Holocaust Day today

[The Baron]

Nice sentiments.

The best memorial is to ensure it is not repeated.

Indeed it is. Sadly, the Western world decided that the 800,000 Tutsis who were killed by Hutu militias in just 100 days in Rwanda in 1994 were not quite worth saving from genocide. Unlike the cruelly threatened oil in Kuwait, which the UN decided was worth risking military intervention to save in 1991.

A fantastic point as well Andrew. It DOES still happen. (Rwanda, Cambodia, East Timor, the former Yugoslavia etc etc etc etc)

As well as not forgetting, let us not turn a blind eye.

[RED-DOG]

The only requirement for evill to take place, is that good men do nothing

[Triple X]

nice post

Thanks

[b4matt]

may they all r.i.p.- ty red, it's good to be reminded

[The Truth]

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out.

Martin Niemöller

It is everyones responsibility to sto speak up and stand up to tyranny wherever it occurs.

We all hold the history of the future in our hands.

[yt]

Did you see the Steven Fry "Who do you think you are?" Program this week? He found out some of his relatives died in a concentration camp. Very moving program.
RIP

[zelda]

In the final year of Uni I did a module on holocaust literature, which focused mainly on the testimonies of survivors.  Many dropped out of the class because the truth was so unbearable.  The voices of those who could not tell their own story was etched in those that could.  I went on to select the topic for my undergrad dissertation - it was heartbreaking…  I went to Beth Shalom as part of my studies and spoke to survivors, but in reality there were no survivors from the nazi holocaust.  No survivor could walk away from what they had witnessed and ever be the same…  As a species we are responsible for so much pain and suffering, it is because of this I sometimes feel ashamed to be human...

[AndrewT]

One question which I have never seen adequately explained (though I'm no expert on the subject) is what made the Nazis commit the horrors they did. These were no evil monsters summoned up from hell - they were ordinary Germans who, prior to the mid 1930s, would have been ordinary people, leading ordianry lives, albeit under severe economic stress.

Until this question is properly answered, I don't think we can ever be certain of preventing it from happening again.

[RED-DOG]

It was all the result of propaganda and brain washing, generated by one mad man in a position of power

He surrounded himself with a few other mad men and gave them absolute power power

The vast majority of the German people had no idea what was going on

The vast majority of other world leaders did

[AndrewT]

This wasn't just a few mad men - the SS comprised 950,000 men. The officers at the concentration camps sent millions to their deaths. In order for them to be able to sleep at night, they would have had to rationalise their actions.

On July 7th in London last year we saw what an assistant in a primary school was capable of, given the right encouragement. He would have rationalised his actions before catching the train to London that morning.

Would I ever find myself in a situation where I had rationally concluded that sending Jews to a gas chamber, or blowing up commuters on a tube train, was the correct course of action to take? Could I be sure that I never would?

[zelda]

Hitler wanted to create a perfect race - those deemed racially inferior had no place in his plans.  He gained the wealth of those he persecuted and used it to gain the support of his country.  Sadly it was not just him and a few others, his dream could not have been executed without the support of many.  I spoke to a woman who had lived peacefully in Germany up until Hitler came into power.  Her father was stoned to death by his neighbours, herself, her brother and mother sent to Auschwitz. She survived the war, along with her brother.  She speaks on the subject often to spread the word.  Her brother could not, he was a member of the Sondercommando, the special unit who worked in the gas chambers and crematorium.  He could never speak of what he witnessed and has cut himself off from the world…

[RED-DOG]

When I say a few I mean a small % of the population

It would be easy to find that number of fanatics in any country

The majority of police in this, and most other countrys, still believe that all Gypsies are criminals

I'm often invited to speak at police diversity training days, and they will freely admit this to me (but not in public)

It dosen't make them bad people, just badly informed