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A Thought of Hope

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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On this date, January 27, 1945, Soviet troops discovered the horrors of the German concentration camp complex at Auschwitz, Poland. As Allied troops advanced into the former Thousand Year Reich, more horrors were revealed and shared with the world.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day world wide.


May this be remembered, and never repeated.
Hope.
 
My Father, while stationed in peace time Germany, took us on a history tour one summer. Among the many places we went were Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam and the concentration camp at Dachau. The experience of standing in the rooms with the ovens left an indelible impression on me as a 12-13 year old.
 
And some kids complain on how bad they have it today.
Maybe if they visited those sites.
 
In a 2014 lecture at the University of Hawaii Law School, Antonin Scalia told the crowd that Korematsu (the Japanese internment decision) was the worst thing we ever did and that people were kidding themselves if they thought we would not do it again. Visit the top floor of the Holocaust Museum in DC and it is apparent how, and how easily, the Holocaust was put in motion. Look around now.
Bob
 
Trevor
Perhaps apocryphal and trite, but there is a short parable attributed to a German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoller, in which he listed the groups the Nazis came for (socialists, then trade unionists, then Jews), saying for each in order that Niemoller did not speak out because he was not of any targeted groups. It concludes with the Niemoller's observation that, when they came for him, there was no one left to speak for him. The guy in the tee shirt that says "6 million is not enough" or the like needs to be spotted and excluded from opportunity to influence civil society from the first time we see him, which is, I think, the main lesson of the top floor of the Holocaust Museum.
Bob
 
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Yes something to remember always.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
 
Thanks for your support folks. I've posted the Niemoller many times here. Might be helpful to us all, if we share out thoughts on injustice with others, especially the young. As I learned back in high school - in Texas in the 1960s - when you see something that just plain *wrong*, then speak up about it. Don't just smile and stand in silence. Arguing and yelling doesn't usually accomplish much; but stating your opinion and asking questions often does.

"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” J. S. Mill, 1867.
 
I went to the Holocaust museum soon after it opened with my kids. We took the elevator to the top floor and when we exited the elevator I pointed out a camp uniform that was worn hanging on the wall. Hours later when we made it to the lower level, an older lady who worked at the museum asked us “if we saw the uniform on the top floor”. She proceeded to tell us that it belonged to her husband. She went on to tell us that he was approximately 80 lbs when he was liberated and that he buried the uniform so that one day he would retrieve it to show the world what happened.
 
After college, I worked in Chicago as a claims rep for the Social Security Administration.

Speaking with a gentleman who was about to retire at age 65, I asked him for proof of age. He showed me his driver's license.

I said we needed something made earlier in his life. He showed me a displaced person certificate from the Red Cross, 1946.

I asked if he had some form of identification made before 1946. He only had one thing -

He rolled up his sleeve and showed me the number tattooed on his arm.

I still break up every time I think about that - and what it means to have your humanity erased.
 
NutmegCT said:
I asked if he had some form of identification made before 1946. He only had one thing -

He rolled up his sleeve and showed me the number tattooed on his arm.

I still break up every time I think about that - and what it means to have your humanity erased.
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I can only imagine the impact that must have had. Thanks for sharing that.
 
The parents of the lead singer for the band Rush, Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib) were Holocaust survivors, both jewish from Poland. Initially his parents were imprisoned as teens at Auschwitz, where they met. Later, they were spit up, with one going to Dachau and the other going to Bergen-Belsen. After the liberation, his father successfully found his mother in a displaced persons camp and they married a short time later. I heard Geddy relating the story of his parents in an interview once.
 
Basil said:
The parents of the lead singer for the band Rush, Geddy Lee (born Gary Lee Weinrib) were Holocaust survivors, both jewish from Poland. Initially his parents were imprisoned as teens at Auschwitz, where they met. Later, they were spit up, with one going to Dachau and the other going to Bergen-Belsen. After the liberation, his father successfully found his mother in a displaced persons camp and they married a short time later. I heard Geddy relating the story of his parents in an interview once.
Click to expand...
My father's first real girlfriend was sent to Auschwitz, he never saw her again.
 
Father-in-law (R.I.P.) lost track of his twin brother as they were aided in escaping a Nazi camp by their older brother. The older one stepped on a land mine and lost a leg in the attempt. Not until the Wall fell did F.I.L. learn his twin had died a few years earlier in East Germany. These three were Ukrainians. F.I.L. went on to be a "messenger" for the Allies.
 
I keep a few remembrances of that horrific event, a reminder that mankind is not by nature 'kind' and that seemingly normal people can do tremendously
92d0370d3a66a599dda2aa3642107c51.jpg
evil things.
I'd recommend this book...about city Police officers mobilized for a unique duty.

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland​


I keep this picture too as one of the saddest things I've ever seen.....it is obvious he has never had his picture taken...breaks my heart everytime I look at it.
 
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