Still No Apology For Holocaust Comments

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By By Keith Eldridge

Summary

Jewish leaders are stepping up their call for personal apologies from state lawmakers after comments comparing stem cell research to the Holocaust and the Nazis.

Story Published: Mar 23, 2005 at 9:29 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 11:52 AM PDT

Still No Apology For Holocaust Comments
OLYMPIA - Jewish community leaders are stepping up their call for personal apologies from state lawmakers who compared stem cell research to the Holocaust and the Nazis.

Those legislators are standing firm.

On March 15, Rep. Jim Clements, R-Selah, said, "The Jewish people suffered in the history for science: the 'Super Race.' "

The debate on the floor of the state House of Representatives was over a bill on embryonic stem cell research. It turned into a warning from some Republicans that this is what the Nazis did in the Holocaust.

"And all those theorems of a better life in the 1930s all come to pass," Clements continued. "So the question is, I think, fundamentally, is science always right? Do we have something better when we take something, when we take a life? I don't think so."

Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, said: "Life sciences, biotech research - it sounds warm; sounds progressive. The potential is there, we hope -- we're betting on it. But the cold look of history really does require sobriety. 60 years ago in Nazi Germany, it was state policy in order to perfect humanity it would be required to selectively destroy humanity. And the medical experiments at Auschwitz were carried out for that explicit purpose. We all say, 'no, that's not us, that would never happen, that's not why we're doing this.' "

"I think, what a 'brave new world,' " said Rep. Joyce McDonald, R-Puyallup. "And when we look back on history and how abhorred we were at some of the experiments that were done by the Third Reich in promoting that brave new world, I would say today that we need to stop and we need to be cautious that we don't run too far ahead of ourselves. And I would ask you today to take a few more minutes and not rush this through because I don't think any of us truly understand how serious this issue is."

Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park, said, "I literally rose to my feet with my mouth hanging open." Schual-Berke is Jewish and sponsor of the bill. She was shocked.

On March 15, she interrupted the floor debate: "Mr. Speaker, I can't quite think of the words, except that I feel the analogy to what happened during the Holocaust is inappropriate in comparison to the lifesaving research on cells. This is not analogous to the horrors of the Holocaust, and I object."

"Such an analogy is offensive and insensitive," said Rabbi Moshe Kletenik. His parents survived the Holocaust but the rest of his family did not.

The Rabbi wants an apology because he says it damages the memory of the 6 million Jews who were exterminated.

"To say that that is morally equivalent to the premeditated, brutal genocide of millions of people, is insensitive to the memory of the victims and terribly insensitive to those who suffered through that terrible period and to the families who have seen their suffering," he said.

The Republican minority leader Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, did apologize on the House floor, but the individual members have not apologized.

The Republican caucus says there will be no comments from their members, not from Jim Clements, not from Joyce McDonald and not from Glenn Anderson.

Rep. Schual-Berke said, "There is an important missing piece here and that is that those folks who made those really terrible remarks have refused to apologized for them. I think that's up to the people of this state to be concerned about."

The legislation itself passed the House and has moved on. The controversy has not.

Several Jewish leaders say they've met with some of those lawmakers, but are not satisfied with the results of those meetings.