Auschwitz liberation 70th anniversary

Yesterday was the 70th Anniversary of Auschwitz liberation by Soviet troops.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-28/world-leaders-join-last-survivors-in-auschwitz-anniversary/6050446?section=world

I'm surprised that there was little media attention paid to this historic occasion and saddened to think that the events over Tony Abbot the last few days have overshadowed this.

 

14 comments

Sandi in this day and age when people are more educated and should understand more their still lingers anti jewish feelings, not anti israel as a country, {which is there also} but anti the person, why is it like that? we are all humans even the sadist terrorists, but the the antiterroism doesn't seem to carry the same personal hatred against them as that perpetrated against the average Jewish person who just wants to live a normal peaceful life. No I am not Jewish but grew up with Jewish friends, one who was in my grade at school and much later become the first cameraman for HSV7 although he has passed on now, he had a harrowing story of his family escaping from Russion persercution under Stalin.

 

THE CREED OF A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR
by Alexander Kimel

 

I do believe, with all my heart,

In the natural Goodness of Man.

Despite the blood and destruction,

Brought by one man, trying to be God,

In the Goodness of Man, I do believe.

I do believe, with all my heart,

That God gave man the blessing and the curse.

Man can select the curse of envy, hatred and prejudices,

Or the blessing of love, harmony and beauty.

Despite the painful curses of the past,

In the blessing of the Creator, I do believe.

I do believe, with all my heart,

That God created a beautiful world,

The sun and the trees, the flowers and the bees.

And the best way to serve God, is

To enjoy the fruits of His labor of love.

Despite the painful memories from the past,

In the joyful celebration of life, I do believe.

I do believe with all my heart,

That God has created man in image of His own.

And killing of man, is like killing of God.

Despite the massacres in Rwanda, the cleansing in Bosnia,

The folly of Muslim fanatics, and the cruelty of Pot Pol.

In the love and compassion of the Creator, I do believe.

I believe with all my heart,

That the Messiah and the Kingdom of Heaven will come;

When man will conquer his destructive urge,

And learn how to live in harmony with nature and himself.

When all the preachers of hate will be silenced,

And man will become his brother's keeper.

When man will stop killing man, in the name of God,

And nation will not lift weapons against nation.

When it will be, I do not know, but

Despite all the signs to the contrary.

In the dawn of a Better World, I do believe.

Sandi - I have seen quite a lot on the news channels yesterday/today?  They have covered it pretty well here in Melbourne?   There is one thing - however - that has stuck in my mind for a long time ......when I saw the documentary on "Treblinka" and I think there may be only 2-3 survivours left from that camp?  The gentleman who was I think approx. 90 years old - he said in the Doco.  "My grandchildren asked me "why it happened and why didn't anyone stop it Grandpa"???  

He smiled  - and told them   "My children - I think God may have been on holidays at that time:" !!!

 Phew!  I am NOT religious in any way or form - BUT- those words will stay with me for the rest of my life!  What an amazing amazing man - he had been thru hell n back!  

I saw this Doco. maybe a year ago on SBS...........horrific!

It was not God on holidays, we have all been given free will, what we do is what WE choose to do or allow others to do, what happened to the Jews in Europe and Russia, happened because of little or no opposition to the murderous regimes of Hitler and Stalin. why not ask why? there is so much aggro against them.

I had Jewish friends too Seth and always found them to be gentle people.  I can't understand all the agro against them.

What happened in Europe and Russia should never happen again to anyone, not only Jews and the world should hang their heads in shame that they knew what was happening and did nothing about it.

Micha, I don't think we will ever see a unified world, not in my life time anyway.  Too many despots who want to take over and keep people enslaved or eliminate them simply on the basis of their religion.  Power and money equals greed.

Micha,

That is a nice altruistic poem but falls short of reality as far as I am concerned. I am not religious so don't identify with the religiosity, for example: "That God has created man in image of His own" but I do think "When man will conquer his destructive urge, and learn how to live with nature and himself" is at the heart of the story of the garden of Eden. Personally I have always thought that the snake in that story represented man's ego saying "you can use this world for your own ends" and so man was separated from Eden and suffered injury to his/her own soul. 

Just as we need 'hot' to define 'cold', 'day' to define 'night', 'good' to define 'evil' and visa versa for each and millions more examples, we will never have a perfect world. That is why I say it is altruistic, but thank you for putting it up anyway because a deep part inside of all of us needs to hope for a better world.

Robi you do not have to be religious to see where human behaviour has destroyed peoples lives after all it isn't being 'religious' that is important, it is in having a faith that their is something a lot more, and we show it by treating others as we ourselves would like to be treated, no one escapes pain whether it be  physical, mental or spiritual. it is how we react.

I take all of your points, but for me personally, if hope does not exist, we have nothing. The theme for yesterday was "This must never happen again" and many of us know this quote:

                        

but what have we really learnt?  Are we doing enough to ensure that it does not happen again?

The holocaust does not begin and end with Jews, although I'm one, I hope that I've learnt something and am doing my little bit:

            

 As ordinary people, we have to continue to do our bit.

What have we learned?  in racial acceptance, there has been distinctive attitude changes in acceptance of other races here in Australia, for the best.                  '

But in a lot of people that has not been the case with the Jewish, you see it rear its ugly head now and again, in articles, papers, books etc.

Sorry Micha, I got held up by a long phone call from my very old Aunty. 

I agree we all need "hope". Depressive illness destroys hope and thus the will to live. However I can't get past the notion that everything needs its opposite to exist in order to have any definition at all. Today's world is full of both good and horror, as was yesterday's world. It will probably always be so. Yes, the best any of us can do is to live a life in which we care for humans, animals, nature, life itself, and speak up against wrongs. 

Well said Robi, and for someone who has spent most of his adult life in a lab I have to agree with the notion that for every force there is a counter force. Having said that even a scientist has an idealistic side and that's where the "hope" factor comes in for me. 

I i THINK THE reason it went on for so long, [the extermination]   was that right minded people could not believe something so barbaric was happening,   and by the time they realised it was true,   it was to late,  for most,   THERE are still people today who say this did not happen,     TO those people i say,  read 'THE SCOURGE OF THE SWASTICA'          i was only a child and lived in the heart of london,  so certainly remember the bombings,   my uncle was a prisoner of war,   but fortunatly not in one of the worse camps,       LETS hope people have learned from this tragedy   and nothing like this is ever allowed to happen again,  

Cats, I truly think that individuals learn, but "people" as a group just keep repeating history's mistakes. There are a number of brutal and repressive regimes in the world today (North Korea springs to mind) but we are so mired down in political correctness and protocol that nothing gets done. Time and time again, the U.N. has proven itself to be innefectual and a "toothless tiger" which is itself bogged down in corruption and inefficiency.

Philip aged 16 at the 1937 funeral of his elder sister Cecile, flanked by relatives in SS and Brownshirt uniforms.

One row back in the cortege in Darmstadt, western Germany, was his uncle, Lord Mountbatten, wearing a Royal Navy bicorn hat.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-379036/Prince-Philip-pictured-Nazi-funeral.html#ixzz3Q9zmVKGc

GD in those days because you have nazi relatives marching with you does not make you a nazi sympathiser, most pollies around the world cow towed to Germany at that time, no one wanted another war, plus no one can choose their relatives and he was only 16.       Even in the 30s as kids we'd dress up as nazis' never knew any better, there was even a little admiration for how the germans came out of the depression so early compared to others, could make interesting reading.

 

 

Edward Vlll was called the Nazi king. Declassified FBI files revealed that the King of the British  Empire and Mrs Simpson were not only pro-Nazi, but also maintained contact with Hitler's Germany throughout the war. It has been alleged that he even gave away secrets to the enemy.


It was a different world in those days, no tv, no swearing, every thing censored so as not to offend anyone, EDWARD was either his own man, or a dickhead to defy the sentments of the day, their were a lot of so called English society who were pro nazi at the time, it was in fashion. Edward gave up the throne to marry simpson , being King he couldn't marry a dicorcee, strange because wasn't the C of E. church set up by a king so he could get divorced.  Ann Bolyn comes to mind the 2nd wife.

I recall my father saying one of the main objectors to Mrs Simpson came from within the Royal Family namely Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who was British to the core.The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were packed off to Bermuda by Winston Churchill to isolate them from the war effort. Guess Prince Philips "gaffes" just shows how he really thinks bit like our Tones too.

Viv. It could be our RB PM, Thinks he may get a knighthood out of it, I wouldn't put anything past the coniving dunderhead.

Guess if Tones still a British Citizen he could return to UK to go sit in the House of Lords? Can't see him getting any industry job here on leaving government after he has shown how incompetent he is - guess he will have to pay his own way to ride in Competitions too :)))

His "mates" will look after him. That's the sort of world they all live in, unlike the rest of us. Are you suggesting he might do a Howard and lose his seat at the next election Viv? How delicious that would be!!!

That would be indeed delicious and who thought Howard would lose his own seat? Could happen to TT too.

http://spirituallysmart.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/prince-philip-pictured-at-nazi-funeral.html

You can bet that Abbott woldn't be doing anything unless it benifited him in some way

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