Holocaust Memorial

When the DC were young (so about 30ish years ago, I suppose), we went to a travelling exhibition in Aberdeen. It was put on by the Anne Frank Foundation (I think - it was certainly the Anne Frank something) and explained very clearly just how easily these things can come about. First there is the fear and distrust of "the other" which creeps insidiously into society, then measures to remove their rights and so on. It was quite frightening, and more so now when "the other" seems to be immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. We all need to be very careful in what we think about what we hear and read, and also about what we say. It could happen here too, dreadful as that is to contemplate.

Exactly when that is why it is so important to remember this day as I think it serves two very important things. The first is to remember all the millions of dead as a result of these atrocities and the second is to recognise the symptoms of a potential disaster happening again, but it undoubtedly begins with "the others"

Exactly. Lest we forget.
The fact that the holocaust denier, David Irving seems to feel his lies are now being accepted as truth is terrifying.

My late father was one of the first soldiers to enter one of the smaller concentration camps to liberate it. One of the last things he said before he passed away was that he had never forgotten the sight and smell of the place and the sadness that for all the fighting he still couldn't save all those poor people. Coming as he did from a very small country village and working on a farm at only 17 years of age I simply cannot imagine how he and his comrades dealt with all the horrors they must have seen On a slightly lighter note he was posted to India and I have a photo of him on an elephant - not many of those in rural Devon at that time.

May I remind anyone interested that there is the National Holocaust Memorial www.nationalholocaustcentre.net - it's a very moving tribute to all the people who have lost their lives - be it Krakow, Birkenfeld etc. as well as a very informative display to how it all began. It's a centre which is frequently visited by school children - there is a special tour for younger visitors. Well worth a visit if you're in the Newark / Notts. region. I've visited to listen to a talk given by Ivy Knill and will never forget listening to a survivor who also happened to be one of the Kinder Transport.

I have no wish to visit any of these places. I am not Jewish, but I was 12 years old when the war ended. I will never ever forget the cinema newsreels, of the skeletal inmates of the Belsen camp. They are indelibly imprinted in my mind. I don't need to visit these places, to be reminded of, mans inhumanity to man. Which still exists and always will.

I've never visited any of these death camps, but it was bad enough seeing the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. There is a small exhibition there which reduced me to quiet tears and everyone else seemed very subdued. Something I'll never forget.

I have never read anything about David Irving. How can such a flat earther be believed, there are so many first hand eye witnesses both sufferers and guards and those who brought release?

Unfortunately, Irving is still believed:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/15/david-irving-youtube-inspiring-holocaust-deniers

Anya same here - we visited the Anne Frank house during a visit to Amsterdam.
We lived in a Jewish community in NE England for 10 years, (my husband is a Jew,) and some in the older generation were survivors of the Holocaust, or their descendants. Many stories.
A dear friend across the road from us had been in Bergen Belsen as a very young child. She was from Holland, a big family, all the children survived, but her parents died of typhus towards the end.
I once read about two Jewish doctors in that camp who kept the children separate and the adults contributed any food they could find to keep the children alive.
As for Auschwitz, that's another story.
But as others have said, we never learn and similar things are still happening .

I've also visited the Anne Frank house, Anya and Tricia. I found it quite harrowing, a very strange atmosphere, everyone very subdued. Made us feel sad.

27th January

I for one will be giving some thought to this day and what it means for our future.

It happened because a large majority of the population accepted the politics of division. From an initial programme of Identifying the "other" and a gradual slid until full blown termination They accepted the false fact that Jews, gypsies, special needs, disabled and mentally ill were something to be disposed of.

As well as that,*whitewave*, they had an elected extreme right govt. which passed laws enabling them to punish severely anyone who dissented, or tried to help or hide any of the non-accepted groups.
As well as laws denying those groups their rights as citizens.

There is a film out currently called Denial. It's based on the true life story of an American academic who was sued by David Irving because she criticised him in one of her books.

She was interviewed on Women's Hour this week and was impressive. Evidently David Irving offered to allow her to settle the case, providing she gave £500 to a charity of his choice. Some holocaust survivors wanted her to do this, to avoid giving David Irving's denial the oxygen of publicity. The case was heard over several months, int the UK , where our libel laws were evidently more favourable to DI, or so he believed. He lost and the Judgement against him sounds to have been strong. (of course it would be)