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somedaybitch[On the importance of remembering Auschwitz.]
i remember the first time i heard that word. Auschwitz. i was in 8th grade. we watched a movie. it was in black and white, subtitled in english. it was one of the most horrific things i'd ever seen. my father's family is german. my dad and uncle were smuggled out of the country by my grandmother, hiding in plain site on a train. Himmler was on that train. family lore has it that he made some benign "aren't you a good haus frau" sort of comment to her as she walked through the dining car with the boys. she was smuggling them out because the Nazis had killed their father, a double agent for the Allies, in a hotel in Washington DC, also as family lore has it. the rest of the family stayed in country, apparently safe because there were other male relatives that were Luftwaffe pilots. go figure.
i don't understand how one people can decide to literally exterminate one another. detach so much that the target people are seen as lesser even than a small rodent. not in a pretend followingthepartyline way, but in a real, itotallybelievethis way. my brain can't wrap around that concept. and yet, the idea that there are people out there currently who are trying to convince the world that the Holocaust never happened is even more into the totally unfathomable. i'm sorry, but to me, that makes you evil. evil with a capital E. evil in a biblical sense. evil in Dante's use of the word. and the reason that we've had continued genocides around the world is because people keep forgetting. people keep forgetting the utter devastation that man can render unto man. diplomacy won't make evil go away. standing up and doing the right thing, even if it's alone, is what makes evil go away....or at least find another sandbox while it regroups.
don't forget.
don't look away.
the Nazis butchered men, women and children because of their religious beliefs.
burned them alive.
skinned them alive.
suffocated them in ditches while they were alive.
gassed them to death in rooms with no windows, no lights. naked and huddled together. screaming.
picture that.
i want you to picture that.
is it making you sick?
is your stomach clenching at the images in your mind? at the echoes of their screams, their pleas for mercy?
good.
it should.
don't let it happen again.
i remember the first time i heard that word. Auschwitz. i was in 8th grade. we watched a movie. it was in black and white, subtitled in english. it was one of the most horrific things i'd ever seen. my father's family is german. my dad and uncle were smuggled out of the country by my grandmother, hiding in plain site on a train. Himmler was on that train. family lore has it that he made some benign "aren't you a good haus frau" sort of comment to her as she walked through the dining car with the boys. she was smuggling them out because the Nazis had killed their father, a double agent for the Allies, in a hotel in Washington DC, also as family lore has it. the rest of the family stayed in country, apparently safe because there were other male relatives that were Luftwaffe pilots. go figure.
i don't understand how one people can decide to literally exterminate one another. detach so much that the target people are seen as lesser even than a small rodent. not in a pretend followingthepartyline way, but in a real, itotallybelievethis way. my brain can't wrap around that concept. and yet, the idea that there are people out there currently who are trying to convince the world that the Holocaust never happened is even more into the totally unfathomable. i'm sorry, but to me, that makes you evil. evil with a capital E. evil in a biblical sense. evil in Dante's use of the word. and the reason that we've had continued genocides around the world is because people keep forgetting. people keep forgetting the utter devastation that man can render unto man. diplomacy won't make evil go away. standing up and doing the right thing, even if it's alone, is what makes evil go away....or at least find another sandbox while it regroups.
don't forget.
don't look away.
the Nazis butchered men, women and children because of their religious beliefs.
burned them alive.
skinned them alive.
suffocated them in ditches while they were alive.
gassed them to death in rooms with no windows, no lights. naked and huddled together. screaming.
picture that.
i want you to picture that.
is it making you sick?
is your stomach clenching at the images in your mind? at the echoes of their screams, their pleas for mercy?
good.
it should.
don't let it happen again.
