In one of the letters written to the Infeld group in Warsaw Einstein wrote:
"A new manner of thinking is essential if humankind is to survive."

     The 50'th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz has been marked by numerous celebrations and manifestations, whose main purpose was to learn from Auschwitz experience in order to make its repetition impossible. Therefore I am asking myself: what have I learnt?

With respect to all I have seen, heard and red, the answer seems clear: nothing. I heard people cry and I have cried with them; I saw people mourn and I have mourned with them; I have been faced with unspeakable atrocities and I was shocked and distressed. But I have learnt nothing.

     Knowledge, indeed, does not consist of emotions, nor of particular events failing to fall into a logical structure. I still ignore, under which conditions new Auschwitz's may be set up, or avoided. More, I do not know at all, what should be understood under the "Auschwitz-to-be-avoided". Surely not the specific KZ-Auschwitz, in whose place there is no new Nazi KZ to fear.

     When I wish to say something reasonable about birds, I start with the zoological definition, with the "birds-principle". I am not obliged to accept this definition and I may call it into question. One thing I cannot do: say anything reasonable about an undefined concept. When zoology still lacked the definition of birds, somebody proposing to talk about them had to supply his own definition.

As there exists no "Auschwitz-logy" nor a general "Auschwitz- Principle", I would like to suggest one:

AUSCHWITZ IS FOUNDED UPON ABSOLUTE PROPOSITIONS IN HUMAN DOMAIN, indeed upon their absurdity, which admits any arbitrary interpretation and discrimination.

Physics admits exclusively relative propositions. When we say that a stone is heavy, we imply a relation to the earth: we know that it would be quite light on the moon, that in the cosmic space its weight would totally disappear.

    In the human/social domain absolute propositions are equally absurd, but we lack an authority, a humanistic Galileo, or Einstein, to reinforce this truth. Somebody proposing a physical theory based upon absolute propositions would simply make himself ridiculous. Doing it in the human/social he would have all chances to found an Ideology, a Religion, an Empire. An Ideology, a Religion, un Empire which would be based upon the Auschwitz- Principle, whose laws, principles and virtues would necessarily point towards an Auschwitz.

I realize that I imply with these words a whole philosophic system, a "Humanistic Relativism" without being able to justify here its principles. An interested reader may find their discussion in the site:

RELATIVISTIC DIALECTIC

I shall present here an example which shows the nonsense of the absolute classification criterion "Jew" and of the absolute proposition: "This man is a Jew".

From the race point of view it is an obvious nonsense, as nobody has ever observed a "Jewish" gene.

One may certainly have a Jewish culture, speak jiddish, hebrew or ladino and tell Jewish jokes. However, culture is clearly a relativistic concept. Nazis may have used it as an indicator, but never as an essential, absolute criterion of discrimination. A large part of Jews murdered in Auschwitz had little or nothing to do with the Jewish culture. Some were catholic priests, some have heard for the first time from the Nazis or from the blackmailers that they were Jews.

The criterion of Jewish religion is equally absurd. According to the Jewish law is Jew who has a Jewish mother, or who has been converted by a Jewish rabbin. However, in order to be sure that my mother is Jewish, I have to ascertain that she had herself a Jewish mother, or had been converted by a Jewish rabbin. The same holds of course for the converting rabbin. A clear case of a vicious circle.

Consequently, the absolute concept "Jew" is empty and, as such, may get any arbitrary meaning. Heidrich understood it perfectly when he declared: "Wer Jude ist, entscheide ich" - "It's me who decides who is a Jew".

If we want to avoid Auschwitz in the future, we must abolish situations in which a human being may classify and discriminate other ones upon absolute, arbitrary criteria. In other words, we must extend the Relativistic Reason over the human/social domain and may admit only relative, demonstrable propositions in this domain as well. This calls, of course, into question nearly all established ideological and political structures, which are based upon absolute principles.

We live in an Auschwitz-friendly world and if we want to avoid Auschwitz in the future, we have to call into question its essential principles.

But do we want it really?