Eternal Treblinka

Lantern Books, New York, 2002

Charles Patterson

Rethinking What We Eat

I was going to write about community gardens this week but I have just finished reading Charles Patterson's Eternal Treblinka and felt that a review of it was more pressing.

I do not eat meat. My partner and I have been vegetarians for 13 years. Now, there have been times when I grabbed a hamburger or hot dog out of necessity, I just couldn't face another tomato sandwich and that was the only option on the restaurant menu. This happens less often these days as I have made a major reduction in meals eaten out and increased the number of meals I take at home. I simply didn't want to eat meat, chicken or fish.

Now that I have read Patterson's work Eternal Treblinka, I am even more determined not to participate in the slaughter of millions, and in the case of chicken, billions of animals, in order to have a meal. There are alternatives. In fact, my partner and I have decided to make the move to veganism. This will not be an easy transition. There is only one restaurant in town that has vegan food on the menu so it is just as well we prefer to eat at home.

In future articles, I will look closer at what being a vegan means but today, I want to focus on Patterson's remarkable book.

The full title of this book, Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust, gives the reader an insight into the journey that they are about to undertake. The title is taken from a short story by Nobel Laureate, Isaac Bashevis Singer, "The Letter Writer". The short story's main character says, in reference to our treatment of animals: 'In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka'.

Eternal Treblinka examines the origins of human supremacy, the effects that this supremacy has had upon other creatures, including humans; describes the emergence of industrialized slaughter of both animals and people in modern time and concludes with profiles of Jewish and German animal advocates on both sides of the Holocaust. (Back jacket) Learn about Henry Ford's commitment to Eugenics and how Hitler and the Nazis considered his work a role model for them to develop their Final Solution.

If we believe that we can do as we wish with and to animals then we extend that exploitation to any race, age, gender or class of human being whom we depict as animals. We reduce their status to that of animal and this action enables us to use them in the most horrific ways. It is time we rethought our dinner plans. This book is not an easy read but is an essential one. The very nature of our society may be determined by how we treat the animals.

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