Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. I heard and read in some places that it was yesterday and by some accounts, it's a week-long commemoration. But in the grander scheme of things, it really doesn't matter as long as we pause and give some thought to it.
Yesterday, some people listening to the Jew-hating Iranian President let him know what they thought of him, by causing a minor distraction for a moment. Two people even threw something at him, with only one getting close. It didn't look to be a very dangerous object from where I was sitting, but the great thing for me was the look on his face. He didn't seem to care for it. He had a slight smile but it didn't appear to be from amusement.
Many have yet to forget that dark period in the history of mankind. Some, like this bozo, think it never happened and are determined to rewrite history. Others who were there may not be with us today. So, remembering is something we try to do, so that we may never again see the kind of evil that generation was forced to endure. It's a sad commentary that we must have this day, as it picks the scabs of the wounds of those who suffered through it. But as long as jerks like Ahmadinejad are given a platform to speak hatreds, it is badly needed.
But we don't need a day or a week to call it into our minds. We can remember, educate, and teach this anytime. For some vacation ideas for families with school age children (or adults alone), here are a couple:
The National Holocaust Museum is located in Washington DC. It always makes a good stop while visiting the nation's capital.
But for those who cannot get there and may be traveling through Indiana in the near future, there is a good Holocaust museum in Terre Haute. If you are on I-70 going in either direction sometime, you may want to take an afternoon and see CANDLES, founded by a survivor of Mengele's experiments in Auschwitz. It's not far from the interstate and would make a good educational stop on a Midwest vacation.
Some onerous bastard tried to burn it down a few years back, but it survived the fiery inferno (as did its founder in the real inferno created by the Nazis). It just goes to show that whatever evil men and women may do, the truth can and will be preserved and will prevail.
My hope is that this will never happen in my lifetime, but who knows whether or not I will get that wish. One thing is more certain. If the world is not careful, some of us who read these words today will see this kind of onslaught again. When this generation dies off, so will the freshness of this history. And I so think the tendency will be to forget or play the entire thing down, so that it becomes minimized as a real event.
Like I said, I pray I never see it.
7 comments:
When this generation dies off, so will the freshness of this history.Just last night, I listened to Karl Rove and John Bolton stresses this very point. Both men agree, we are a single generation away from losing our Christian values, one generation away from losing our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and a generation away from accepting trans-national treaty as a viable alternative to public debate. I know how whacked this sounds, but I cannot ignore the question (no matter how rhetorical): has this been the purpose of public (socialist) education all along? Is this but one more case of finding American people asleep at the wheel?
Hi LA
"My hope is that this will never happen in my lifetime, but who knows whether or not I will get that wish. One thing is more certain. If the world is not careful, some of us who read these words today will see this kind of onslaught again. When this generation dies off, so will the freshness of this history."
You don't have to worry. It won't happen in your lifetime....but...in about 100 years a majority of what we know as the free world today will be living under sharia law. And because of this in about 200 years we will definitely see another Holocaust and as of today, there are very few countries that can guaranty the independance of Israel and the Jews in general. (don't think a two state solution will resolve anything) I don't even want to think what Europe will look like in 200 years. In 32 years since I have been here, there have been enormous changes to the makeup of the population and Muslim populations are getting bolder.
As for the "Nutjob" as Greg refers to him. Funny how this Iranian -American jounalist was convicted of spying right now at this point in time. Unfortunately it reminds me of a friend of mine Ziba (Zahra)Kazemi who was my neighbor from 1978 - 1990 in Villebon in France and who I kept in contact with until 2000 when she stayed with me for a week at my appartment in Paris. She was murdered in Prison in Tehran in July 2003 by the Iranian guards and maybe even the prosecuter who raped her and then beat her head in. I don't particularly want to get into the details of the story, they are ample enough on the Internet. She had left France in the late 90's to become a Canadian citizen and even dual nationality couldn't help her. Sitting in a hotel in Antwerpen in July 03 I was dumbfounded to see her face on CNN anouncing her murder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi
I just hope Obama won't be too soft but I am beginning to have my doubts.
Here's the difference. We're afraid to die and they aren't!
If the US had not allied itself with the Jewish people, we would've already seen another holocaust. The strength of America has kept them relatively safe. Obama is weakening America. Who will prevent the next holocaust?
So many people seem to go through life as if they were zombies. They don’t think things through. They don’t realize that even little mistakes can have awful consequences. Roxana Saberi failed to renew her journalist credentials, and then with full knowledge of the Iranian government, placed herself at risk by returning to Iran as a journalist. No one had a greater interest in renewing her credentials; it is not the responsibility of the US State Department, nor is it the responsibility for any news agency for whom she works as a free-lance journalist.
But what has happened is a shame. It’s too bad Iran doesn’t acknowledge that she made a dumb-shit mistake, assess a fine, and send her out of Iran, but we are, after all, talking about Iran. And while the Secretary of State observes how “regrettable” Ms. Saberi’s circumstances are, and as Mr. Øbama laments his disappointment, the fact is there are significant corollaries when we fail to act responsibly.
I have no doubt that her Iranian jail cell is regular witness to her abuse; that she is suffering an awful lot for one simple, stupid mistake. She isn’t the first, as Rocket pointed out to us in a foregoing comment. She won’t be the last. I fail to see what anyone in this country can do other than to work through an intermediary for a fair retrial and/or leniency.
But the topic of this post was the Holocaust. I don’t think we’ll see any more concentration camps, but I do believe another Holocaust is right around the corner. Either it will occur because Iran sends a thermal-nuclear device to Israel, which they have threatened to do every week for the past forty years, or they’ll send one as a retaliatory strike. As an aside, I cannot imagine that Israel, having announced that a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities is likely in the not-so-distant future, will actually do it. If they do, it will either be because they are gutsy people, or dumb as rocks. The entire purpose of surprise attack is that no one expects it. Raise your hand if you do not expect this to happen—soon. But does Israel have a choice, or can it afford to sit around waiting for an Iranian missile? And then, this one final thought. If you were the Prime Minister of Israel, would you be reeking confidence in an Øbama administration?
//Here's the difference. We're afraid to die and they aren't!//Not me. It's not my first choice right now and I am not willing to blow myself up for a cause to kill innocents. But make no mistake, I would not be afraid to die.
//Obama is weakening America.//And thereby weakening the entire world.
//If you were the Prime Minister of Israel, would you be reeking confidence in an Øbama administration?//
If I were ANY democratically elected national leader, I would not be reeking of confidence in an Øbama Administration right now.
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