because they hate them, these were the motives for the Holocaust. Human beings have no ideological or theological conflict with animals."[7]





See also[edit]


  2. ^ a b Willoughby, Brian. "PETA Turns Holocaust into Pig Pen",, a webproject of the Southern Poverty Law Center, March 7, 2003, Retrieved August 17, 2006.
  7. ^ a b c Kalechofsky, Roberta. Animal Suffering and the Holocaust: The Problem with Comparisons Archived September 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine., Micah Publications, 2003, last accessed November 3, 2009.
  10. ^ "Guide to the Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz Dachau Diaries 1942-1945". Retrieved 2017-05-11. 
  12. ^ Marguerite Yourcenar, UNE POLITIQUE POUR DEMAIN
  13. ^ Marguerite Yourcenar, Une civilisation à cloisons étanches
  18. ^ Newkirk, Ingrid. "Apology for a tasteless comparison" Archived June 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine., Israelinsider, May 5, 2005.
  20. ^ "20 Minuten Online - Nachrichten - Panorama". Retrieved 2017-05-11. 

Further reading[edit]