Discussion Forum

Imagine this precise moment in Western Europe.

Exactly 70 years ago today.

It was probably freezing cold in Eastern Poland. That late afternoon on January 27th 1941. Just about now the sun will have been going down. And work will have stopped for the day. Hundreds would be about to fall on a bowl of watery soup and a bit of black bread.

Others will certainly have perished during the past 24 hours. From malnutrition. Or from beatings. Or from a bullet at the Wall of Death.

And the smoke would have been rising from the chimneys of the gas chambers.

This was Auschwitz Birkenau.

And today is Holocaust Memorial Day

Just sayin'

Thank you, for the reminder.
Having Romany blood, this historic event saw many of my ancestors put to death in one way or another.

Bless the soul of every person that suffered.




Arm xxxx

Oseh shalom bim'romav
Hu ya'aseh shalom aleynu
v'al kol Yisrael
v'Imru Amen.


He who makes peace in High Places, He will make
peace for us and for all Israel and let us say, Amen

Let's hope we never experience anything like this again.

My thoughts are with families who suffered and continue to suffer in wars past and present.

LG

...Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.

Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.

Elie Wiesel


And some in this 24 hours have argued the toss over ways of making life easier in an imaginary land worth nothing.

As some, grey clad and black-booted, in those age old shadows where now only invisible hands plead from the stone cold earth, argued the toss over a pair of shoes, a cardboard suitcase or a dead lover's ring...

anon

Y'-va-re-ch'-cha A-do-nai v'-yish-m'-re-cha;

ya-er A-do-nai pa-nav a-le-cha vi-chu-ne-ka;

yi-sa A-do-nai pa-nav a-le-cha.

v'ya-sem-l'-cha sha-lom.



The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make

his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto

you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you &

grant you peace.

-Aaronic Blessing

We must never forget these things.

(But it does still happen - in Africa, in the Balkans.)

As a History student, (sadly my current course only goes up to Hitler's Germany (1933-9) and From Tsardom to Communist (1920s to 1941)), I did a module on WWII. Damn, eyeopener.

It's pretty damn easy for us to say that "it's all terrible" or "damn you Hitler", but as historians - or indeed anyone looking at human history - we can never, never, ever know what it was like in those times. We get terrified just looking in the textbooks and the diaries of the time. Think of what it would be like for us to be there.

Of course, our thoughts cannot just go out to the past. That was then. To stop a Part 2, our thoughts and aid must go out for those in danger today.

So true.

It does put petty arguments on site...in perspective.

Also, it's happenings such as the Holocaust that made me question god and ultimately decide....I'm an atheist working in a 99% Christian school-which is ok coz I don't have to teach religion.

Yes 'Holocaust' gets a capital 'H' whereas 'god' isn't capitalized in MY writings.

LG