How come Hitler doesn't have a national holiday, but Columbuis does?

Question

Hitler wrote in his book about how Christopher Columbuis was responsible for mass genocide of the Aborginals, and how that inspired him.

For of those who do not know, Columbus did torture, kill, and was responsible for the genocide of the Arawak people living in the region that he 'discovered'.

Answer 1

Really, Columbus doesn't even deserve a holiday. What did he do? He wasn't even the first Westerner to get to the New World, and he didn't even know where he was! (he thought he was in India)
As for Hitler, mass murderers generally aren't considered worthy of a holiday.

Answer 2

Hitler obviously does not deserve a holiday.

Columbus gets one for discovering the "new world". Sure, he wasn't the first one there, but the other guys hadn't exactly made it known, so the discovery still goes to Columbus because he brought that information back and it became common knowledge.

As to his treatment of the locals, that was normal for the time really, sad though that is. Personally, I've never heard that he was responsible for any genocidal activities. Brutality, sure. But genocide is a pretty strong word. If I am uninformed, fine.

But essentially his holiday is to celebrate the one great accomplishment of his life, a world altering discovery.

Answer 3

While Columbus is no saint... he was not the mass murder of Indians that revisionist historians have made him out to be. Hitler was most definitely responsible for the Killing of 6 million Jews and his aggression led to the start of World War II.

Columbus deserves his day in October. Most of what people were taught about him is wrong. To get the correct story I recommend reading "Columbus's 4th Voyage" A great book and the best history I have read in the past 5 years.

Answer 4

well for Columbus he did brought the death of the Arawak locals of all the islands in Caribbean and did not come to the USA only costarica Porto Rico Bahamas Mexico Colombia Jamaica Hitler killed more than 30 million people which about 6 were Jewish Colombo named his reason of the trip with Greek names on the islands Colombo is a nick name not a real name and the reason that wanted to go to India westerly was the Turks now the catholics were saying the earth is flat but the Greek sailors knew better than that !!

Answer 5

Wow. People need to stop reading Wilkipedia for their information. It is now known that the number of people living in tribes like the Arawak was greatly overstated by the Spanish. The military men wanted to "prove" how great they were by the numbers of enemy they defeated. So they lied about the numbers.

The Arawaks and other people like them were constantly at war with neighboring tribes. They were also agrarian. This does not lend itself to vast numbers of people available to be killed by Columbus.

Was Columbus a perfect man? Not hardly. Did he practice genocide? Hardly. Smallpox is really what laid Arawak numbers low. Columbus was ignorant of the natives he found, and instead of learning about them, he felt they should be converted to Christianity. If you remember, this happened right after the Spaniards tossed the Muslims out of Spain. So converting the natives and capturing slaves were big on the minds of the Spanish.

Just because history was exaggerated and Hitler believed it, does not make Columbus the bad guy here. Could he have handled the Arawaks better? Of course. He was ignorant in that respect. Was he a mass murderer on scale of Hitler? Only a false revisionist would think that. Was he mass murderer, only on a smaller scale? Again, only a false revisionist would think so.

People need to start viewing history based on the knowledge the people had who were living at the time. Failure to do so makes them just like Columbus. We are supposed to learn from their mistakes.

It reminds me of going to a Prince concert and seeing Lincoln described as a racist. Lincoln was pretty far advanced for the 1860's. I wouldn't castigate him for not believing exactly as we do in the 21st century. We have 140 more years of knowledge. And, Lincoln's attitudes changed as he learned.

Columbus has a holiday because he showed much courage in crossing the ocean in a puny boat. He was lousy administrator, but a brave explorer. The fact that people who followed to the new world later were ruthless in their hunt for slaves, doesn't mean Columbus is responsible for those who came later. It would be like blaming Truman for something Ford did. Hitler deserves the ash heap of history. Only false revisionists would have Columbus join him.

Answer 6

Hitler was responsible for genocides, torture, and war. Normally holidays aren't given to those kinds of people. As for Columbis, he doesn't deserve a holiday. I'm not sure why he has one named after him.

Answer 7

No wonder you are so confused, reading Hitlers book what was its name Mien Kempt, or something like that. I have never head that Columbus did mass murder. I think you are most confused. Why would you even asked a question of this nature. Makes me think your IQ must be very low, just above a monkey or chimp. Or just below theirs.

Answer 8

If you don't like Columbus, go back to Europe or Africa, unless you are Native American and have a good reason to dislike him. White or black Americans who dislike Columbus are prize hypocrites.

Answer 9

Why don't you celebrate on his birthday next Fri?

Get a flag and march around the neighborhood.

Answer 10

mass murderers may make headlines but they don't get holidays named for them...as you can see, explorers rate a holiday.