The Holocaust: Emotional impact of...

[Bluehawk]

I never cease to think about it, since WW II and in all its manifestations elsewhere ever since then.

It occupies my mind, like a brutal memory, from which I cannot turn away.

It tears my heart to pieces.

I see myself being there even though I'm not a Jew, a Gypsy, a Gay person, a Jehovah's Witness... because, sometimes, I absolutely DO strongly go against the policies of governments world over.

I see the little children and mothers, and the old and lame... no chance at all in most cases.

I find myself wishing, hoping, or even somehow praying that the Holocaust will forever stand as the apogee of brutal sadism back to which human civilization will never ever again humiliate itself by going... and then I see Rwanda, Darfur, Wounded Knee, Andersonville, Bataan... and the World Trade Towers.

I see those cattle cars, and people jammed inside hour after hour after unending hour with nowhere to go for normal human needs, so little food of the poorest quality, in the freezing cold and suffocating heat.

I see a nation of non-combatants who knew of and/or even collaborated in sustaining that tragedy beyond tragedy... going about their business, and even earning their living from the horrors of others.

I see secret bank accounts still today stockpiled with bricks of gold, from teeth... and blankets or clothing made from human hair, and hopeful suitcases filled with nothing left to steal.

I see lice and dysentary and typhus and endless diahhrea, and 4 to a "bed".

I see tattoos made into lamp shades and book covers, and men frozen in ice water or with lungs burst by "medical experimentation."

I see emaciated bodies tossed into piles like trash, and heads pushing out from under barracks set afire, for that last breath of air or freedom.

I see constant constant constant nudity, humiliating forced degrading embarassing purposeless nudity.

I see men in beautifully crisp uniforms passing judgement on who is to live or die, and how they shall.

I see technical engineering "efficiency" applied to the industrial murder of the defenseless.

I see walled ghettoes where the forelorn hope of survival drew families together in inconceivable ways, and where braver than brave people strived to rise up in anger against the terror, and gave the sadists an honorable fight.

I see people deathly judged by the signs on their papers and the patches on their clothes, the shape of their nose, or the color of their eyes and hair... and by the percentage of presence in their blood of a certain kind.

I see the USS St. Louis being turned away from humane refuge at our own and many other international ports of call.

I see a meaning of War Crimes, and trials... and of those who got away.

I see a simple little blue star of two triangles on a white field.

I see an ancient spiritual symbol cynically and forever turned into the essence of horror... in vivid black, red and white.

I see little stones placed upon memorials, to remember, and to weep, and to grieve.

I see written and spoken testimony of these facts, and little works of art by imprisoned children whose names we will never know.

I see places of worship torched and destroyed and plundered for their silver and their silk.

I see a crystal night, and painted warnings of those who dwelt within being "subhuman"... a plague of swarming "rats."

I see a national media who elected to perpetuate a propaganda... and I see cowardice and greed.

I see arms and hands stiffly upraised in salute to this indescribable torture to the martial tunes and torchlit parades of a populace and a military who wiilingly or unknowingly just "went along" or "followed orders."

I imagine that I smell the odor of burnt and rotting human flesh, and the stench of brothels where pretty girls were doomed to serve.

I see many museums...

I see many hearts, many many many tears.

and, I see some who say it never happened at all.

[sfga6970]

Great post, but there is a thread about the Holocaust in the History Club forum and you might want to think about moving it there. It would fit in perfectly and give others a chance to see it also. It is definitely a part of world history. It's titled A Question for Members.

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by sfga6970

Great post, but there is a thread about the Holocaust in the History Club forum and you might want to think about moving it there. It would fit in perfectly and give others a chance to see it also. It is definitely a part of world history. It's titled A Question for Members.

I just didn't know if everybody over there had yet agreed to Caldric's idea of getting that going...

I don't think I have privileges of moving threads though... but that could well be the best thing to do.

[AMVET91ALPHA]

I think it is not just history tho, but of particular relevance in today's world. Just look at the case of the woman and the feeding tube..and remember that when Hitler first came to power, the FIRST to die was the mentally ill and retarded and infirm under his 'euthanasia' programs, and they were gassed to death before even the Jews.

Then there are those who would deny that the Shoah ever even took place, or still to this day, those who say that 'they had it coming' and only lament that 'Hitler didn't get to finish the job'.

I just finished reading a book called "IBM AND THE HOLOCAUST: THE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE BETWEEN NAZI GERMANY AND AMERICA'S MOST POWERFUL CORPORATION", by Edwin Black.

It makes for some riveting reading...it shows how it wasn't just Hitler and his henchmen/madmen that enabled the holocaust to take place, but businessmen who saw only the bottom line and the money without taking into account the cost...

[Snowden]

Wing, that is a perfectly "beautiful" post, expressing what I think of so often - in words I could never have put together so well.

I'm neither Jewish nor Gypsy, homosexual nor any other of the categories Hitler put people into for sentencing them to the horrors of those death camps. But it's something I have never been able to forget. How and why it was able to be done; at first only using laws already put in place by the Weimarck Republic.

I was a child when WWII started - in 1939 when German troops marched into Czechoslovakia and took over. I remember listening to the radio to the revelation for the first time in my life of starving people standing in line for hours for a loaf of bread. Somehow that sticks in my mind so vividly.

Then, when we found out about the concentration camps - and our people would not help, did not go into that area of war until Pearl Harbor and Germany's subsequent declaration of war on the US.

After the war, we found out the extent of what had gone on in Germany.

You have put this so well it brings it all back. Once this thread stops gleaning posts here, I agree with sfga that it should go into the History Club to be very sure it is not one to simply disappear.

One of the women I worked with, of German lineage but who went to Germany only on her honeymoon with her German husband, denied the holocaust. Even when I told her Bob had gone through a couple of those camps when our troops arrived there, she denied it. Probably the only real anger I felt with her - in my mind she was calling him a liar.

We also had another German woman there, as I've mentioned before. She told us both about those camps. The allied troops marched the citizens of Germany through them, but that woman told me there was no secret about it. The smell from the camps; the men going home from work at night; the ever-present fear of a knock at the door in the middle of the night. It was a horrible way to live.

One of our scientists at the Research Laboratory had something explode one day - I ran to the German woman's cubicle because I had just passed it and knew she was there. She was gone. After all those years, the sound of one explosion had caused her to vacate the premises with unbelievable speed.

Even the good, Aryan citizens lived in fear and horror. And yes, there are those who deny it ever happened.

[Snowden]

Originally Posted by AMVET91ALPHA

I think it is not just history tho, but of particular relevance in today's world. Just look at the case of the woman and the feeding tube..and remember that when Hitler first came to power, the FIRST to die was the mentally ill and retarded and infirm under his 'euthanasia' programs, and they were gassed to death before even the Jews.

Yes, that's true, Amy. As one of the "physically/mentally unfit," she would have been one of the first to go.

Then there are those who would deny that the Shoah ever even took place, or still to this day, those who say that 'they had it coming' and only lament that 'Hitler didn't get to finish the job'.

They say it was because of the Jews being successful businessmen (only not as gracefully phrased!). Like 9/11, there is a tendency to blame the victims. This must be one of the strangest of human inclinations. "I only killed him/her because he/she deserved it." Stupid. We all deserve death and will get it, simply because that's part of this life. They are excusing themselves, I believe; and that is - excuse the redundacy - that is inexcusable.

I just finished reading a book called "IBM AND THE HOLOCAUST: THE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE BETWEEN NAZI GERMANY AND AMERICA'S MOST POWERFUL CORPORATION", by Edwin Black.

It makes for some riveting reading...it shows how it wasn't just Hitler and his henchmen/madmen that enabled the holocaust to take place, but businessmen who saw only the bottom line and the money without taking into account the cost...

I had no idea IBM was in any way involved, Amy! We see that today, of course; only it's Haliburton and their ilk who are making money no matter who or what the sacrifice, don't we! The war swirls around them, but by gum, they're getting richer and richer.