Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day
I’m a bit late with this, but I thought that for yesterday’s Remembrance Day I’d link to a two-part series of mine. I’ve written many posts on the subject of the Holocaust, some of which you can find by doing a search on this blog for the word “Holocaust.” But today I’ll suggest these two: Part I and Part II of “Holocaust stories: temperament and trauma.”
Let’s not forget that Hitler’s Holocaust extinguished about 10 to 12 million souls, of which about 6 million were Jewish.
While EVERYBODY knows of Hitler and the Holocaust, please recall that Stalin murdered anywhere from 20 to 50 MILLION souls. His crimes, and those underlings who carried them out (e.g., Khrushev, et. al.) are largely forgotten or ore precisely, totally ignored.
Why?
Because liberal progressives sympathize, if not support outright, the communist message (from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs), so they have no problem overlooking the “excesses” of communist regimes. Note that most historians (academics) and media folks are liberal progressive.
Another reason is that the USSR was an ally of the USA during WWII (despite the fact that Stalin struck a peace deal with Hitler and that Stalin invaded Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia AND EASTERN POLAND (about 10 days after Hitler invaded Poland from the west).
Recall, also, that the Pulitzer Prize winning NY Times “reporter,” Walter Duranty, wrote glowing accounts of Stalin’s Soviet utopia, despite his knowledge of the mass starvation’s/exterminations being carried out there.
The literal “cover-up” of the Soviet/Stalin Holcaust is just further proof that the liberal progressive/socialist/communist mind set will forgive absolutely anything and everything provided their agenda is forwarded.
No need to speak of the 50 to 70 million souls who died as a result of Mao’s policies in China.
“No need to speak of the 50 to 70 million souls who died as a result of Mao’s policies in China.” – JohnTyler
And the sparrows — the extermination of which led directly to famine.
Meh,
We have Yom HaShoah and Tisha Ba’av already
It’s good to remember Holocaust Day, but I learned about 10 million were murdered in Nazi death camps, including some 6 million Jews, 3 million gypsies and other “deplorable” minorities, and 1 million opponents / non-accepters of Hitler.
Hitler was a socialist, a National Socialist Workers Party socialist. Not so different from Bernie and many, if not most, US professors; and UK, Germany, France and other OECD universities.
I also suffer a bit from Holocaust fatigue. The Turkish (Christian) Armenian genocide is too little mentioned; and I supported Dem Carter who accepted the Khmer Rouge socialist Killing Fields genocide in Cambodia. Pres. Bill Clinton, the rapist, did apologize for initially lying about the Rwanda genocide of Tutsis by lower educated Hutus, but it was also during my political life so I have far more responsibility for it than for the Nazis.
The US elites have rebranded socialist Hitler as “right wing”. Successful tho dishonest rebranding. I hate that.
For those of us who acknowledge the Holocaust, and who know a lot of the history, it might seem like the Holocaust gets too much mention. But I think it needs to be hammered through everyone’s skulls. New generations need to know what human beings are capable of. And yes that can include teaching about other genocides at the same time. Also, there are people who, astoundingly, still to this day deny the Holocaust even happened or claim that there were “only” a few hundred thousand deaths. We should rub all the evidence of the Holocaust in their faces.
Why does the world commemorate the Holocaust on this date given that neither Israel nor the Jewish diaspora, the only preeminent stakeholders with 74 year old tears over the eternally open wound, do so?
A free date on a UN calendar?
Not exactly. As with all things commemorated, the chosen date (January 27th) has something to do with those doing the commemorating and a bit less with those who are being commemorated.
13 Death camps, 356 starvation ghettos and countless forced labour camps in Poland, USSR, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Hungary were run by the Nazis between 1939 and 1945 to annihilate anyone with 1/16 Jewish bloodline or more. All in the spirit of “Final Solution” first laid out ever-so-tidily in the enlightened head of German composer, Richard Wagner.
Just as proposed in the two manifestos by monster Wagner, his ideological successor and countryman with that famous moustache built the ovens that turned 6,000,000 beating hearts into ash and smoke. Annihilation ovens smoldered human flesh in a matter of seconds on January 27th, 26th, 25th and everyday of the year, until the day the Allies defeated the Germans.
On January 27, 1945, the Red Army entered the largest death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and liberated approximately 7,000 remaining skeletons lucky enough not to have been murdered along the previous 1.3 Million inhabitants of the camp. The date commemorates the actions of the Soviet liberators, not the starving unarmed Jews who compliantly entered the ovens like lamb to slaughter to the sounds of none other than Herr Wagner, himself.
https://www.weeklyblitz.net/news/january-27th-heres-the-rub/
My father’s division, 104th Infantry Division, liberated what, in the Division history is known as the Mittelbau-Dora complex. I believe it was April 11.
He was on light duty on VE Day, having been wounded for the third time, so I don’t know if he was with his guys at the liberation.
He was too beat up to go to the Pacific–until the casualty numbers from Okinawa and Iwo came in. Then it was, as Paul Fussell, in roughly the same situation, said the physical requirements were can you fog a mirror. But the Division had gone home without him.
He spoke French and thought outside the box, so he had various jobs through the next year. He saw a lot. Collaborators, war crimes witnesses, medical facilities for the former inmates, a train load of dead babies, He didn’t speak much about that part of his overseas experience except to say ,”We can’t have that.” My buddies’ fathers, to the extent they discussed in front of kids, said about the same thing. Strikes me now that, had something of the sort happened again, they’d have rucked up and gone at it again.
I think one reason that there seems to be more open Holocaust deniers is that they know there aren’t many veterans left. It would be a bad thing for a denier to come face to face with veteran who might still be fit…and had seen some of the camps.
Or, for that matter, their sons.
It does seem strange that the international remembrance day is January 27, when the Soviets reached Auschwitz. Liberations of various murder camps continued throughout 1945:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/1945-key-dates
“Why does the world commemorate the Holocaust on this date given that neither Israel nor the Jewish diaspora, the only preeminent stakeholders with 74 year old tears over the eternally open wound, do so?”
Its been my experience that american and european pols after screwing Israel do a head fake and do a Holocaust event of make a Holocaust commemoration. Even more so with the UN.
Another issue is that any non Judaic Holocaust commemoration , evolves into a generic universal anti genocide commemoration defeating the purpose of the initial head fake.
Yesterday I spilled a glass of whiskey all over my phone. It hasn’t been right since.
what part of “never forget
What part of never forget do people not get?
‘
My phone seems to be OK.
Holocaust remembrance day. To me it is personal. Millions killed. But the only number that matters to each of us is one.
One is too many murdered. It may seem I went into the the wrong business if all I care about is number one. But the best defense is a good offense. It’s been the family business ever since we got off the boat from Italy.
Neo, how many times have you posted the scene from “A Man For.All Seasons?”
Giving the devil the benefit of law?
I will not only give the devil the benefit of law. I will hunt the devil down and feed him a good meal. And drag him around with me.
That way I know where he is. And when I know where Satan is he can’t sneak up on me.
Now you all know why I went into intelligence.
When someone kills over a million people arguing about whether Hitler was worse than Stalin or Mao is pointless.
For my money Mao was the biggest *******. Or considering he had fewer people to start with Pol Pot maybe.
YMMV. I’m not going to argue the point.
People who are too young to have lived through WWII will find that watching two thrilling TV mini-series by Dan Curtis, starting Robert Mitchum, is an efficient way to learn the essential history. Most big civic libraries can get these. One is Winds of War and this came out in about ‘83. It’s about what was happening in the years leading up to Sept ‘39. The sequel is War and Remembrance and this came out in about 1988 and is about the years ‘39 to 1945. Both together are about 20 hours long. Herman Wouk wrote them and they got many awards. There is some romance and lots of stuff on the holocaust, all done superbly, that will fix your attention.
What totalitarian regimes can do to humans they want to eliminate is frightening. Any ideology which advocates the brutal suppression and killing of disfavored groups must be opposed.
I just finished reading an article about what China did to Falun Gong practitioners, and is likely doing to Uighar Muslims and Christians. Communism is demonic. Millennials who think they want socialism are dangerously deluded.
https://spectator.org/the-fourth-reich/
I was Navy, but I can talk about the Marines. I am Marine Corps trained. And they taught me the ten rules of gunfighting.
1. Bring guns.
2. Bring all your friends with guns.
3 – 10 don’t matter if you screw up 1 and 2.
Hol0caust remembrance day should also be Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Remembrance day. The Jews fought back and that freaked the Germans out. But the Polish Jews didn’t have much in the way of weapons.
But we live in the greatest country on earth. And your government wants you to have guns.
http://thecmp.org/
“Home – Civilian Marksmanship Program”
Get your M1 Garand. That was our drill weapon when I was an Aviation Officer Candidate. Or your M1917 Enfield. I don’t care. Just as good; it appears your government wants you to have a M1911 pistol, which should be on offer soon.
An infantry squad was rendered combat ineffective if it were dispersed. Until the Garand rifle, which Patton really did call the finest battle implement ever invented. Two or three men getting back together meant the rodeo was back on.
Nothing is ever really obsolete. It may seem odd to hear this from a Sailor. But when you get down to it, the difference between me being an inmate in the camps or a liberator is the rifle I have in my hands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-48_Enforcer
A turboprop version of the P-51 Mustang. Is something with 8 .50 cals and hardpoints for nearly 6k pounds of ordnance ever really going out of style? Don’t think so.
The Soviets never threw anything away. When you run out of other tanks your T-34 starts looking pretty good.
https://theaviationist.com/2015/01/14/the-most-unusual-mig-killer-the-skyraider-air-to-air-victories-on-north-vietnamese-mig-17s/
The Able Dog wouldn’t be my first pick for a dogfight with a MiG. But, did I mention the rules of gunfighting? Number 2; bring friends. Fly in a circle with a buddy. Somebody always has four 20 mm cannons pointing at the bandit.
That and the Thatch Weave is pretty much all I know about dogfighting. And the Thatch Weave became obsolete in 1943 with the F6 Hellcat.
I take it back. Pointing your guns at people who are trying to kill you never becomes obsolete.
“What totalitarian regimes can do to humans they want to eliminate is frightening.”
Actually, Kate, and I’m sure you know this, what people in general can do to other people if they think they can get away with it is frightening.
People are capable of great amounts of decency. But they are also capable of incredible indecency. I’m using incredible correctly, as in beyond belief. As in, parents who will trade their daughter to a pimp in exchange for a Moped without a second thought.
I spent a lot of time in the third world where life is cheap and nobody cares. Oh, they cared about what I did because I’m a rich American and ripe for extortion. A lot of personnel get in trouble when they think they’ve crossed the perfume river and entered the wild west where they imagine there are no rules. There are rules, but the one rule you need to keep in mind is the old Irish saying. You can never beat the local horse at the county fair. You get crosswise with a local and you are going to wind up in a prison in a country where survival is iffy at best.
There was another rule I kept in mind; the Grandma rule.
Can I face my Grandma when this headline appears in the local paper?
I hope I don’t come across as thinking I all that highly of myself. I highly recommend the Grandma rule for navigating your way through the third world. Use it. My Grandma, also my parents, never had to quiz me about what exactly I did with those two 11 year old girls.
Actually the Sailor who did that never got questioned by his parents as at least one of the girls’ relatives caught up with him first. We got word when the Thai police found him hanging in a barn, and no one thought it was suicide.
Character is what you do when you don’t think anyone is watching. It is always possible to treat other people decently.
Steve57, I agree. I was very careful when living in third-world countries. Not that I would do something illegal, although following local customs in public is a good idea, and I always dressed modestly; but I was aware of the possibility of kidnapping.
Actually, the idea that all people are “naturally good” is not a Judeo-Christian teaching, and I believe Christian teaching in great part because I can see that many, many people are NOT naturally nice absent moral teaching. Jews and Christians have commandments from God which modify our innate beastliness. Some people never become monsters without religious teaching, to be sure, but a frightening number of them do.
I hope you didn’t get the idea I imagine people are naturally inclined to be nice.
A lot of products of Western civilization seem to be subject to this delusion. I am not one of them.
Fun fact. Do you know one of the hardest things to teach a product of Western civilization?
Yes, they really are trying to kill.you.
I hope you didn’t get the idea I imagine people are naturally inclined to be nice.
A lot of products of Western civilization seem to be subject to this delusion. I am not one of them.
Fun fact. Do you know one of the hardest things to teach a product of Western civilization?
Yes, they really are trying to kill you.
Ruses and deception are permissible under the Law Of Armed Conflict. It is what makes ambush possible.
It again might seem strange to read about ambush from a Navy guy. But you should see the look on those pirates’ faces when the Arleigh Burke we rigged to look like a merchant got done with them.
Just kidding. There was nothing to look at. Apparently Somali and Indonesian porates spend as much time on ship recognition as I did.
But perfidy is never permissible. That is when the Arabs use Red Cross/Red Crescent ambulances as troop transport or weapons carriers.or mosques as armoties.
I always wondered why the Isralis let this go on. The Arabs are the ones committing the war crimes.and reprisals are not only allowed but in my opinion required.
I meant the pirates DID NOT spend any time on ship recognition. I did. I couldn’t afford to make mistakes.
A USMC AH-1 Sea Cobra/Super Sea Cobra also produces impressive results.
I know I’m being a chatty Kathy. We in the United States armed forces operate inside the bounds of the Law Of Armed Conflict (LOAC). Generally against enemies who have neither heard of it or are convinced if the Law Of War outlaws something it must be a particularly effective technique/way of getting the job done.
That isn’t true.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/law-of-armed-conflict-loac-3332966
Still, if as an intel officer I didn’t inform my guys of that we were probably going to be the only side staying within the bounds of the law I wouldn’t have been doing my job. Things like getting skinned alive with vise grip pliers. Or worse. Yes, there’s worse. Or at least just as bad.
If you can think of it someone has done it. If you can’t think of it because you are a decent person someone who isn’t a decent person has done the unimaginable. Because they enjoy it.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/family-robert-levinson-held-iran-13-years-calls-prisoner-exchange-n1097591
Guess who thinks very carefully before doing any foreign travel?
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/05/03/otto-warmbier-mother-cindy-warmbier-says-son-was-devil/1091665001/
Guess who won’t be going anywhere near Pyongyang without the 2nd Infantry Division (second ID, second to none)? I think the guy was framed entirely. There’s a grainy video of SOMEBODY taking a poster off a wall in a hotel. I’ve watched that video a number of times.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=otto+warmbier+pyongyang+video&view=detail&mid=E09848549B89562C3841E09848549B89562C3841&FORM=VIRE
That could be anybody.
When the NORKs sent him back his face was locked in a grimace. His parents said you could practically hear him still screaming. I went through SERE school with SEALs and Recon Marines. Nobody is that tough. No thanks.