Remembering Auschwitz

That is so, so sad tickingbird. I was brought up Catholic and went to a Catholic school. There were quite a few Jewish children there and some were my friends. My parents had Jewish friends and business associates and they went to numerous family celebrations, my dad attending the boys’ bar mitzvah. He was given his own kippot (I think that is what it’s called - the domed hat?).

I do hope this is just your misfortune, it doesn’t speak to my experience.
One of my few close, long term friends is a Jew. We brought up our children side-by-side and I love her dearly.

I was about 9 years old when I saw the liberation of Belsen people on the Cinema news

I have never forgotten it,, I can`t cope with this on tv.. I know we have to remember, but I wish we did something positive to stop it ever happening again, and it is happening, now,,, in other countries,, genocide..

Yesterday was a day of official mourning for those who were murdered at Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Nothing should have interfered with that and nothing did.

Today we could maybe pause to reflect on what we hear is happening to Muslims in parts of China about which no protests from Britain appear to be made as we rush to make trade deals. Similarly as already mentioned above the deliberate genocide, or what amount to it, in parts of Africa and the Middle East to whom we readily sell arms. Is this what the learning of lessons amounts to?

I also saw the programme last night about the children and it moved me to tears. Just how can people do this to another its beyond belief. It still goes on, Burma, US, and dare I say it Israel and Palestine. Please, please, let it stop.

I visited Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany when visiting my friend in Hamburg. It was haunting and the way the Germans have everything arranged is a testament to their pledge that it must never happen again. There are various rooms playing footage of the camp and each room is in a different language so most visitors can find narration they can understand. There are rooms full of belongings and uniforms and yellow star badges. There are tables where you can sit with headphones on and hear various stories about real people that were taken there. One I found particularly moving was the story of a Gypsy boxer, Johann Trollmann, who fought for Germany but Hitler wouldn’t have a Gypsy in his army so he was brought back to be worked to death in Nuengamme.

I don’t know about Auschwitz but this camp was educational and they need to be preserved to educate people as to what can happen and what did happen and how supposedly civilised people can descend into pure sadism and evil. Needless to say entry to this camp was free and the only money being taken was in the small coffee shop. It wasn’t a money making exercise in any way and I commend the Germans who are ashamed of this diabolical chapter in their history.

What I find interesting is the amount of covert anti semitism there is in the world. I don’t know if it’s just my experience but I have encountered it several times from people I wouldn’t have thought would entertain such views. I believe virtue signallers to be the worst of them. Two very close friends if mine, both British of Irish descent and catholic upbringing. I believe it’s due to their catholic background but may be wrong. Both good women. One always devout but not so much now she’s older, a dedicated nurse and very charitable and kind. In an unguarded moment at Christmas after a few red wines, told me she’s fed up of hearing about what the Jews went through and it wasn’t a patch on what happened to black people. The other one, also a good person, outwardly at least, once told me the Jews should just shut up about the Holocaust, it was the last century, just forget about it! As this came from someone who has often berated the English for what they did to the Irish I soon put her right.

I find it frightening that ‘good’ people can hold such views and I truly believe there are many more that hold their tongue when unsure of their audience.

I would not visit Auschwitz or any of the death camps. I would feel contaminated. I know what happened, I know people who had family members there. To me there would be something not decent about going to look at where unspeakable things happened.

Thanks for the link NotSpaghetti. I watched the 9pm programme on BBC2. It really made you think about how difficult and sad it was for those poor children.
It's good that young people are educated about it.
Lets hope that this commemoration stays in everyone's mind for a long time and reminds us all to show compassion.

I watched the Holocaust Day Memorial programme on the television last night with Huw Edwards presenting it very well. That was very moving too with testimony from survivors , music and speeches. Candles were lit at the end. I have recorded several programmes this week to watch when I can.

My school did a Holocaust remembering assembly yesterday. One of the teachers came into my room for a box of tissues. We both said how important it was that the 11-18 year olds were taught about what happened

I have just watched a programme about the Windermere project "in their own words"
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dt7g

Not exactly following on from your postings above but very moving none the less.

I do wish, as a country, we would do more for refugees now. Really we have no excuses.

So true Daisymae

Thank you annep

No-one outside knew about the camps and what was happening there until the liberation.

The Allies were fighting the Nazis on all fronts and trying to liberate Europe and the rest of the world but no-one imagined there would be such death camps.

Some inspiring stories have come out of the horror.

Pogs thank you for contributing to my thread. I didn't post in News and Politics as I simply wanted people to listen to the song and reflect . The song is so moving even without understanding the words. Impossible to listen without tears.
I wasn't quite accurate. Apparently the song was inspired by words written on the walls of a cell ocupied by a prisoner in a nazi cell who was about to be executed.

I have holidayed a few times in Poland near to where atrocities occured. I feel sometimes the Poles have never recovered.

There are no answers, there are no words.

annepl

Apologies to you. I did not see you had started a thread earlier than one I raised on News and Politics. I have duplicated my post on your thread as it is correct to follow a time line and you raised the topic ahead of me.

I posted because I found the Live coverage from Auschwitz this afternoon so moving and all credit to the BBC for covering the 75th Anniversary without interruption to give the occasion the respect it deserved.

' The speeches were so obviously sad but my goodness hit the spot.

The gentleman who spoke of Auschwitz not landing from the sky and the ' 11th Commandment' , the lady from the Roma people , the gentleman who related the story of the child in the ' red coat ' and the fact her ashes were resting behind them were heart breaking, so poignant.

The mention of the rise again of antisemitism and how some even in respected positions of government /politics are once again anti jew etc. etc. etc. could not fail to strike a note of concern, we have learnt nothing if we allow the subliminal messaging of some who do not see their own antisemitism but it is there for all to see.

( in response to Anniebach) - I too watched the coverage from Jerusalem for the World Holocaust Forum and I thought Prince Charles set a perfect tone in his speech and he certainly did the UK proud by remembering what he was there for and not raising politics as a couple of others did. '

maddyone, I don't think anyone has disputed that Britain 'did nothing' . Most of us will have had parents who fought in WW2 and we certainly grew up with it (and WW1) as a backdrop to our childhoods and young adult lives. This country fought a just war ,thanks to all those brave men and women.
I don't entirely agree with you that 'we do our fair share of accepting refugees and asylum seekers and they're treated well here'. I don't believe we do take our fair share, neither do many other countries. WE have an international disaster as a result of wars in Africa, Syria, Lebanon etc. I idon't have any simple solutions and I do understand the fears expressed by some that we lose our identity, cripple our already stretched public services if we operate an open door policy. I wish there was more international co=operation and also, that we didn't support the arms race by selling arms.
Lesbos is a small Greek island which survived reasonably well with tourism. The refugee camps on that island is wrecking their economy. If we're talking about fair shares, they seem to have many more than their fair share.

But Britain didn’t do nothing did it? Britain fought Nazism for six solid years. Britain took over a thousand children on the KinderTransport. But Britain couldn’t have ever imagined the depths the Nazis would sink to. Later it was known, but it was thought that the best way to help was to defeat the Nazis. Britain put itself into debt in order to liberate Europe, which it took till the year 2000+ for us to pay off. No one should denigrate Britain for what it did during the war.
Currently we do our fair share of accepting refugees and asylum seekers, and they are treated well here, as it should be. Britain did, and does it’s share.

Desperately sad listening to the reports on the radio today. What is tragic is that it hasn't really stopped and people are suffering today in many parts of the world. I think that it's important to remember the past but we are bad at learning from it.

Yes how much better to have taken the parents as well. How much more humane for those that died and their children who grew up without them.

“All it takes for evil to flourish is that good men do nothing “

Our government has just voted to refuse entry to unaccompanied refugee children. Friends who have volunteered in the refugee camps in Iraq, Greece and France are united in their belief we have to take in these children.

As for the holocaust, this country took some children from the kinder transport but refused to take adults, most of whom were then murdered in the camps. We didn't go to war to stop the holocaust we did it to stop Nazi domination of the world. Thank goodness we did.

Although we took a certain number of child refugees courtesy of a few brave private individuals ( not a government initiative) the U.K. refused to take adult Jewish refugees, so many parents who sent their children on the kindertransport were then murdered. So we could have taken in families but didn’t. I feel sad about that.

I expect some will have heard of the Stanley Milgram psychology experiment some years ago where he was testing obedience in an attempt to explain how so many German officers could have behaved in such an horrifically brutal way.

I know maddyone, but enough to cut ties with the US, surely? Plus my comment was mainly aimed at US voters.

It’s awful Gaga, but we were not able to do anything about it as it happened in another country.