On January 27, 1945, 75-years ago this month, the Soviet Army pried open the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland and liberated some 7,000 emaciated prisoners. About 58,000 others had been hurriedly marched westward before the Soviet Army approached. Auschwitz, the German word for the Polish town of Oswiecim, was the site of the largest Nazi concentration camp during WWII. It consisted of a concentration camp, a labor camp, and large gas chambers and crematoria. More than 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz between 1940-1945. Some 1.1 million of them were killed. Nine in 10 were Jews.
During WWII, the Nazi regime imprisoned an estimated 15-20 million people who they perceived as a political threat or inferior, especially Jews. They were held in camps and ghettos across Europe and subjected to abominable conditions, brutality, and murder in what has become known as the Holocaust.
Auschwitz was the largest of these death camps and was divided into three main camps: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Auschwitz III. Auschwitz I housed prisoners in abandoned Polish army barracks. Some were subjected to inhumane medical experiments carried out by SS doctors. Auschwitz II, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, held the greatest number of prisoners and also housed large gas chambers and crematoria. Auschwitz III was a work camp that housed prisoners working at a synthetic rubber factory. Other smaller sub-camps also existed.
The Nazis experimented with Zyklon B gas to kill prisoners at Auschwitz I. These tests were deemed successful and the program greatly expanded at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When new deportees arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, they immediately underwent selection. Some were saved to be used as forced labor, while others went directly to the gas chambers. This process tore families apart, and separated family members would typically never see one another again.
One such family was the Guttmann family. Irene Guttmann and her twin brother Rene were living in Prague with their parents when German soldiers arrested Irene’s father. He was sent to Auschwitz where he was killed in December 1941. The twins and their mother were deported to Theresienstadt ghetto and later to Auschwitz where their mother died. The 5-year-old twins were separated and subjected to horrific medical experiments under Dr. Josef Mengele. Their story is just one of many that occurred during the Holocaust.
On January 18, 1945, as the Soviet Army approached, the Nazis abandoned Auschwitz. The SS tried to hide evidence of the crimes committed at the camp by burning documents and blowing up several crematoria. The ‘healthy’ prisoners, numbering about 58,000, set off westward on a death march. Very few of them survived. The remaining prisoners, some 7,000, were too sick and starving to march and left to die in the camp.
Rene Guttman was herded onto a truck to be sent to his death, but Dr. Mengele countermanded the order, saying that only he could kill his twins. With this order, both Rene and Irene remained in the camp.
On that bitterly cold morning of January 27th, prisoners huddled in their barracks. “We heard a grenade exploding near the entrance area,” recalled a former prisoner. “We looked out and saw some Soviet reconnaissance soldiers approaching, guns in their hands. The soldiers came up and said: ‘You are free at last.’”
The Guttmann twins recalled liberation day. “I remember walking out of Auschwitz. I do remember trying to look back and around me to see if I could find Irene because I was leaving this place. I did see her, but we had to march on. There was shooting all around us…then we were surrounded by Russians dressed in white uniforms, that was the liberation,” said Rene. Irene, who was too weak to walk, was carried by a Polish peasant woman to her home.
One year later, a charity organization arranged for Irene to come to the United States along with other war orphans, where she was adopted. She wondered if she would ever see her brother Rene again. With the help of her adoptive family, they managed to locate Rene, who was living in Prague. The family adopted him as well, reuniting the twins in 1950.
When evidence of the atrocities committed at Auschwitz and other concentration camps came to light, the world was shocked. Decades later, the 2005 United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution naming January 27th, the day that Auschwitz was liberated, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. To learn more about the Holocaust, including survivor stories, photographs, and other related documents, see our Holocaust Collection on Fold3.
Never Again is now.
Never again is forever . This should not of happened in the first place.
Never again is absolutely now. And people say I’m crazy for saying this. Why do we not learn from our history?
I remember the Schwartz family who were our neighbors in Anaheim,Ca. Mr. Schwartz had a painting Business. I hired him and was talking to him as he was painting. I then noticed the tattoo on his arm. He said as a young child he was in Auswitz.His whole family was murdered. He some how survived.I remember feeling sick at the thought of what this man had endured.Never forget.
I am so glad to hear that there is a memorial date that has been given to the her that was Auschwitz and the Holocaust….. rightly so, given the stories I have heard and despite the fact that my family is almost entirely Christian my father was a US bomber pilot in World War II and even he could barely bring himself to discuss the war and the conditions that these prisoners and victims of war suffered through… I must say I find it highly disturbing that there are still to this day naysayers who don’t believe that the holocaust actually occurred or blatantly deny it!!!! I happen to of worked at a country club that was exclusively Jewish membership and I remember very well on some of the older members seeing tattoos and numbers tattooed on their arms…. after having learned of the holocaust in school there was no question in my mind as to whether or not the holocaust actually happened as some of the club members but recall the holocaust they would remember the shattering of their family and sheer terror of being children in the concentration camps or ghettos…. National if not worldwide day should’ve been established decades ago!!! Now, as my children’s generation they remember the worst event of their lifetime being the day the world trade center twin towers fell, the capital building was bombed as well as doomed Airplanes. I will never forget that day but I’m also old enough to remember the Vietnam war the war in Iraq in the 90s and stories of World War II that I could barely get my father to speak about…. even as United States Army pilot he was all too aware and I will never forget him calling me when the trade centers came down crying on the phone telling me it was the worst thing he had ever witnessed in his life since Pearl Harbor!!! Personally I think the entire world should hold January 27 as a Day of remembrance for those who suffered so greatly and unnecessarily….. maybe forever rest in peace…
So well said, Melissa! How could any fool deny the holocaust. Democracy, not Socialism is our pledge to never let that happen again.
I totally agree with you the world should have January 27th as a day of remembrance. Our children and grandchildren should be learning about this in school.
I think your idea is awesome. We need to unite in our remembrances and sorrows.
Talk about run on sentences… I reside in Boca Raton, Florida and finally that idiotic Spanish River High School BLACK Principle was FIRED. The Principle that stated the Holocaust did NOT occur. Right, I guess Slavery didn’t exist EITHER.
You stated that the original comment contained run on sentences. Which is true statement. But you must admit that your first sentence was a run on. And the job you were referring to is actually spelled “principal”. Why did you feel the need to emphasize the fact that the principal was black? What does the person’s color have to do with anything?
As a Retired Air Force Veteran, thank you for your transparency of your views to the Holocost, 9-11, and other tragedies. My dad was a Crew Chief on the B-29 bomber used during WWII. He didn’t talk much about it but I know the pride he carried when he did share. During his time in the service he and my mom lost their first child due to him chocking of a bean. They never recovered fully from the pain. I was their 7th and growing up and as an adult I could see their pain every anniversary of his birthday or death and the holidays. I had anger however toward my dad because of some of the way he treated me growing up. You see he suffered from what now we know as PTSD. His outbursts of anger made me develop an inferior, stupid belief I could not do things as good as others. But this year 19 years after both parents died and 18 years after 9-11 where I developed my PTSD, I had a dream that I now understand about his DISEASE and able to start healing. I was on duty on 9-11 for the Northeast Air Defense where we received the call from FAA to investigate a possible hijack. Well we all know how that transitioned to the full scale attack on the US and I blamed myself for 2 years for thousands of people dying. Today I feel liberated as I attended my first 9-11 ceremony last September in Boston meeting family members who lost loved ones and now call me family. Yes I still am saddened at the events of 9-11 but to consider the loss of millions during the Holocaust and the atrocities committed during the WWII, I am almost embarrassed that we Americans living such a plush over paid society do not appreciate what others have suffered through for the world to be a better place. My prayers to Jewish community and every race discriminated against for any reason that God will restore love to them and I leave my anger and bitterness down for His wrath to come on them.
[…] 75th anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp liberation is this week. See this post on the Fold3 […]
My Grandfather was captured in Nazi occupied Paris, July 1943, and sent to Auschwitz. He was murdered there. My father was born a few months later. I consider him a hero, because had he not hidden my very pregnant grandmother, my father would not have been born, and I wouldn’t be here. He was a french national, french resistance, and I wish I could have known my grandfather. There were roughly 900 men, women and infants on the same train as my grandfather, and only a few dozen survived. People of all nationalities, even someone from Mexico, while the rest were European. They had only standing room, on a cattle train, with one bucket for the restroom in full public view. They carried their suitcases and belongings with them, as they went to be sorted, where someone decided if they lived and were put to work in the camp, where they faced starvation, burying the dead from the gas chambers, and other work, or death. I pray my Grandfather didn’t suffer. People need to remember this, the medical experiments, the atrocities and brutality they did to human beings in the name of science, prejudice and cruelty. To be clear, I do not mean the Germans, I mean the Nazi’s who were at Auschwitz. I find myself like millions of others, with their loved ones ripped away, never to be known in their lives. We MUST remember, to never let it happen again. My own nephew told me that they were taught this didn’t happen as horrifically as it did. When I sat down and talked to him, about Auschwitz and his great grandfather, and what other people went through, he was almost in tears.If we don’t acknowledge, and understand from our past, these horrific events will continue to repeat themselves. Never again. My prayers to all the loved ones lost, and all their families.
Who taught your nephew that it did not happen as horrifically as it did. Was this in school? How can people, who did not experience the Holocaust, deny its authenticity?
Hi Mary, This was in an Ontario School, and I was very upset. This was my Grandfather, so I sat him down and talked to him, so he would understand at a personal level. I didn’t mention the medical experiments and those horrors, he was too young, even so, he was in tears … anyone that doesn’t believe needs to look at the footage taken and see the … I don’t even have words to describe the condition of the survivors, other than walking skeletons. To anyone doubting, I have looked at the train manifests from Paris to Auschwitz, we are talking entire families here… from grandparents, parents, children and infants, all murdered. I also don’t appreciate my Grandfather and others murdered being compared to what trump or others did.. .there is nothing else that has been this bad, and nothing else should ever happen again. It devalues what our loved ones went through. I do recognize we have to be vigilant as a whole and not allow this to ever happen again, and I do believe if we have a Remembrance date of Jan 27, perhaps we can remember our loved ones, and bring attention to what the dark side of humanity is capable of.
The Nazi program began with words, anger and resentment . The persecution began with small steps. Never again means now.
Thankyou for sharing your story. I am in New Zealand. Via Facebook I will start advertising January 27. We must never ever let this happen again regardless of any differences.
@ Stephanie, I can understand that the atrocities at Auschwitz have not been matched. though I believe that the reason that Trump is being compared to Hitler and the death camps is that we are seeing the first steps being taken by the Trump administration with the camps at the US and Mexico border. the dehumanizing of other people that are not from the US or are not white.
Yup.. it sure could happen again !
A remembrance day should be established for all victims and survivors of these in fathomable crimes by tge likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and the list goes on and on. Despicable scum, all of them.
You’re so right. We must also remember the others who were with our relations in the camps, and before. Like the Armenians of WWI , the Gypsy’s, Jehovah Witnesses, mentally & physically handicapped, the list goes on & on of the Holocaust. And AFTER!!
When I was in my late teens I worked as a Guide at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. There I got to know an older gentleman who worked as a maintenance technician on the captured German submarine, the U505. Noticing his heavy accent, and being proud of my German background, I asked him about his background and told him how I’d like someday to visit my homeland. He was polite but was noticeably reluctant to discuss his past. One warm day, as I was helping him to repair a hatch mechanism, his shirt cuff pulled up and I saw the numbers tattooed on his arm. Never have I been so embarrassed as I thought back over our interactions and how thoughtless I had been. I’ve never forgotten that experience.
I have been to Berlin, primarily to see the museums of the holocaust and to learn more of the history of that dreadful time. The German people have gone to great lengths to avoid the memories and any signs of that are mostly gone. The one museum only has symbols and not real photos to view. I have not been to Auschwitz so I cannot comment on what’s there.
My Paaternal grand father was a Prisoner of both World Wars.
First time he was held on Somes Island Wellington Harbour New Zealand.
His name ,Bruno Johannes Globke,he was interned as a Prisoner of the British on the pretext of being a dangerous man who was scheming to blow up British Ships in our Capitals Harbour. Bruno was Jew from East Prussia.
Second time WW2 Bruno was captured off a Ship owned by Arnold Berstein, this was 200 miles of the Coast of England late 1939.He was Interned on the Surrey Race Course prior to being shipped to the Infamous Internment Camp at Red Rock Ontario Canada,
This camp lasted for eighteen months, and held many Jews and Merchant Seaman, some Political prisoners,plus many Nazis,the Jews were a constant target in this Camp, this culture was the war on the camp lasted only eighteen months.
Any injured or or I’ll prisoners were repatriated,at this stage my Grandfather wet missing for ten unexplained years ,and resurfaced coming into Blaine Washington on a Refuge Visa 1953 never to have been heard of again.
Can anyone help me with information on these Events Please.
There is a very good museum at Berchtesgaden in the German Alps that pulls no punches about the atrocities of the Nazis.
I have been to auschwitz. It is a very amazing memorial. Very tastefully done. With not just pictures of those who perished there but also where they were from, what they did, etc. there was so much to see and so many things that were so overwhelming and shocking….
General Eisenhower made sure GIs and local residents were shown the camps. He knew that if there weren’t lots of eye-witnesses to what was there, “some bastard would come along and deny it happened.” A man who knew his history—-in advance. Today, those bastards are among us. Children aren’t taught real history in school anymore. Needs to change.
You are so right. We have to teach them real history!
Thanks you all for your compassion and caring. Many of my father’s family were murdered in Auschwitz, I had only one cousin and her mother survive that dreadful place, both had since passed on. I am here to tell you about it as my father left Poland in the 20’s way before Hitler, to go to Israel, as to him it was his home and he wanted to help build it up. Only two sisters and a couple of cousins joined him, the rest all perished in that hell hole, except that cousin and her mother as I mentioned, it was a big family of 7 brothers and sisters and many other relatives, they had a flour mill… all were murdered, their possessions and land were stolen. My father grieved his family every day of his life. I happened to pass thru Germany years ago when traveling to other countries in Europe, at that time I didn’t encounter
any public monument commemorating the horrors inflicted on so many millions of people. I asked few German people how they felt about that experience, not one person was willing to talk to me about it. They just wanted to ignore it and shove it under the rug. So it’s good for me to read your thoughts, compassion and caring for the many victims. God bless you all.
Varda, I am so sorry to hear of the decimation of your family and their life work. It is almost inconceivable that people can be so cruel but there seemed to be a collective madness at work headed by an insane bully – Hitler. We must remain forever vigilant to ensure that we can say “Never again.” I have spoken to many young Germans who, although not involved in those dreadful days bear the shame and anger of Hitler’s actions. (I have been told that in Germany it is an offence to claim that the Holocaust did not happen) And, sadly for all the mothers of young German boys who died because of Hitler’s mad vision, I have seen that there are almost no memorials in Germany of their sacrifice. Whatever the reason for their deaths – they were still deaths – and millions of mothers grieved. And in 2019 I did see one small suburban memorial to non-combatant war-dead. Vigilance!
My mother was German and lived in Nazi Germany during WW2.She made it very clear to myself and my brother what happened during the Holocaust.She wanted us to know what racism and genocide was so that it would never happen again.It was her legacy to me and I continue it by telling the story to my children.
I was stationed in Nuremberg with the U.S. Army from 1980-1982. I had a buddy in my unit who invited me to come with him and his native German girlfriend to visit her grandfather. During their conversation in German (I was new in the country) her grandfather said something to my friend and he said he was going to get something to show me. When he returned he held the armband Nazi Swastika in his hands.The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I felt as if Iwas almost sure that I was going to be arrested and taken to prison. He told my friend that he had joined the German Army but did not agree with what Hitler did to the Jews. Whether I believed him or not that was eye-opening. I had always had an interest in World history but never would have imagined to come face to face with it. What you have endured with your family murdered by the most vile monsters on the face of the earth is despicable and incomprehensible.May God give you peace!
I am 74 and remember learning of this atrocity as a child in school. Real truth has been eliminated in our current school systems being replaced with lies and Socialistic views. I am saddened to my core. Trying to erase such heinous crimes is necessary for the elitists to get a further toe-hold on our country, and as always, they begin with the youngest, most impressionable ones. Pray that we never forget those who suffered in the Holocaust else history repeat itself.
It’s time for us to stand up against the leftists and socialists who are trying to take our freedom.
How can such atrocities happen? How can human beings become objectified by others to a degree whereby they are no longer perceived as human. We must all be vigilant and challenge discrimination and social injustice wherever it lurks. R.I.P all those who suffered so cruelly. All that is left now is to ensure history is never repeated.
I would say that calling a whole group of people “deplorables” merely because of their political views is a start.
I agree with you 100%! Patriotism has faded and we need to add
TRUE History & Civics as mandatory courses throughout all of our educational institutions whether public or private! We also need to teach logic and discernment skills because presently the world is
overloaded with false information, dissension, lies and even hate.
It’s dangerous to democracy.
We need a revolution to overtake History but also other teaching in our schools and parents need to start at home. Teaching what’s not taught. Values, love, history from Holocost and hard work. How to respect ourselves and others. Increase the war on drugs and liberalistic thinking that tear down the very essence of the foundation of this great country.
I see again where people have written remembrances of the holocaust.All of the incidents seem to be isolated but the truth is much more devastating. Nazism was total,there was no place you could run,no place you could hide no court process no mediator. You could not go to another country to escape Nazism everything throughout Europe was controlled ,the effect was devastating to know that it was only a matter of time until you were taken,and you would be taken,that was the overall effect of Nazism. To remove all hope from an entire world was the greatest evil perpetrated by The German Reich and supported by The Good Germans.
I was in the Medical Service Corps in the 101st Airborne. During training, we were shown some of the medical experiment/research films the Germans made in the concentration camps. They were shown for medical training with little detail of the circumstances under which they were made.
Carl Sell, I would suggest you reread history. The National Socialist Party was a right-wing nationalist party – nothing leftist or socialist as we see in the democratic-socialist countries of Western European today. We have to understand the difference to see our real enemies are our former allies in Russia, China, etc.
Hitler was a Socialist, not matter how you disguise him. He wanted to share everyone else’s good fortune with his chosen people. Made a pact with the Communists and then broke it when he thought he could take their territory. Think like its 1930ish, not today. Although today;s socialists are just as dangerous. Don’t be misled by elitists anointing titles. Today’s European Socialists are just as dangerous. Far cries from our democratic society here in the USA>
Thank you. Modern day socialism is very different from the type esposed by the Nazi party and Hitler. They were right wing extremists whose words fell on highly fertile ground.
The Russians were and are communist, a whole different story.
I was a school aged child, but I remember the whole Red Scare, a Red under every bed time headed by senator McCarthy.
I don’t need a history lesson, Thank You. I was born during the Depression and remember WWII. What part of Socialist don’t you understand. Fascist and 1930s Socialists were one in the same. Lets just agree that whatever wing Hitler flew with was terribly wrong.
I am reading “The Holocaust of Bullets”. Lets say that I am reading and crying my way through the book. i have always been aware of the Holocaust, but the atrocities that happened are tearing me apart. I will finish the book despite the horror that I’m reading about. It is written by a Catholic priest who has spent a lot of time doing research about the Holocaust. He is to be commended for his perseverance and most of all, for his compassion for the victims. Never forget and Never again.
I’ve been to Auschwitz as a tourist. We were only there about an hour and a half, but that was enough. One thing I will never forget is the baby clothing on display, and the hair cut from victim’s heads to be used as wigs for Germans and another huge display of all their suitcases and trunks. We also saw the straw mats laid on the floor of one room where those who worked slept. Another display was a big pile of personal items such as combs and little cases they carried their few things in. We even saw a few of the ovens with ashes still in them. The Germans intended to use everything. That was in 2000. It may be different now.
The Holocaust MUST be added to every school’s history curriculum class beginning at least in middle school and repeated in high school…in BOTH parochial and all public schools!!
As generations begin to go by, the events of the Holocaust begins to fade. We must not let it be forgotten!
Trump
Hit the nail on the head there.
What has he got to do with it?
He is treating people in an inhumane manner. Putting children through torment.
hi I visited the camp 4 years ago and was shocked at the size of it.Do people know that all these main camps have subcamps. I recenctly visited warsaw in September and went to Pawiak prison and gestapo headquarters where my grandmother her daughter and husband were jailed . 2 of them were executed by the Nazis and my auntie survived the war. My father was taken for forced labour to germany a subcamp of dachau. His brother an Ak fighter fled Poland from Warsaw as not to get captured by the Russians.
Many of the responses state “Never again means now.” Others have stated “Never again means forever”. What do you say about the camps that Trump established for the immigrants he housed and separated the CHILDREN from their parents even at very young ages. Never again is happening now in the United States. We may not have gas chambers and cremation chambers. Instead we have emotional terror and fear of never seeing you parents or children because of separations.
What about the camps in Bosnia? Never again is now in full actions.
The phrase is a direct comment on the growing fascist shadow sweeping the world. ..a specific response to Trump &company’s actions at the border. Alert a antifascistas.
The phrase is a direct comment on the growing fascist shadow sweeping the world. ..a specific response to Trump &company’s actions at the border.
You are quite the idiot. Your information is skewed to say the very least
Trump didn’t “start” the detention centers and the kids there have it way better than poor children in Appalachia or most kids in foster care. You don’t like him? Fine. Comparing to the atrocities of the Holocaust? Dispicible!
Ad hominem attacks are a fallacy in any debate or argument. Attacking the person’s character, or calling them names, does nothing to further one’s point. It only muddies the waters. In a valid argument, one should use correct spelling. The correct spelling of your last word is “despicable”. The truth is that mandatory detention was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996. It was the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act” of 1996. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/illegal_immigration_reform_and_immigration_responsibility_act
Your “facts” are disinformation. Just like Hitler made use of to take over. While there are several issues involved, there’s not time to discuss them all.
One of the issues: About children in cages: The children were separated during the ‘holding’ time in the camps to keep them from being preyed upon by the ‘coyotes’’. Their parents were nearby. They were not locked in cages. It was a typical holding pen that you see in any similar facility. They were free to play and be with each other. The photo that circulated was of Obama’s facility.
The election is all about who’s in power. The Dems want socialism (which has destroyed every country that tried it, because it is not for the people, though they lie and tell you it is (do your own research and you’ll find out. )).
The word social – ism implies it’s for the people, but only the elite make money from it. The rest of us suffer. Taxes go up, rights go down, and the government tells us what to do in schools, businesses, and communication. Don’t be fooled. It’s not about you or even society. It’s about the super elite who won’t be happy until they have all the power and most of the money.
Recall the story of the pilgrims. We left England to get away from the king who wanted to control everything, including our faith.
We created One Nation under God which led to freedom, private enterprise and listening to the voices of the people.
We’ve accomplished things gradually, eliminated slavery, given the vote to women, and defended and supported the oppressed in hundreds of other countries through our prosperity and believing in the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
How to be informed: ignore every headline, and without prejudice, find the facts.
Don’t stop until you examine both sides. Sensationalism has created violence and hatred, and down deep, none of us wants to be part of that.
Sorry I ran out of space on the imperfections of the Repub desire for power … won’t let me add more words
Trump did not establish any facilities for detaining illegal immigrants. Check your facts. They were built by Obama, even the cages for children were there when Trump took office. Families maybe temporarily separated, but all of them arrived at the border and crossed it if their own accord. There is no forced labor, no starvation, no murder.
My birthday is January 27th and I am so proud to share it with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Visit the Maltz Museum in suburban Cleveland. The photos and text are quite
stunning- not censored at all. I don’t remember Eisenhower’s quote,but it runs something like this:” May the world never forget or deny what has happened here.”
Why can’t we find a leader like him any more?
Regarding anti- Trump comments on your post: why is it necessary to say things like “shame on you”. It is not shameful to use our freedom of speech.
This kind of response, not applying this to the current responder, can indicate an induced emotional reaction, not necessarily an informed conclusion. News headlines are written to cause emotional reactions. That’s how news sources make their money: keep you coming back to hear more.
That can be dangerous when we need to be serious about life and death issues.
But, I welcome that danger, because it is a priceless characteristic of freedom of speech in America. You won’t find it in socialism when the government controls what you say, what you spend, and how you educate your children.
Get beyond the headlines and go to the original sources. You’ll be amazed at the lies and disinformation you find.
WE DID PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
I can’t believe that someone had the audacity to invoke Donald Trump’s name in relation to leadership. This is not only inappropriate it is disgraceful. Shame on you for your ignorance and misguided loyalty to Trump.
Please don’t bring politics into this conversation about a devastating event. You only encourage people like Paul to tickle his keyboard. Things are going well in our beloved country. Lets keep it that way.
Americas do not treat people like the border immigrants have been treated under the Trump administration. It is just unamerican to do that.
To be silent is to be complicit. Alerta antifascistas
I was visiting Auschwitz on 9/11/19. It took my breath away. We were offered the choice to continue the tour to Birkenau or to end at Auschwitz. They told us it would be a lot of walking outside. At first i decided not to continue as a lot of walking is hard for me. But then i made up my mind that i owed it to the murdered people to go. To see. As i was walking through i could feel the horror and suffering. It was like nothing i have ever experienced. And so ironic that i was there on 9/11. The people of Poland have not forgotten. But Americans have forgotten 9/11. Even people in our own government downplay what happened. (“Some people did some things”). I was telling some of our Polish guides and they were shaking their heads.
About 20 years ago, while working as a delivery driver, I made a delivery to a customer in Schiller Park, IL. They were regulars and I went there often, and the same man, a Polish immigrant, signed my paperwork.
One particular day, his normally long sleeves were rolled up to his elbow & was able to see a faded tatoo of 5 or 6 numbers. It took me a second to make the connection, but when I did, it shook me up a bit. I remember feeling kinda dizzy & seemed like the room was spinning. It’s one thing to read about such things, but to actually know a survivor is quite another.
It wasn’t that long ago & we must NEVER forget . NEVER!!!
When I was in the 6th grade (1960) Auschwitz survivor Rose Van Thyn spoke to an assembly at South Highlands school in Shreveport, Louisiana. Over the years Mrs Van Thyn spoke in schools to thousands of children and as an academic fellow to college students in Shreveport about her experiences during the holocaust. I had occasion to reflect back on my encounter with this amazing woman when my daughter was a first year med student at LSU in Shreveport. My daughter related that her cadaver in gross anatomy was a woman of slight stature with numbers tattooed on her forearm. Rose gave back all that she had even past her time on earth.
RIP Alice Simon.My grandmother. #45392
RIP Ms Alice – may we never forget
Anti-semitism is happening now. Our children must be educated about history and human rights. We owe it to the dead and to the survivors. Tolerance should be learned, in the home.
It is horrifying things like this genocide that reinforce the idea that people must not be ignorant to the lessons that history can teach us. It is sickening to hear people try to deny that the Holocaust never happened. There is so much evidence that it makes it impossible to say it never happened. Writer and Philosopher George Santayana famously said: “”Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” His sobering words should be a reminder to us all of the importance of the past. As individuals, we try to learn from our mistakes. But when taken as a whole, humanity has shown the opposite to be true. History can, does, and will repeat itself.
I visited Auschwitz April 2019,there is a plaque outside one of the ovens where people were cremated, this is to remember the millions that died there.WE MUST NEVER FORGET ,I am a 75 year old and as long as I live I will remember.
Reading about this always teared me into pieces
This reminds me that we have to praise God of our little sufferings because there were and there are lots of people who suffered more than what we are having right now..
This is very inhumane even animals can’t even bear this !
A kind of satanic act because it uses people to hurt people ,,through this ,,victims May lost their faith in God ,,as we see,, no matter how hard the situation no matter how hard problems comes to us
There’s always a solution !!
I’m really very sorry for the victims ,,
We will always pray that case like this will never come again in every part of the world !!
But the world is now very fast, tru Internet ,social media ,everyone will be automatically informed of what’s going on with the world,so that any country who practices inhumanity are immediately exposed and condemned !!
For those who died May they Rest In Peace with God !!
My name is Hannes. I am German. And although my family wasn’t directly involved – they were guilty in supporting this ideology and profiting from it.
Further, they put a veil of silence on all of it after the war was over. No one wanted to admit they knew – but somehow they must have known.
What has happened cannot be undone – but it becomes the responsibility of us as the descendants of the perpetrators to make sure it never can happen again and Jews are safe wherever they are and whatever they believe and look like. I am deeply sorry for the unspeakable atrocities and the harm that was brought to millions of people. And I ask for forgiveness on behalf of my people, my family.
If there is a day to commit to stand against anti-Semitism and the need to protect minorities, it is today.
HORIFFIC
May it never happen again !!! But our leftist government is trying to bring us towards socialism!! Which we can’t let it happen this is why they want prisoners and illegals to vote because they can’t do it without them B SMART VOTE TRUMP 2020 and read about your areas canadates and what they stand for example pelosi and her tent cities and VOTE them out.
Such powerful stories. The Holocaust brought out the worst in people, but it also brought out the best in people. Those are the true heroes.
I was in the Candn Navy during WW 2 and our ship had just pulled in and docked in Vancouver in 1945 arriving from the
South Pacific and just as we left the ship a fellow on the pier showed us a picture of a pile of dead bodies stacked 25 feet high. We at that time could not believe what we were seeing. I have been in contact with many Jewish people over the years thru business and otherwise and find them to be very nice to deal with, And to this day cannot understand why just brutality ever took place.
I visited in October just heartbreaking everyone of us should go there to see what happened never should this happened again RIP all those who lost their lives in the camps may your souls be at peace
Iran will never observe this particular day.
Please don’t trivialize my grandfathers death. That breaks my heart. He was French resistance, and was murdered….like millions of others. Entire families were wiped out and bless the survivors and what they had to live with their memories ever day. Your entitled to your opinion just remember the loss people like me feel, before trying to create a post just to upset others. This is about remembering. We must never forget.
Having viewed stories about the French Resistance, they should be considered heroes that lead to many successes during the war and ending the war. But realize that remember leads to thinking about what can and does still happen. Maybe on smaller scales and different places, but does happen.
Believe! This was real! Be sure the never happens again!
History will repeat itself.
All that is needed is inexpensive bread and circuses, along with readily available booze and drugs in order to completely displace the the natural thirst for learning and curiosity and reading and independent inquiry.
Once you have a lethargic and apathetic population lacking the most basic mental attention span or desire to read more than a few minutes at a time or learn and consider logical discourse, you’ve got them! You can control them!
Once the ability to be mentally stimulated is gone, all that is left to stimulate is whatever feels good! You can own people like that!!!
I have visited Auschwitz in Germany about
18 years ago. All I can say is that there’s a heavy sense of sadness. My heart goes out to all of the survivors and all the families that were senselessly murdered.
I have some Jewish Ancestors and I don’t know if any of their family members were sent to the death camps. This is a horrible, horrible crime the Nazis committed. NEVER AGAIN!!!
Without the Lord’s light there is only Pitch Black darkness. We need to remember and never let it happen again
There is a very fine, (but disturbing) Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Well worth taking time to visit there.
This types of stories …..saddening and uplifting.
I remember our neighbor, Elisabeth Schultz, who was imprisoned there. I was a child playing “army” with my friends. She came out while we were running across her lawn and we immediately pointed our broomsticks at her yelling bang, bang, bang. She collapsed in tears. Her husband came out and explained to us what had happened to her. It was the first time I’d heard about concentration camps and the most chilling and remorseful feelings swept over me. We apologized but I’ve never forgotten that day in June of 1964.
My grandmother taught us a prayer that my mother passed down, and is now being passed to my grandchildren…
“Father, you have given us
So much love and joy today,
That we are thinking of love and joy
To other children, far away
Red, brown, black and white,
Father bless US all tonight”
It must start in our homes… we need to teach and read things to our children, so they know
Hitler should have been stopped way a lot sooner. That evil man deserved death a million times over for his evil deeds.. Never never,never ever again.
What the Nazis did was one thing, what a fellow Jew did is another.
I just happened to come across a Greek Jew named Vital Hasson was instrumental in the deportation of Greek Jews to the gas chambers. His deeds are documented, but not why he did this.
https://flipboard.com/article/vital-hasson-the-jew-who-worked-for-the-nazis-hunted-down-refugees-and-tore-ap/a-k0H9bqqwQ0ug4hldLbqpFg%3Aa%3A2015697237-bb00902cc2%2Ftheconversation.com
My father-in-law was one of the very young soldiers who helped to release prisoners from the camps. He never, never would talk about it because of how horrific it was. It completely changed his life. We must always remember what humanity if capable of and to stop it from happening every again.
My grandfather did as well. He was an MP in the US Army and also served as a translator to the Hungarian captives. May we never forget.
You thank him for me because my father was one of those that he saved.
Absolutely! There are those antisemites who say they should forget about it. I say that the minute they do and we do we have lost whatever humanity we have left!
Heartbreaking and unimaginable today, but we must remember. Thank you for this article…..a reminder that we must always value and hold dear our freedoms.
Not unimaginable. We have children in camps at the border because they are brown-skinned.
Diane,-a huge difference! Jews and others were forced from their homes to these camps; to their death. Huge difference. They did not have the option of staying home. They were starved; experimented on, worked to death and gassed. Lumping illegal border crossers in with holocaust victims only minimizes the holocaust. It does not further your misrepresentation.
Diane,
Please do not confuse children at our border with victims of the holocaust. Surely you’ve not been to our southern border if you’ve bought into such malicious propaganda. I’m from Texas and I can assure you that people of all colors live here in harmony and our border patrols, ICE and many non-profit organizations are working together for the good of children whose parents have brought them to our borders illegally.
I understand that this information is falsely being fed our population daily. It isn’t true.
Certainly not unimaginable sadly.. Bosnia & Kosovo.. Sierra Leonne.. and on and on.. Today it continues. May it stop when we refuse to look away.
Diane, you’re an idiot. There is absolutely NO comparison here.
Raw hatered of people just for their religious beliefs was and still is appalling! But now we are seeing this same hatered yet again, but this time it’s comming from those who hold different political views. Project Veritras interviewed some staffers on Bernie Sander’s campaign staff who suggested “all Republican’s” need to be sent to “re-education camps”, such as those of the former Soviet Union’s “gulags”, which he claims were not such bad places as “the West” claimed they were, even though Stalin murdered millions of his own people in them. Leftist have no tolerance for anyone who hold different views then they do. They call “Conservative’s” Nazi’s with various “ism’s” & “phobe’s attached. They have no tolerance for different views and beliefs. THEY are the Nazi’s! THEY want Conservatives in “gulags”. THEY threaten Conservatives with violence. THEY force their hatered on anyone not like them…….just like NAZI’S!!
You break my heart, Fred.
And you disrespect the dead.
Karyn, l’m sorry you mistook what l was trying to imply. I do truly respect those who’ve died such horrible and ruthless deaths. Never Again, should never, ever again happen to any humans living on this Earth. I was however, trying to point out how easily hatered can be, and is once again starting to raise it’s ugliness once again, only this time it’s against Christians AND Jews, and those who identify as Conservative and/or Republican. May God Bless you Karyn and God Please Bless America!
1. Your blanket characterization of “leftists” as having no tolerance and as being “Nazis” is the exact thing that is and was done to dehumanize people and make it easier to do and say horrible things to them. Rather ironically, it is the exact thing your comments claim to be so against. Stop watching Fox “News” and get your news from several sources to avoid confirmation bias (look it up).
2. Your words would carry more weight were they a. Actually true, b. Backed with cited sources, and c. Spelled correctly and without all of the incorrectly-used used apostrophes and other grammatical disasters in your diatribe. Learn some grammar, some history, some factual current events and some spelling and try again.
“A”….. Have a nice day.( I hope l spelled you “name” correctly)
Your heart is full of hate and intolerance. God help you.
Wow! Your post only proves your contention. Whenever there are “sides,” and especially when the “sides” say hideous things about each other – like one side says the other side needs to be rounded up and be reeducated, and the other calls them Nazis, we are all going to suffer for it. What we need to do is study the lives and teachings of people like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Dali Llama, and Baha’u’llah – prophet/founder of the Bah’a’i Faith. We all were created from the same dust and we all belong to the same household.
My goodness, Fred, but you are filled with hate!
Gulags were just as bad as the concentration camps, my mother was lucky to have survived her time there, I stand corrected but well over million polish people died in the gulags during WW2.
Fred, you commentary about leftists is atrocious and you should be ashamed of yourself. There is enough hatred on the fringes of both sides and both extremes should be called out. However, your obvious hatred for leftists is too apparent. I will fight against any side that suggests what you intimate here. You are absolutely wrong and your words are inflammatory. Shame on you. By the way, I am simply a moderate, but your words are by far too extreme.
Bernie Sanders?!? I think you mean Trump and his well-known group of White Supremacist supporters. Wow! You would be one of the Nazis today.
Wow, it didn’t take long for Americans to make this about us. How unimaginably selfish
Some leftists have no tolerance of different political views and feel that they are morally superior to conservatives. However, the majority of leftists are not the haters that you describe. There are a lot of haters and close-minded folks among conservatives. And their hatred and bigotry are not less than those of Nazis. All white supremacists and Neo-Nazis are found among political and religious conservatives. Don’t use thus platform to throw your biased political views.
Mandy, please don’t use this form to espouse your biases and political views. See how that works? It’s exactly what l was trying to point out! Yet because you disagree with what l had to say, which was only to point out the division that has been happening in our country over the last decade, is something we need to be aware of. I’m not very pleased being refered to as a “white supremacist” and/or Nazi just because we have different views on things that matter. It wasn’t the right who told their supporters to trash and harass Trump supporters, or who tried to suppress Conservative views on college campuses, no, these seem to be scenarios perpetrated by leftists. The left doesn’t let the right to be heard. What are they afraid of? The words of our Constition? Or the words of our Bill of Rights? Or maybe our Declaration of Independence. Conservatives are simply belivers in those three documents. We believe that this country became the greatest country in the world because of the ideals our Founding Fathers had envisioned for our futures. It’s true we have not been perfect, and by a long shot! But we have made great strides to correct our flaws while trying to correct those flaws, the most disgraceful being slavery. But if you recall, the greatest loss of life in any war American’s have ever fought was our own Civil War were whites fought along side the blacks they helped to free from slavery.The toll of death and injuries were overwhelmingly white! Intergration followed at a snail’s pace, then finally Dr Martin Luther King Jr, tried to chang all that, and gave his life trying. Then within the last decade we started to slide down hill again. Mandy, we are all Americans we desperately need to listen to each other, not criticize each other! We both have different points of view and neither of us are 100% right or wrong! But listing to each other in a rational state of (open) minds will bring us all together again, just like our “Greatest Generation” saved the entire world from German and Japanese dictatorships! The United States intervened and helped save Europe from Germany. The United States dominated the Second World War and again saved Europe and now Asia too! America was the 7th (!) largest Military in the world before December 7th, 1941, but became the largest by 1945, the end of WWll ! Think about that! FOUR YEARS! American Capitalism and American’s luxury to enjoy Freedom! and Liberty! Saved the world from tyranny twice in less than thirty years! Yes, we still have BIG problems to yet to solve, but we WILL solves our problems by listing and understanding each other! Mandy, let’s both be open-minded and intensely understanding! Our countries future depends on……US!!!
Fred, I want to thank you for your thoughtful words… I would like to point out just few things… It is so much easier to see the faults and weaknesses of those we disagree with than to recognize our own… The media is money driven on both sides and tends to emphasize the sensational and the controversial because it boosts ratings. The term “Fake News” is thrown at everything the right or left disagrees with… The truth is most news is biased, far less is all “Fake”… I believe we need to spend a little more time considering how our words are received and work harder at speaking the truth in love… I believe there is One Who is the Truth… I believe we don’t always see Him that clearly… Dare to look for the truth in others and build on it as we share what’s been put on our hearts… Peace…
WE all need to look at OUR own hypocrisy. WE all need to stop demonizing those WE disagree with. There is plenty of intolerance and hate to go around… WE need to start listening more and condemning less… WE need to stop being intolerant in the name of intolerance… WE need to stop trying to figure out which side the
the other guy is on and dare to see him on OUR side… I’ve always marveled at the irony of anti-war protests that turn violent… WE need to fight aggressively to understand and work together to find a way forward with those we disagree… WE need to remember the words of that great Republican (no I’m not talking about Donald Trump ) Abraham Lincoln who quoted the Bible when he said, “a nation divided against itself cannot stand”…
Woah there, Fred. Look at your own words and check your anger for signs of hate. “THEY vs. us” mentality is what lands us right back into atrocities. Its not all-or-nothing with left/right—it’s never that simple. Be careful with name-calling and generalities—they don’t hurt my feelings in the least bit, but they dehumanize those who disagree with you. H-t—- and his minions dehumanized 6 million innocent people before killing them. Feel free to call me any name your vitriol can spew. I’m doing all I can to call out and avoid the patterns that could lend themselves to a terrible repeat of history.
I think you are right in your thinking Fred. I too heard of the Bernie Sanders staffers saying all Republicans should be rounded up , put in concentration camps and reeducated, (meaning brained washed into their way of thinking). That does sound a lot like these German concentration camps.
Fred, there is NOTHING for which to apologize…and in the USA you are entitled to your own opinion. Your words were a passionate reminder as to what CAN happen and did.
Nazi’s were Socialists, Bernie and the rest of the Leftists are socialists. So you’re right except for the different ideals part. Same ideals 75 years later. It’s just a shame some half of this country can blindly follow in that direction.
Fred,
You are correct. The President of the United States is being called racist, fascist, Hitler, Nazi and worse. None of these accusations are remotely true.
Fred, Project “Veritas” (“truth”) is misnamed. It is a well-known disinformation outlet. Don’t let them scare you. You’re not being persecuted.
There is a division promoted by fake news or propaganda, ANTIFA ISN’T MUCH DIFFERENT THEN THE WHITE HOODS. I understand you’re saying, we need to not be complacent when the Sparks of Hatred are so close. This day reminds us of many many things….how easily ppl were decieved to not know of the horrors going on right under their noses…. til late.
Not just the Democrats are spewing hatred. Our President made fun of special needs people at THE PODIUM during one of his rallies. He also told a Hispanic reporter living in America legally to “Go back to Mexico,” again at the podium during one of his rallies. He encouraged violence during his rallies. And before you start calling me Snowflake and other undesirable names Republicans use for Democrats, I am a republican, but I don’t believe in bullying people who don’t share my same views. A bully is a bully, there is no political divide. And, with the state our country is in right now, we had better remember what happened all those years ago, because I sure can see it happening again.
Fred, I hear you and understand you, others need to stop and listen instead of continuing the judgment.
Reread what you just wrote, FRED. Given the chance, it sounds to me that you would be no better than those vile Nazis. Instead of labeling and hating based on religion, you are hating based on differing political/ideological beliefs. Hypocritical and putrid. You exactly like them….
Well Connie, you and Kevin must be good friends, as you both can’t seem to see the hatered in your response to me. I harbor no hate, but am being accused of it by those of you who simply have different opinions than l. Have a nice day. Shed the hate, you’ll feel better.
Well, you were doing okay until you lumped them all together and started to raise your voice. It made me think of those you were speaking against, except I can’t accuse all non-conservatives of thinking or doing the same thing. It always starts small with one finger pointed accusingly, however those other fingers are aimed at the one speaking. We study and talk about history so we learn not to repeat the truly horrible parts of human history.
Well Deb, you like many on your side, simply misconstrued what what l was trying to point out! Antifa who claims to be “anti-fascist”, are in fact themselves fascists, as the riot and burn down businesses not even involved in their conflict. Same goes for Black Lives Matter. They riot, burn down their own neighborhoods, protesting “police brutality”. Don’t break laws, don’t beat up your wives and girlfriends, and shoot your neighbors, and walla, no more “police brutality”! Get a grip Deb! Face reality! Don’t blame me for your la la land of fantasies and lack of reality! This is not an ideal world where everyone has been brainwashed to worship an almighty government! Some of us still worship God, in an unperfect world of corrupt, self serving politicians and those gullible to swollow their BS as promoted by their prophaganda division, the MSM. ‘Sorry if l offend you Deb, but at 79 yrs old, that’s the way it has all added up, like it or not. It is what it is! Like it or not! Welcome to reality…..sometime in your future…..l hope!
My dad had to help clean up concentration camp s. He never talked about it.
Bless your Dad. It reminds of something i read about even evil beings turn away at the horrendous things we humans can do to each other.
My dad did this horrible job also. He had been ststuibed in France and was told would be returning to the States. Plans were changed. My dad did return home to his wife, my mom.
They had 5 children and lived the working class American life.
Dad only mentioned what he saw and had to do very minimally, and I know it affected him….he was a family man who never spoke a mean word about anyone…he passed away after his 65th birthday when I was 22 years old.
Tomorrow would have been his 100th birthday!
The world must never forget what can happen if not watched carefully and not overcome by the devil.
Perhaps not the same as the death camps but war has continued to ravage many communities, cities and entire villages all over the world! Yemen, Syria, parts of the Congo and Africa, Sarajevo and Rwanda before that. We must do our part to shed love and light into the world and help those who seek vengeance and violence to not become the haters but help them to forgive. Let us all become part of the solution and visualize a world of tolerance and peace
I can not believe there are those who don’t think it ever happened on this day there should be TV specials ,Libraries should promote historical books whatever it takes so people don’t forget this unimaginable horror so it can never be repeated
What a wonderful idea Frank!! It should also be taught in all High Schools. I do have to put my two cents worth in this message for FRED, so please forgive me.
-Fred. I do wish you would pay a bit more attention to the history. You brag up the Great USA to a point that it sickens me. The Australians, Canada and England did just as much to help win that war as did the Americans and also the indigenous people played a big part by using their own language to fool the Germans. AND, Please listen to and watch all the other News and TV stations other than FOX!
The awful truth about what we should and shouldn’t teach our children is that teachers very often shy away from topics that might cause upset and controversy. I work in an elementary school…granted it may be said that this is too young to introduce this type of history, but when do you start. One of our young 4th grade teachers today introduced a new book to the class about a girl that had to leave Vietnam to flee the war. I waited for her to make a comment about what the Vietnam War even was but she didn’t mention it. It’ll be interesting to see if the topic of war comes up during the next several days as the students read and how it is handled. My experience is that teachers gloss over potentially disturbing topics to avoid the criticism.
Such a terrible time in our world I got to visit this place of death So sad that people could be so full of hate It will happen again if our country keeps up its hate that we are seeing today
“We do not have “brown” children Forced into concentration camps. Their family chose to come to our borders in hopes that they would be able to cross our borders without having to go through the legal process of gaining entrance. We do not kill these “brown” people or force them into labor camps or perform bizarre medical procedures on them. To accuse or compare the US to what happened in the holocaust just shows your ignorance.
.
I agree, L. Casagrande. The conditions at our border are not in humane in the least. Indeed, much effort is being made both by border officials and non profits to treat these illegals at our border with dignity. The comparison to victims of the holocaust is outrageous and is pernicious propaganda.
Fred, I get what you are saying. Hang in there we are behind you!
The holocaust was a horrifying time. These atrocities were done to innocent people who were just living their lives. Diane’s comment does not belong on here, but since it is here (and she very cowardly turned her reply button off), I will address it here too. The difference between the Jewish people and the “brown skinned children at the border today” is the Jewish people were innocently going about their lives and started being herded into camps and forced to wear the stars and be tattooed, and then forced to watch as their loved ones were slaughtered. What do you think should happen to the “brown skinned children” when their parents are arrested for breaking the law by coming here illegally? Should they be left to fend for themselves on the streets? Should they be adopted by Americans before their parents’ court cases come up? Should they immediately be sent back to their country of origin? What is the solution? As it stands, they are being treated like any other child after their parents are arrested.
I have no words to properly address your post. I agree that there are grave differences between the Holocaust victims and the children being held in cages at our boarders. There are several things that are untrue in your post, but none more so than saying that they are being treated no differently than all children of incarcerated persons. Children of persons who are sent to jail or prison are placed either with family members (first choice) or foster parents by Social services.
It happens in stages. The Holocaust didn’t happen overnight. What is happening at the border is but one stage. These children are taken from their parents, and many haven’t been reunited. They are not getting medical care, and are living in unsanitary conditions. Investigators are not allowed to go in. Reporters are banned at these sights. Does that not arouse suspicion? The vast majority of these migrants are asylum seekers, and have applied LEGALLY to be here. Read up on it.
Yes, your correct, the children were brought here, to the US by their parents hoping to gain entrance without going through the usual channels, but why are we still holding the children? Why didn’t we send them home with the parents? Why are they living in human sized cages with fire proof blankets on cold hard concrete floors? Some are as young as one year old. And they cry,
Exactly. There is a huge difference between innocent Jewish people among others persecuted by the Nazi’s and not supporting illegal immigrants frim entering the country. HUGE difference!!!!!
Many people do not u deter and the atrocity happening at our border is the separation of families without proper record keeping. When anyone is arrested inside the US, they given access to legal counsel, at least allowed to make phone calls. They are innocent until proven guilty and given a chance to contact relatives to care for their children. The lack of this humane process; the psychological damage done to the children detained and then sent to live with strangers, is what causes us to compare their detention to the detention of Jews in Hitlers Europe.
The parents of those children caged at the border did not come illegally. They came to the border to request asylum, which is not illegal. In response to their request, Trump and his minions imprisoned them and their children.
Supporting these actions against asylum seekers does make you less moral than those who do not. It is not a matter of opinion.
This is all so sad,and never should be forgotten,
this day should be remembered just as we remember Nov 11
This was the result of a very intense propaganda program, ‘brainwashing’ an entire continent! We have to be more aware of the inconsistencies and outright lies in our technological communications. We need to be braver about speaking out against intolerance and inequalities in our country, the supposed ‘land of the free’! These atrocities DID happen to human beings BY human beings. By staying silent, we are allowing the hatred to be spread. By inaction, we are saying it’s okay with us. I pray,(yes, I am a Christian, a Catholic, a descendant of immigrants), I pray every day for our people, our leaders, our country.
My Father and Mother in Law were at Auschwitz.
They were 16 and 15 respectively when the Russians liberated them and the others held there 75 years ago.
May their Memory be a Blessing
My dad was in the army and did clean up work there. It totally messed him up for the rest of his life. Prior to the war I understood my dad was a kind person afterwords a wife and child beater crawled in a bottle from Nov-Apr. Died at age 50 never spoke about what he saw or did.
Jewish Prayer Of Remembrance
by Jack Riemer and Sylvan Kamens
In the rising of the sun and in its going down, we remember them.
In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember them.
In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring, we remember them.
In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer, we remember them.
In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn, we remember them.
In the beginning of the year and when it ends, we remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength, we remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart, we remember them.
When we have joys we yearn to share, we remember them
So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us,
as we remember them.
Beautiful. Thank you
Thank you. I’m “borrowing” this….
Penny, thank you for posting this prayer of remembrance. It is heartwarming and beautiful❤️
This prayer is beautiful. I would like to share this with my congregation. Please let me know if this is acceptable to you. [email protected]
And may they always be remembered.
Can I please use this prayer with my people? My husband and I are ministers in a Christian church.
Oh, so beautiful. It is for all the victims and the people who were there to free them. My husband’s family was Czech , his uncle was in Buchenwald. These refugees were hated in Germany when they fled to the Americans away from the Russians. NEVER AGAIN !
Thank you Penny for sharing that
Thank you! I too am borrowing this!
This is what needs to be said. There is so much hatred, and ignorance going on. People be they brown, black ,white,yellow, red, or whatever. We are all of one race, the human race, and that can’t be changed. When we let our leader lie, make fun of anyone that stands against him. It’s time for everyone to have a history lesson. Our for father’s would not stand for this. If you don’t believe in the atrocities committed by Hitler, turn on your history channel and get educated.
That is beautiful! Thank you
“Brown children” ARE NOT forced into concentration camps. They ARE NOT rounded up to be exterminated. They arrived illegally in the US with their parents and are fed, clothed, and sheltered until they are either admitted or deported. So drop all this “brown children” crap. There is NO equivalency between that and the horrendous murder of 6 million Jews. NONE!
Right on!!
Please stop using the comment section of this blog to argue. Ignorance and hate and lack of love of one’s brothers and sisters are what fueled this atrocity in the first place. Please, stop!
Those of you that can should visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A visitor needs the entire day to cover all the information. The gift shop is full of great information. A book that I would recommend is “In My Hands memories of a Holocaust Rescuer” by Irene Gut Opdyke. The audio compact discs takes seven hours of listening. Irene’s name (1932-2003) is on the Museum wall and is well preserved on these pages and in this audio version. Her voice is captured as she gives an opening. Those interested should listen to Irene’s voice from the past.
I was engaged to a man who’s father survived this horrible place. I only found out by accidentally seeing the tattoo numbers on his arm after rolling up his sleeve to wash his hands. I said something to him. He said that was a past he never talks about to anyone, not even his children. He was a small child at the time and lost most of his family. He and his son have both passed now.
To read of the holocaust as I do frequently breaks my heart. The atrocities that those innocent people had to endure were so cruel and inhumane. I have visited one of the concentration camps and the feeling as you go through the gate is overwhelming. You can feel the sadness weighing down on you. I have also been to the holocaust museum in D C and the the visual of all of the shoes that were collected and other items really puts into perspective the enormity of what Hitler did.. Having said this, always remember so it won’t be repeated and God bless the souls of those who perished and God bless the survivors.
Without knowledge of history and mindfulness history will almost always be repeated.
today is my birthday
Me, too. Happy birthday.
Let us not forget what happened there.
Let us correct what is happening what is at OUR boarder with Mexico and the children and parents that have been separated.
I pray we remember those that are killed for no other reason than their religion, nationality or skin color.
We are all the same in God’s eyes.
I once heard a man say that the Holocaust was “God’s way of thinning the population.” How do you even have a discussion with someone who has the intelligence of a dial tone?!
Imagine, the soviets liberated all those people and went on to do the same thing the Nazis did for years until Reagan changed things!
my uncle was a marine on the islands of the Pacific. he, too, would never speak of what happened there. One day, not long before his death, he took me aside and shared photos and stories from his time in the pacific. The images were horrific. He had his personal camera & shot photos, but later his private camera was confiscated. He didn’t realize it was against the Marine Code, but he never disclosed that he had a full roll of film of photos he’d already shot. Those images—not military sanctioned—were the untold stories of the islands. we tend to forget how awful the pacific theater with the Japanese was. Their camps were barbaric, too.
Everyone should go to a Holocast memorial site. The one in Wash D.C. was where i visited during the Million Man March in D.C.
It is hard to imagine man’s unhumanity to his fellow man, but it was real. There is no real denying it.
A lovely lady who I knew was in the Holocaust and for years she gave talks at schools so the the awful situation wouldn’t be forgotten.
Someone asked her to be interviewed. It is posted on YouTube. Google Rene Tully.
Lt Webb – I understand your response regarding the comparison between Nazi concentration camps and what is happening at our border. There are real differences in the degree of torture and cruelty perpetrated by Hitler and that by Trump. But I would like you to see that conditions are very unfavorable at the border as well. Refugees are kept in crowded, filthy, conditions and children are left to cry because they can’t be with their parents anymore. Babies. Furthermore, most are fleeing violent conditions at their home countries and IT IS NOT A CRIME, NOR IS IT ILLEGAL to seek asylum in this country. But refugees are being treated as criminals or worse.
There is a slippery slope that we are on and I fear that if Trump is re-elected, we will find ourselves perpetrating more than the cruelty he currently approves of. It will become ‘legal murder’, similar to Auschwitz.
Reading the comments that are posted here. It went from the Jews to about me, me, me very quickly. I am saddened by the tragedy that was put on these souls. Please no bickering.
There is an Auschwitz section at the Jewish Museum in NYC. It’s there until august. I’m going in two days. Hope I can handle it emotionally. So important to remember and pay tribute to this horrific time in history. So important.
Hello Donna,
I live in New Zealand,my Grandfather ,a Jew, was a Prisoner of both World Wars..He was not at Auschwitz, but at Red Rock Canada WW2.
This was also a terrible camp fo r Jewish people although no comparison to Auschwitz or other Nazi camps.
I was s interested in the NY Jewish museum you are about to visit ,it has given me another lead into the search for my Jewish grandfather who entered Blaine Washington on a Refuge Visa 1953 and has not been heard of since.
I have just finished reading the Tattoist of Auschwitz and the sequel Citka.
Best Luonie Collie
Sad to see the USA moving in the same direction as Nazi Germany, with the same type of ruthless leader supported by the American Christian Taliban, a citizenry with the same attitudes and beliefs as the Nazis.
The Nazi’s killed an estimated 7 million Jews, Gypsies (Romany) and Slaves. Joseph Stalin killed appoximately 20 million of his own contryman. Today human trafficing, antiSemitism, and religous perseqution still exist.
Horrible crime and I feel it’s holocaustic that the US has such a horrible healthcare system. Any options on my statement ?
You know everyone is talking about how we should not forget this atrocity near while in America we have removed all the historic statues depicting the a civil war that fought to the rights of others and pitted brother against brother because people find history racist. Schools are not teaching History any more the way its was so it will be forgotten and repeated.
Do you mean monuments to the people who were enslaved (legally) for over 100 years, generation after generation, in our country? I agree, people should not forget this atrocity. History is racist in a certain sense, mainly I think, in the sense that the central issue in all of American history, as Mark Twain pointed out, is slavery and our recovery, if it ever is complete, from it. In this context ‘our’ means all of us, brothers and sisters who are both black and white. We are making progress, but we’re sure not there yet.
Nice Trumpian deceitful try. People dont find history per se racist. The civil war should be thought. But white supremacist southerners should be shown as the Nazis they were. I doubt you ever travelled to Germany. But you won’t a single statue to a Nazi leader. Statues like those in the south dont educate, they celebrate. So you try to use the holocaust to trumpet Trumpian fascism. Nice touch.
I would type a response back to Kevin but his grammar is so utterly atrocious that I can’t even try to figure out what this individual feebly attempted to put down in words. Sir, you need to return to 2nd Grade and start learning how to even approach the English Language. I have a PhD in English and am absolutely APPALLED that folk like you exist!
I’m note very good with the English language or proper grammer of it either, you might find me appalling also. However l do agree with you to the extent that Kevin is pathetic ignorant rube with a typical case of TDS. Poor soul. Kevin, please take (at least) two aspirin and call your “shrink” in the morning. You may need additional help to handle what is commonly known as the truth. God Bless Kevin, as l believe there may still be hope for you once you abandon your hate for your fellow American’s who might not agree with everything you believe. Have a nice day.
I also have a PhD, but I think you have crossed a line with your post.
My father was a Captain of a tank unit with the 5th Iniskilling Dragoon Guards who liberated prisoners of labor camps in Brussels and France. Horrible times for all.
It would be easy to overlook the other, similar campaigns since both the Germans under Hitler and the Russians under Stalin established concentration camps that systematically eliminated people they deemed “others,” including millions of Jews. We need to remember recurrences of that phenomenon in other places more recently – in Cambodia, Ruanda, Croatia, and even more places where intolerance has been preached by leaders and accepted as virtue by followers. Hannah Arendt wrote about Adolph Eichmann, the German civil servant who organized and administered the whole program called the ‘final solution.’ He maintained that he was only following orders, and in fact he was just doing what he had to do to keep his job. We have people in our own midst – most of us in fact – who do what is necessary every day just to keep our jobs. We are all ‘only following orders’ in more or less abusive situations. Recently an executive of an American corporation that was actively selling fentanyl and other opioids that killed thousands of Americans was sentenced to prison. His defense? “I was only following orders.” He had sales quotas to fill. And yes our government is confining refugees and children in inhumane conditions, notwithstanding that the real dangers they face at home have been so terrible that they were driven to carry their children as they walked hundreds of miles (Think from Wyoming to Texas.) in order to escape the threats of gangs and murderous bosses and neighborhood bullies who thrive because of economic conditions our country determines. And the border agents who imprison them maintain that they are ‘only following orders.’ So I urge us all to be conscious of the danger that any of us could be called upon to join in a movement of hate and oppression carried on by the bureaucratic organization we work for, whether a corporation or a government agency, and feel that we had no choice but to follow orders. Otherwise we would lose our jobs. What is the price of resistance? What was the price for the Germans who resisted evil? or the Cambodians? Or the Ruandans? Or the Croatians? Or the guards in El Paso? Or the American drone pilots who routinely murder people their organizations assure them are our enemies? Who of us is willing to pay that price? (I keep hoping that there are many, but it’s like courage: you never know how courageously you will react until you’re faced with the actual emergency.) Let’s hope many of us will step out and refuse to be the oppressors. And let’s remember the lives lost in the Holocaust as well as the other mass killings and imprisonments organized by bureaucratic organizations at the disposal of movements of hatred and intolerance. The threat will never go away. The answer that I hope for is that the awareness of people – and their courage – will maintain our democracy against such threats.
This is a Holocaust reminder that should be taught and shown. Why is it that people have brought illegal immigration into this. Let’s keep what happened in the Holocaust as a Reminder of what can happen. It is not the same. People make choices to be illegal and many are not running from violence. The Jews and innocents were dragged from their homes very different.
One day per year or the moment it takes to write this is not enough to truly honor all the lives lost and suffering known by so many. Just not enough.
I am thankful that there is at least one assigned day for remembrance. To remind us and reignite our commitment to “never again” …. not to anyone by any measure.
It seems to me, in light of more recent history, living out this committment takes a great vigilence. And an allergy to complacency.
I’m not sure if our border situation is comparable to the holocaust in total, a stage of it or not at all. Or whether we sully the sacred by the discussion.
Grateful for the reminder that at our border human families with human hopes are separated. Children miss their moms. And their future is uncertain.
I hope that by remembering that each one is a part of my human family who I simply have yet to meet; I can also add to the honoring of those who knew the holocaust.
The first act of courage required wld be to imprison the corrupt perverted child-leching dictator that is dragging the US into the moral cesspit of history. Organise agitate vote. Purge the scum.
Kevin, you’re exactly the kind of person l was referring to in my response to this article, and l got criticized for it by some just like you. Your hatered and the hate others like you have for those of us who just may have a different opinion than you or those like you, is what is tearing our country apart. I didn’t like the direction President Obama was taking us, but l didn’t have a desire to cause harm to him, his family or his supporters. I, like many others just voted for the candidate who we felt would take us in the right direction, and so far l and those like me are impressed with our choices. Get over it Kev! Relax! Let go the hate. You’ll feel all the better if you do! Then in November, vote for the candidate of your choice, and whatever the outcome live with it, like l had to when BHO was sworn in. I didn’t like it, but l didn’t hate!
Yes well said
Lt. Webb…you’re wrong. Immigrant CHILDREN have no choice to stay home. They go where their parents take them. The difference between the immigrant camps housing innocent children and the Jewish camps is that there are no gas chambers………yet.
Diana, stop drinking liberal kool-aid…there is NO comparison between illegal entry into USA and concentration camps in which innocent men, women and children were murdered.
So maybe the parents are responsible for what’s happening to their children? What is your solution? Gas chambers at the border? Really?!!!!
but remember – was not the only “holocaust – only the one remembered by those with money In fact, it was the smallest with about 6 million Jews killed! This is compared to the over 35 million Chinese were killed by the Japanese. Stalin killed from 20 – 60 million. But these people are not remembered as they don’t have the power or money that the Jewish people have.
Remembering is a start. Let’s go further: tell the stories of the holocaust. Tell the stories of Japanese internment in the US, the Chinese killed by the Chinese. Tell the stories of Latin American children ripped from their parents arms, neglected and sexually abused by people employed by our tax dollars
Fred- Quoting “Project Veritas” is spreading a lot of BS from the putz who did the job on ACORN.
Visualize Whirled Peas!!
I can do that!!!
You put them in a blender with some water, then hit the “purree” button and you will see all the whirled peas you want!!!
I think we all need to step back and remember on this day the words of Simon Weisenthal when he said: “we remember lest we forget!”
The comments above indicate that we remember!
Ryan
King Herrad of Jesus’s time ordered all children under the age of 3 years to be murdered to hopefully get Jesus killed. So this has been going on for an endless time
It totally pisses me off today that our young people and the conservatives believe we need to let history behind and move on. No! No! No! We need to remember so that we never repeat history.
Heartbreaking that the hatred on this earth will continue for a long time. Being the eternal optimist I pray everyday for goodness. BUT we should remember the past, so we can be smart enough not to make the same mistakes.
There are too many liberals on this post for me! Bye
Get
Diane is an idiot…
Republicans are Red, democrats are blue, and neither one give a flying F@€÷ about you.
We need to realize that politics divides us. Hate divides us. Love will prevail
my uncle was there he told me what it was like lets hope this would never happen again
The children at the border, separated from their families, alone and being sexually and emotionally abused are absolutely relevant to this post. It took the Nazis over 12 years to get to the mass execution stage. It all started with hate speech against a particular group, discrimination, ostracizing them, isolating them and then finally murdering them. It doesn’t matter if they weren’t ripped from their homes like someone said. They were ripped from the safety of their parents. Get a clue. This wasn’t about religion, this was about targeting a group of people with hate.
I read an article awhile back that stated young people were interviewed who had no idea what the holocost was. I was appalled . The history of these horrific events should be taught in schools, so that all are aware, and that we never forget, especially as history does tend to repeat itself.
My father was an MP who saw camps after they were liberated. He never talked about it and died when I was 7, so I never had the chance to ask him. My mother died when I was 18 and I never thought to ask her for many details. Does anyone know if General Spahtz was at this camp? That’s who Dad guarded.
We are Christian must support Jews. Hitler was crazy man, after dying his mother, he run away from home cause he did not stay with his father. Germany was lower crisis economy that time, every thing is going high, there are many beggers anywhere but Jews no impact. They can eat cause their business keep going. Hitler who had not eat yet for several day, saw in a restaurant who Jews ate freely even abondent. After Sunday Service and church gave some bread for people. Hitler who saw Jews’ pride, cause ate freely and did not care others. Hitler hated Jews even he was Jew. Hitler went to military and kept his carrier and one day 6 million died because of meal.
We must care others, our liver not for ours.
I am shocked by some of these comments. As a great granddaughter of a German Jewish great grandmother it makes me sick to read them. My GG left with nothing but the clothes on her back and her cookie recipes in her bra. If she didnt get out when she didnt I wouldnt be alive today. She was very brave for what she did. I personally have been to Auschwitz. Listening to my tour guide seeing the museum and memorials changed my life. Before comparing Auschwitz to the horrible things going on at the boarder, you should really do your research. Both are not the same and I pray everyday that we will never happen again.
Vote out Trump. Imprison him. N start educating Americans. And get rid of the electoral college.
Nice refreshing adult response, Jim.
This not about political views this in respect of the dead and those living with the past shame on you all for turning. This into a conversation about Politics.Nothing in the united states compaires to what happend there
The murder of 56 million Native Americans
There are no valid excuses for separating families, period, Whatever the effects may really be, compound and will ripple another 75 years.
Making veiled excuses for Trump’s politics is pure bullshit.
65 million??? LOL There have never been that many Indians in the United States total, during its entire history.
Rob Barros I love how Americans are literally always at each others’ throats, Civil War is surely soon to follow! Wonderful!
Thank you Herb. A recounting of a horrific stain in human history being boiled down for a political response is vile. I couldn’t agree with you more.
I cannot believe these people. So small minded. This is about the Holocaust. Not them. If I read more it just makes me angry. I’m going to do my quiet time and go to work. Which I have been allowed to do, freely, my whole life.
You’re absolutely correct. Except that America is no longer teaching history. History will repeat itself if not learned from. I for one, never want something like that to happen anywhere, every again. So the reason I post things like that…it’s to show people it CAN happen…because it did once. The world was shocked when they saw what had happened…but now there is people who believe that never happened. Why? Because they aren’t being taught history, they don’t want to believe something like that could happen….hiding their heads in the sand or believing it didn’t or won’t happen…won’t change history, but it could change the future.
Thank you Herb. I couldn’t agree with you more. This is something in history that we should learn a lesson from and not try to make it political. Shame on those who try to do that.
Not yet, but it’s coming! Hope they are not coming for you
Not yet you idiot
Well said. Thank you!
Read this gently as I share these thoughts with some trepidation:
As my bus neared Auschwitz, I felt increasingly nauseated, my stomach wrenching in some primordial dread. Yet I chose to go there, I needed to go there, I yearned to be there, and I have tried to fathom why. My father taught me the Greek word anamnesis in a theological lesson on the Eucharistic word “Remembrance” when I was 15, a word said to be practically untranslatable into English, and somehow it helps me to understand. This particular and unique Greek word for remember is not a simple one, but its more complex meaning includes a deliberate memoriial, recapitulation and participation, in addition to the simple act of memory. There is precious little I can offer to the men and women and, oh God, the children who were humiliated, betrayed and assassinated there, but I can choose to recapitulate and participate and testify against this consummate evil. I can walk step by step where they also walked, through this dirt, through these barracks, across their railroad tracks of death, across ground where every inch has been saturated with blood of someone well loved by another. I see with my own eyes the double rows of barbed wire, the hooks where hung those who dared to try to escape, the death wall where they lined up so many to fire upon, the canisters of lethal gas, the guard houses ubiquitous and unrelenting, the endless rows of “inmate” faces on the walls, the endless rows of children’s faces on the walls. My own feet stand on the floor of the gas chamber where 10.000 innocents died in agony, mothers trying to protect their children just as i would mine; I hear from a far away place sobs which I belatedly recognize as my own. My own eyes can barely focus but can not deny the ovens where bodies were burned. It is my hair savagely shorn to stiffen the collar of an officer’s uniform, it is my skin used to make a lampshade, it is my arms and legs tangled in a mass grave, it is my auricles and ventricles once pulsing that have ceased to beat, and the metronome is still and the music died again and again and again…. Just perhaps when we dare to step back to accompany and to love those from this other dread time and place, so surely our kin as we all seek to love and to be loved and to demand meaning for our lives and for our deaths, as we wait and watch a while with them in this crucible, the conviction that good is superior and ultimately more powerful than evil jolts the metronome awake and the rhythm is restored and rises like the phoenix. A wondrous and mighty symphony affirms the souls lost, and the necessity that this lesson be learned is tattooed on our hearts until the world’s heart beats in a rhythm where all can finally live in peace.
You have spoken where hearts have so much trouble entering with words that burn PEACE into one’s soul and support always with respect for those who were too perfect to live. May the snake that was evil never be allowed above hell, as nothing can tarnish the love I feel for my Jewish kindred.
I believe GOD used you to define the word
Anamnesis
Beautifully written, Thank you
I can’t hardly speak after reading your description of the suffering you all endured, this was one of the most horrendous masacres you have seen and survived.
I have learned about the horrible happenings as a young adult because I was born afterwards in a place with not much commication of happenings around the world.
I was terrorized when I heard it for the first time by someone in the underground who fought against Hitler, got cought, escaped the death penalty and fled to Switzerland.
This is the most horrible story that we should never forget or let it happen again.
Wishing peace for all of us!
Thank you. Bless you. May hardened, ignorant hearts soften as your words are read.
I’m Jewish, Anne, and I thank you for your imagery as and your powerful belief that we matter and must be seen.
Cheri, We are truly sisters, and when one of us is in pain, we both are in pain. I cringed to even think you doubted that because i know and believe it from the core of my being. Peace and love forever, Anne
Such an eloquent tribute to the victims of mankind’s darkest evils! I am not Jewish, but I have empathy for those who suffered under the onslaught of such heinous hatred! I will always stand with the Jewish State, and against the evils of Socialism, Communism, and Nazism . . . all of which, seem to be the foundation of the new Democrat Party! May God protect us all from the “new Democrats?”
This was incredibly poignant and emotional. Thank you for this depiction to remind us we must fight hard to keep this work of genocide from occurring again.
Divine you are, thank you
Thank you for sharing. Your thoughts are well written. May we Remember so that we will never forget to look forward to bringing Peace into our homes, neighborhoods, communities, countries and the world. I believe it can be done.
Wow-thank you!!
Thank you for this haunting and beautiful description of your experience.
Thank you. No words of mine are adequate to describe the depths of my despair at the depravity of one human towards another. The experience of walking in the footsteps of all those who died will remain with me always.
today I spent the day watching movies of the horrendous things people do to people. At the cross Jesus said forgive for they do not know what they do. Because of this evil we now have Isreal returned to its rightful owners.All Gods promises will be fulfilled. We are to bless Isreal and we in tern will be blessed
Dear Anne.
Thanks for your eloquent prose…I wish I had your expressively dramatic gift to take one where you yourself were.
When I was stationed in then West Germany, I went to Dauchau. Just the mention of it can transport me back there, with the smell of crematorium forever in my nostrils. Once you’ve been to such places, you can NEVER get those emotions outside yourself.
With that said, I can’t believe number of deniers of Holocaust in our time. While the United States has it’s own issues over its history, to link it to Holocaust takes away from what happened to over 12 million people.
While Jews were the largest group at 6 million, there were 6 million of German intelligentsia: doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians who opposed Nazi’s who were rounded up first. If you didn’t meet physical, mental, emotional Aryan standards, you too were shipped off. Roma were another group gathered up.
Our children need to learn about these things. For as much as we said never again, there was Cambodia’s killing fields in 1970’s, 1990’s saw Rwanda & former Yugoslavia implode. What does that say about us? How have we taught our children?
Anne, I went to Dachau. I was sitting on the bus with a woman who’s father was one of the first American soldiers to pass through the gates and liberated the Jews. That added a whole new layer of interest to the visit! The entire experience was sadly sobering, thought provoking and eye opening. I believe everyone should experience this. Maybe they would learn to be grateful for the life they have and change things for the better instead of being complacent and complaining about the most ridiculous things.
People that refuse to believe that the Holocaust happened, need to go to the Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel. I’m not a Jew, but I got half way through it & had to leave-I was crying so hard for those poor victims. I’m tearing up now just trying to write this. My youngest daughter visited Auschwitz when she went on a church mission trip & said she had to leave too-it was like she could physically feel all those souls still were there.
Thank you Anne
So beautifully expressed, thank you. And, I hope that through Gods help, education and in keeping the memory alive, that this will never happen again.
So incredibly, beautifully said.
Anne,
What a beautiful tribute!
Wow, well said heart felt wording I shall share the history as well as your beautiful response. People should never forget this horrific time in history. May we never forget.
Beautifully written
Anne Breach
Thank u. Thank u. Thank u. Thank u for the Memorial of tender, compassionate thought.
My eyes well up so easily @ any thought of any portion of this horrific story.
Yes the Native American’s endured their holocaust. And we remember them with broken hearts too. There is no competition in atrocities.
My Mother in law was taken from her home @ 16 & put in horrible work camps. My Father in law was in Polish army, captured & put in Prisoner of war camp.
Both sent by the terrible cattle cars to their destination of hell on earth. Both survived.
Now our hearts & minds are focused on the “deliberate Memorial” to honor & weep for those who suffered & lived in bowels of hell for no crime but to be born.
God bless them all, the living & the dead.
❤❤
If wordS could paint a picture then you have painted a masterpiece.
Thank you
Thank you…
You’ve made it come to life in my minds eye…I shed tears for those I do not know…but in my heart I cry for their loss of life as if they were my family…
How beautiful are your words about this horrible crime against humanity.
BRAVO LOVING FRIEND ‼️
Do you all ever go back and read anything that anyone else says in any comments outside of the few ahead and behind your own? Stop it!! everybody,, just stop it!! stop fighting amoungst yourselves about whatever it might be that those in charge decided to put out there to cause the promoted hatreds of the week. How many really gives a crap about the truths of the entire thing… How many read this very well written history write up that is about one of the most monsterously cruel and devestating thing that has ever happened in modern world history, and ONLY allowed this little bit of space to be about THEM? only about their suffering and families and losses.. NOT about todays selfishness, fights, and bickering created by people who only want to promote themselves and their fight to gain leverage for their fight on the king of the mountain games.. thats all most of it is is just stupid games of hate.. is it the only way to gain political leverage these days? to get people fighting for them by fighting against other things? spread hate by pointing at who to hate and see who joins in? I was educated on these horrible things that happened to these poor poor victems when i was in the fourth grade by some very intellegent educators who had been there…. and didnt ever want us to be.. dont you become very scared that someday, if we let things get totally out of control and stop paying attention, that some insane people could drag us into such terrifying circumstances again? and it woud be so very easy to do by causing so many normally compassionate and intellegent people to split against each other with pure overspoken hatreds of each other? stop it!!! please.. before i lose the the country i love to be living in,, and was born in.. i dont want to have to flee for dear life to some other country… please think
dody benfer thank you for your comments. The Holocaust was the most evil thing man has ever done to mankind, because of it we all need to learn from it, and vow to never let the horrors return unchallenged. It is disheartening to see so many replies argue over politics, and the true message of the Holocaust remain left behind. Yes, there are strong differences between political parties, and each demands that the other party is at fault and endangering their party members. I have strong feelings about it myself, but it doesn’t matter right now, because the Remembrance is about the Holocaust, not our bickering. Each and every one of us must accept responsibilities for our own words and deeds, not point fingers to try to blame any others. Take a moment, *at *least *a *moment from your petty squabbles to Remember the millions who paid the price of the most heinous acts of atrocities.
Oh yeah, the people Trump said he is treated worse than. How dare they!
It’s wonderful how much infighting there is here, it definitely shows that another Civil War is coming, which is wonderful!
To compare our President with Hitler is the ultimate insult! Thank God Trump got elected.
Please dont use God’s name along with that of a nasty cheating, child-leching ,paedo associate, woman abusing, dictator worshipping traitor installed with Putin’s aid to RIP the US apart. The trains are not yet here but the tactics are The Big Lie the lugen presse the demonisation of minorities the hate filled messianic madness and the “fine” Nazis. America the civilised world laughs n cries at this dangerous clown.
This is not the appropriate place to post support for a politician who has divided the country in the worst way which in and if itself makes him unfit to lead a democratic nation. Presidents of democracies should unite like Kennedy and not divide with hatred like trump. He’s not Hitler but still raising concerns
Pat Tracy, you are a sick, pathetic ignorant moron! This President has done more to promote unity than any President since President Ronald Reagan. It’s idiots like you who can’t grasp reality that is dividing this country! Tune out MSNBC and CNN and get a life for God’s sake! Please try to evaluate reality! We have the lowest unemployment rate in decades, the lowest unemployment for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians, ever! The lower class wages have risen more than ever before, and not because of this false $15 minimum bullschidt! WTFU idiot,face reality, learn reality, get a phuckin’ life and enjoy the prosperity this President has given us through deregulation, fair trade agreements which our trading partners have been taking advantage of us since WWII! We saved their phuckin’ ass’es and ever since then, and they’ve taken advantage of us! President Trump, FINALLY put the hammer down and said LETS BE FAIR, we no longer will finance the world, get your schidt together and govern yourselves responsibly! Don’t forget, us taxpayers are benefiting from President Trump’s actions! Low unemployment, fair trade agreements, lower taxes, higher wages for the low and middle wage earners, a stronger military, crack down on ILLEGAL immigration, what more could you ask for? This President has done more for this country’s citizens than any other President since Ronald Reagan! Get a life! Enjoy the prosperity given to you! And stop your stupid irrational bitchin’! Have a nice day……..moron.
David Lopez, if you are not following what Thom Harr is saying, please let me clarify; the majority of mass shooters in the U.S. of A. are ‘white, privileged’ xenophobic, racist boys in adult bodies, that think they are entitled to mow down whomever they deem as ‘less than’. Thankfully most, do not act on their impulses, however, those that do try to make a point, and end up killing innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. While these tragedies do occur in Canada, they happen much less frequently largely because guns and more specifically automatic assault rifles, are illegal here. THANK GOD!!!
Pat Tracy, genius, Trump is the PRESIDENT, he’s not just “a politician”. Wow, you are so out to lunch that you are actually attacking you own country.
And you’re claiming Trump “divides” the country? What, you think that if it weren’t for Trump, I’d be inviting you over to my house for tea and crumpets? Like I’d be your buddy or something? Seriously? I wouldn’t have anything to do with you, no matter what the year was or who the President is. Don’t blame Trump for the fact that people are “divided” against you. I’ve been against you for decades. What, are you 12?
Hilary Scott.
You sound woefully ignorant of so many subjects you bring up in your post, but I would be glad to school you. As it happens, I can talk to you all day about this subject, as I’ve served as a police officer and detective in a large city in the United States for years.
First of all, no– as an example, I’ve lost 6 of my fellow police officers to shootings in as many years (that means officers who worked for the same department as me), killed in the line of duty or otherwise, including my very best friend. And want to know something? NONE of them were killed by whites– “privileged” or otherwise. Also, I can go into detail about the many shootings I’ve investigated, fatal or otherwise, and the race/ethnicity of the suspects. Not something I’d enjoy doing, but you brought it up, so I’d be glad to school you on it.
Secondly, you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about, and have zero professional experience with firearms– you wrote “automatic assault rifles”. Um, no. Automatic weapons of any kind are illegal in the US, without a special, expensive tax and permit, which almost no one has. Please educate yourself before spouting off. Also, of about 150 shootings I’ve investigated in my city (both fatal and non fatal, mostly the latter), NONE of them were committed with rifles of any kind, much less “automatic assault rifles”. And speaking of that, my fellow police officers were all killed by pistols, in two cases revolvers. So much for “automatic assault rifles”.
Thirdly, no– the reason you in Canada don’t have nearly as much crime as we do is because you’re a much smaller and less diverse population, you’re not a geographical location where most people would want to live, and most importantly, you use the US as your buffer against crime, migrations (illegal or otherwise), and you have no borders with 3rd world failed states, as we do. Which beings me to my final point– I have known many Canadians, both in my travels in Canada, in the US, and where I live, and I must say, I do not know people more arrogant, more self-righteous, and more insufferable, than most Canadians– and that’s saying a lot, because I’ve lived all over the world. And you are yet another exhibit of that.
David Lopez, l love you! I only wish there were more Americans like you! God Bless You and your fellow brothers in law enforcement! Thank you for being you!
You guys are completely out of bounds bringing politics into a concentration camp. This is in remembrance of the day of liberation. Give it a rest and honor those families, like mine, that lost people they loved and who continue to mourn their loss. 75 years later, its such a small thing to ask for such suffering.
Everyone has political views, and I understand that, as do I, but there is a time and a place, and a post in remembrance of the dead and few survivors is not the place. Anyone with compassion and empathy will understand that.
I also want to thank those whose had families in the military for their service, who had to enter this horrific camps and help the survivors and “clean up”. I use that term lightly, as we all know what that means and the conditions involved.
Give it a rest and respect the dead.
Concentration camps are politics. Do we have to wait 75 yrs for the inevitable child abuse stories to emerge from Trump’s camps that admirer of Naziz.
Thank you Edna
To compare President Trump with Hitler is the ultimate insult. Thank God Trump got elected and that the Republicans control the Senate.
It shows you have read history and are not just a screaming Magat. Now let’s talk about the “good’ Nazis Trump admires.
God bless all those that died in the hands if evil communists regime. Thank God for America that came to the aide of the country being killed by the communists. We have to study history as not to repeat it. We live in a country that allows each of us to have a voice and express our views without arrest or seizure. Thank our soldiers for that right and freedom.
Who? What side? Surely not the Vietnamese. But America did assist the radical Khmer Rouge perpetrators of mass auto genocide
To bring current events into these remembrances is to shun the memory of the sacrifice.
Perhaps it seems clever in ones mind to bring up something currently relevant to you, but please know that there are times to remain silent. Absolutely mute yourself and listen. Listening is a lost art sadly in this age of “my problem is worse than your problem…”
Please be smarter than this people. Show some dignity to yourself and your thought process and just be quiet.
We must not allow this in our world again. The cruelties that I read, every story in Dachau engrained a huge empathy on my 15 year old heart in 1986. I will never forget.
I forced myself to speak of it in college in a speech class and could not finish my speech as my tears flowed and my throat swelled and I could not speak another word.
I watched a 10hr VHS program called Shoah which described in intimate detail the story of the Holocaust and that was intensely heavy on my heart but I never stopped watching as we need to listen and bear witness.
I went to a beer garden in 1986 in Germany where folks came together running, hugging and subsequently bawling as it was a special place where divided people could try to find loved ones that survived. And people did. Neighbors, friends, tears and sobbing while so happily finding some tie that was stripped away.
I cannot describe how I felt seeing something so intimate, so private… bit I will say it didn’t inspire me to discuss current politics.
So I pray that God will give you all the wisdom to be quiet. It’s amazing what you can learn.
Thanks for sharing…
Thank you for your comments. Sometimes we do forget our manners and it is good to remind. I appreciate your sharing your personal experience. My sentiments are similar. How much we learn when we listen rather than talk. Thank you for sharing.
Great words – I pray all all be quiet and listen and … remember.
I would remain quiet if not for the threat of a similar thing happening in our own world. We’ve had 75 years of reduced-not eliminated-violence compared to the hemoclisms of WWI and WWII. That makes people who’ve never experienced or witnessed these atrocities to distance themselves from it, minimize it as something the barbarians of the past did, or roll their eyes and profess not to believe they ever happened. We bury that which shames is; do you think the Germans give explicit history lessons about the Holocaust? I know the Japanese do not dwell on the war crimes committed within their “Sphere of Co-economic Prosperity,” and we as a nation tend to minimize the suffering of the slave trade or say there “weren’t that many Indians here to begin with.” Remember them today and be wary of those who declare it can never happen here.
Trump and his followers and their behaviour are Nazi’s.
Who will stop him?
I will not live in a world run by psychopaths.
I will ensure I survive and will not allow me to sent to another Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The rest of us best wake the fack up and get rid of this ass hole.
A “successful psychopath” he is.
Why would you be sent to Auschwitz– are they rounding up drunk Irishmen now, Cunningham? You’re a disgrace. And that’s coming from a Latino.
Thomas ……Calm yourself . Now , is it really that bad ? You are comparing Our President to a Nazi ? I want to tell you & show you what an insane group of Presidents we have had . Would you say Obama was any kind of a leader ?? For 8 fn long years ! It was like watching and hearing President Carter on Ludes . Trump says Way too much , and he says what ever falls out of his mouth . But President Trump has Accomplished more GOOD than Obama could ever Dream of ! Obama was just a plain ol Quiet guy , that way no one could criticize him . Example of this Great Country being Two Faced ; When Obama was Pres. there was in middle America a Big Rodeo going on one afternoon [ stay w me now ] and a Rodeo clown put on his head probably the Only Obama mask on earth . This clown was doing to America, land of the Free what ALL Presidents have gotten , thats people poking fun ! The clown was pulled aside and fired !!! For putting an Obama mask on ! The officials all told this clown that it was the most disrespectful thing they had ever witnessed ! Now , take time Right Now to Look Back at what people Have Done and said about OUR PRESIDENT Now !!!!!!!! 50% of America , The Democrats and of course our liberals have gone out of their way to Smash this man and His Family to pieces ! Nordstroms immediately took Mrs.Trumps full line of clothing out of their stores , what did she do that merited that kind of Sh.t !!!??? Every pres.we have had said that the Boarder was out of control ! I personally know of illegals here that have trashed everthing in their path and have taken advantage of All OUR PROGRAMS FOR THOSE THAT CAME IN LEGALLY . NOW ……..IF we were to treat President Trump like we did Obama , how many people would get fired for Disrespecting OUR PRESIDENT !!??? S.N.L.& our own clown Jimmy Kimmel have made their shows about Anything that will tear Pres.Trump Down . Liberals nearly Burned America Down ” Before” he was sworn in ! Where Is The So Called Eqaulity !!??? Where does Hollywood get off Thinking they are in charge ?? The Hate Goes On , And Our Children Are WATCHING AND LISTENING !
May we never forget the people who suffered here. God bless their memory and their families. I pray that my country will never abandon the Jewish people, in Israel and throughout the world.
And the Palestinian victims of the Shoah for the digital world: politicide. Netanyahu is pure Trumpian Nazi crook. Both wl do time. The sooner the better.
I was 13 yrs old in 1964 and I was sitting in my living room in Fresno California. My father was reading the newspaper. I noticed a news story come on the television. It was a story on the 19th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland in 1945. I noticed my father lower his newspaper and was looking at the pictures on the Television. He had tears running down his face. When I asked him what was wrong. He just sniffed and said “I was there”. I asked him what it was like. He said “it’s something I will never forget” and pulled the newspaper up to his face and continued to cry for several minutes. Later at dinner I ask him again, Dad, what was it like to be there. He told me again that he would never forget what he saw and that he didn’t want me to ever experience the feeling he had. He finished by telling me “I will never speak of it again”.
Wow, Timothy, what a powerful story of your Dad! Thanks for sharing. I take it he was one of the soldiers who liberated Auschwitz? I wonder if any of those soldiers were able to communicate what they saw there?
A very powerful and descriptive read. Tears in my eyes and shivers through my body.
Thank You so much for sharing your experience.
Through your verse and your eyes I felt your pain and briefly the pain of the victims.
May God Bless each and every survivor and the thousands that died in the Holocast.
Hello, I have walked around this place, I have cried for the souls of those that perished here. This was the most evil and vile crime on innocent people by the nazis.
God rest thier souls, for the loved ones they left behind they would have to endure the pain and sorrow for the rest of thier lives…………
Let’s us just stop! read it put yourself in the moment think about it! We can all get something from this article. And with that said it’s not about “us” we are just reminded what has happened!
God bless “us” all to live in peace and happiness.
It doesn’t matter if it is Nazi soldiers or the U.S. Calvary or whatever means of killing people just because of race, religion or whatever, it is a sickness I will never understand. How can humans hate other humans this much. It goes back to the beginning of time. There will always be people that hate. I wish there was a way to stop it but that will never happen. I want to end on some sort of a positive note but I can’t. I’m so sorry
Dicky Harmon, “US Calvary”? calvary? Get educated, before posting, for Pete’s sake. At least learn basic spelling before spouting off.
The Auschwitz terror was an uncomparable crime against mankind.
At January 27, 1945, the end of WWII was not foreseen. As we know, the allied countries believed in an 1946 ending.
The snapshots of the hideous terror circulated only after the armistice.
Why did not use the Red Army those photos to show the true nature of the nazism before the world?
What a story ! I’ve read quite a lot about WW II, but this was a “new” story, fortunatly with a happy ending
This makes me cry! It should never have happened!
Beautiful words …
No ethnic group of people should ever experience this tragedy ever again. Many holocaust over the centuries in all parts of the world.
NEVER AGAIN !!!!!! NO MORE KILLING OF INICENT PEOPLE !!!!!!!
So horrible
Why us? It’s what we as Jews and the rest of the world should never forget. This atrocity will remain forever in our history. We are a people who constantly try to help and improve for the benefit of all mankind.
This is real history, no different than the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the invention of the steam engine. It is History, it should be taught in every elementary school, every high school and every college in the world.
Genocide presents us with an image so appalling
that it can be damaging even to look.
But we know we must look.
We know that repressing memory, willed forgetting,
is perhaps the greatest danger we face as a species.
If we want to remain fully human, we have no choice
but to confront and remember the past, to learn,
and to act on what we’ve learned.
Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation
Toronto Jewish Community
copied from the wall outside Auschwitz, August 2020
I have read many many books written by survivors of the camps. They are heartrending and so sad. Just go to your library and read a few and you can experience what happened from an eyewitness. It is unbelievable but sadly, horrifically true. Some are able to live on and lead a life and others never recover. I pray nobody will ever have to walk in their shoes again.
As a young girl I learned from my parents about the most evil crime against mankind. I also was taught about it in history classes during my school years. I find it very frightening to hear some of the younger generation say they know nothing about the Holocaust and further more they don’t believe it really happened. Our schools are failing our youth by not teaching our youth of our world history. I agree with Ronald Estepp. All history should be taught in every school. We must not allow this to happen again. I fear it is happening in some places even as we speak. Hitler’s tactics are being promoted in the United States as law makers try to pass gun laws that would make it illegal for the people to have guns. Just like Hitler did. Wake up people. Learn from history. May God Bless those who have suffered and are suffering!!
Some of my relatives from Gabowka, Poland were in Aushwitz. One Uncle never
talked about it. He felt guilty that he farmed for the Germans at 18 and he
managed to stay alive. My cousin always said “When the Russians won the war”
because they liberated Poland.
my mom’s family was from kracow (spelling?) poland. my grandparents came to the us in the early 1900’s but a few stayed in poland. my mom always wondered what happened to her uncle walter. no one had ever heard from him again.
Wow…. great dialogue and observations, people….. But remember….. this kind of thing happens again and again; Ruanda, Srebenitza (?), Burma…. reeducation camps in China, etc., etc…. It will continue to happen again and again… because this is who we are…. and as the global population continues to grow, and resources become scarcer, well, What do you think is going to happen???
The Holocaust was en extreme example of who we are…. but the flip side is the number of good people who did and do try to save lives…. people and governments like the Nazis (and others) are banking on the bystanders keeping their collective mouths shut and doing nothing….. So, let’s keep our eyes open.
I was born in 1942, in America, and grew up with accurate accounts of what had happened during my first 3-years of life. Reading the accounts in this article bring vivid memories and clear understanding of the horrors that one deranged State Leader could convince his military and government leaders to do, simple because their leader was brilliant at convincing, those who once were ordinary citizens, to join in his militia and commit terrible atrocities against other human beings in the name of Der Führer (1935) after becoming Chancellor in 1933. He gained political power. His earlier springboard was joining the National Socialists. We need to guard against allowing Socialism into this nation. It breeds complete government control over our lives, by putting into the hands of those in government…which is the exact opposite of what the Founding Fathers had in mind for these untied states and her citizens.
LORD HAVE MERCY. Never again.
I agree this is not about politics but about human decency or perhaps the evil that man can produce. That said, separating families is not acceptable because it is less horrific than the death camps. I like to think the people of United States would never allow this sort of evil to be perpetuated here but the standard for this country that I love has got to be much much higher than it is now. I am a proud American and veteran and would like to remain so. Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, and a long long list of hate crimes worries me.
Me too hate crimes, judgement of others before knowning there circimstances. I am quite concerned about the wellbeing of the USA.
Thom Harr Charlottesville was a “hate crime”…? Hate against whom, a rich white political activist? Give me a break, cry me a river. Innocent people are being killed every night in places like Detroit and Baltimore, but yet you don’t shed a tear for them, because they don’t fit your narrative and are the wrong race.
Thank you for this thorough review. We should never forget. God bless America.
Fay Geddes, you couldn’t be further from the truth. The Democratic Party does not equal Socialism, Natzi-ism, or Communism any more than the Republican Party equals Fascism. Suggestion for you to read for your enlightenment: Eisenhower’s Republican Party platform. I think it may shock you!
I teach middle school special education. My students must learn how to research and are learning about the Holocaust after reading the play, “Anne Frank”. They are truly interested, amazed, saddened, shocked, but want to know more. I didn’t learn of these inhumane and unfathomable acts of humankind until I was in college. I initially felt so guilty because I am mostly German. How could my ethnic heritage do this? That is where my 19 year old mind went. I have been educating myself ever since. My part is to continually educate children so they will know and never forget. I am not convinced that this couldn’t happen again in any country, and this is why education must continue everywhere.
How in the world were you able to graduated from Middle School, much less High School and pass the SAT’s or ACT’s without having ever heard of the Holocaust…? I knew about it by age 4….
Cheri, l adore you ! You are a teacher, an educator, someone who appreciates our great country and passes our great yet sometimes flawed history. You are the hope of our future! You will save our country from the socialists who want to destroy us! Again Cheri, l love you for who you are and what you are doing to save America! God Bless you Cheri!
I am very glad we hold these times of remembrance so that we do not forget. People rarely talk of the homosexuals who were rounded up too. The Nazis were skilled at making scapegoats if anyone who did not fit their ideal image. They would Identify a group of people who are “different“ and then demonize them and blame them for the ills of the society. And they proceeded to do the most horrible things to them. It was evil.
Fk off with your anti American sentiments, EdmundRuffinII
I had many family members murdered brutally in the Holocaust, some in Auschwitz. I knew none of them, except I have learned some of their names, and their home places – spread across Europe, wherever Jews lived. I mourn them all and feel the pain as I think about them.
But remembering the Holocaust, for me, is not just about mourning the millions of Jews and others who suffered – they are gone, we cannot bring them back – we can only remember them and the genocide that kept them from helping make a better world.
And the best remembrance is the “Never Again” response! and action!
But that is political.
While the Holocaust was distinguished by ‘efficiency’, otherwise it holds the classic hallmark of past and current genocides. Identifying an ‘other’, building contempt and hatreds through fabrications and stereotyping. Repeating lies again and again. Dehumanizing the ‘other’ and ‘tolerizing’ the leader’s tribe to increasingly brutalize the ‘other’, until vicious, atrocious, inhumane acts eliminate the ‘other’.
I believe, for ‘Never Again’ to be meaningful, we must recognize the human nature that makes atrocities possible and to react immediately and strongly whenever ‘othering’ is being promoted, wherever that may be.
The Holocaust was unique. Each life lost was unique.
But Rwanda, Darfur, Cambodia, Rohynga, Tibet-Uigher-Han, ex-Yugoslavia, Native Americans cleansings, Aboriginal Australians, New World enslavements of Africans and Native Americans, Irish-India-Britain policies, Holodomor, etc all have been unique.
The lives lost and possibilities limited were each unique.
And they were the same.
They proceeded through the same ‘othering’ processes.
“Never Again” Yet, again and again.
For me, the true memorial for the Holocaust and for all the other ethnic cleansings is to react whenever ‘othering’ is detected – by my friends, by my neighborhood, by my city, State, and Nation. To fight to stop the process, to confront the basic human behavior that too often leads to small and then to unimaginably huge tragedies.
I do not feel that the Holocaust is politicized when “Never Again” is the purpose. It is being remembered.
Today, it needs to be remembered in America – and Hungary, Britain, China, Russia, and too many other elsewheres.
We can more easily understand how the ‘good Germans’ became responsible as ‘followers’ of maniacal leaders.
It was (and is): A small step of ‘going along’ with name calling and more ‘othering’ actions / propaganda. With not opposing actions that smell of tyranny. With not standing with, and supporting in small and big ways those who are harmed by the ‘othering’.
Step-by-step, we are tolerized. We become the ‘good people’ who allow and support the atrocities.
Remembering our murdered fellow humans is always very important. Learning from Holocaust history, however, is rather meaningless if it does not lead to “Never Again”.
RJK, you blog was rather long but absolutely needs to be read by all. Great read and thank you!
Pat Tracy, I thought you were talking about Obama!
I could not agree more. When racial or religious intolerance occurs. What if you speak out aginst it and you are the one shot or imprisoned or tortured. Ihave heard this to be the case with people who rise up aginst dictators. Therefore, when and how does one prevent it? It should not happen again EVER TO ANYONE!
I could not agree more. When racial or religious intolerance occurs. What if you speak out aginst it and you are the one shot or imprisoned or tortured. Ihave heard this to be the case with people who rise up aginst dictators. Therefore, when and how does one prevent it? It should not happen again EVER TO ANYONE!
I feel WWII was the worst time for humanity. And all sides contributed. I sincerely hope we learned from that & never let those atrocities happen again.
Faye Geddes: You smear Democrats when we have a “president” who is clearly a criminal. I pity you.
[…] The Liberation of Auschwitz: January 27, 1945. […]
Any time I see this pictures and the article, “Make me to cry”