Holocaust Remembrance Day Marked As Hate Grows, Knowledge Of Tragedy Declines

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Mon Jan 28, 2019, 01:41 AM - Edit history (1)

WARSAW, Poland — The world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday amid a revival of hate-inspired violence and signs that younger generations know less and less about the genocide of Jews, Roma and others during World War II.

In Poland, which was under Nazi German occupation during the war, a far-right activist who has been imprisoned for burning the effigy of a Jew gathered with other nationalists Sunday outside the former death camp of Auschwitz ahead of official ceremonies remembering the 1.1 million people murdered there. Since last year's observances, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was fatally stabbed in Paris and 11 Jews were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. Human Rights First, a U.S. organization, recalled those killings and warned that "today's threats do not come solely from the fringe."

In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are traveling the road to authoritarianism," said Ira Forman, the group's senior adviser for combating anti-Semitism. "As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust." In Germany, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned in an op-ed in the weekly Welt am Sonntag that across Europe populists are propagating nationalism and "far-right provocateurs are trying to downplay the Holocaust." "We shall never forget. We shall never be indifferent. We must stand up for our liberal democracy," Maas wrote.

The clashes of views at Auschwitz come amid a surge of right-wing extremism in Poland and elsewhere in the West. It is fed by a broader grievance many Poles have that their suffering during the war at German hands is little known abroad while there is greater knowledge of the Jewish tragedy.

Recent surveys show that knowledge of the atrocities during World War II is declining generally. A new study released in recent days by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the Azrieli Foundation found that 52 percent of millennials in Canada cannot name even one concentration camp or ghetto and 62 percent of millennials did not know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Its findings were similar to a similar study carried out a year before in the United States. In Britain, a new poll by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust found that one in 20 adults in Britain do not believe the Holocaust took place. -More...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/auschwitz-survivors-pay-homage-as-world-remembers-holocaust/ar-BBSNoRR?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15



Former Auschwitz prisoners wore striped scarves that recalled their uniforms, some with the red letter "P," the symbol the Germans used to mark them as Poles.

[TwistOneUp]

1. And it seems ...

That history will yet again be rewritten by the aggressors.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. In 1980 on our honeymoon my husband (now my ex) and I went to Auschwitz.

He was reluctant to go there, even though he lost no family there.

He's of Eastern European Jewish extraction. I'm Irish. We went to Vienna, Budapest, then Krakow on our honeymoon. I insisted we go to Auschwitz, and in the end he was glad we went.

But here's the more important thing. In this country, even fellow Jews don't recognize him as one of them, unless it's in circumstances that make it obvious. In Poland, we'd be out on the street and someone would suddenly walk up to him, start speaking to him in English, and when he looked confused would say, "You're Jewish, aren't you?"

It was weird for him, since in this country he passed as non Jewish. Oh, and I was completely invisible to them, obviously not a member of their tribe. The one encounter I recall most vividly was in a small town outside of Krakow where we were led to a nearby attic. The people there were very eager to show us the records they'd saved from the Nazis. It was humbling and awe-inspiring.

We must never forget.

Those of us who are not Jewish cannot let these memories die.

Similarly, those of us who are not African American must not allow memories of slavery to die.

[appalachiablue]

4. Absolutely we must preserve knowledge and memory

of the Holocaust and other oppressions. What an interesting visit you had in Poland, warm people, records in the attic and familiarity with your husband. Their recognition was clearly based on something intuitive, plausible. Thanks for sharing that unique experience.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Yes. He had long ago learned to

say things that would let another Jew know he was one of them, because in certain circumstances that was a good idea. But in Poland, he might as well have had a large Star of David tattooed on his forehead, because they had no trouble recognizing him as one of their own.

I doubt I'll ever go back there, but I am very glad we made that trip.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. It is sad, but not completely unexpected.

The rise of nationalism (and conservatism) in the West has contributed to all kinds of hate. Couple this with people ignoring the plights of certain minorities, and we are heading right back to the poem so many people love to quote about "First they came for..."

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R