Auschwitz, 80 years on

Every person who voted for Trump or for Farage should be forced to visit Auschwitz. We plan to go this summer.

15 months ago we visited Oradour sur Glane in France where the entire population were murdered by an SS unit. The village has been preserved as it was at the end of the war by order of Charles De Gaulle. It was featured in the opening sequence of "The World at War" episode 1. Well worth a watch.

 

On my bucket list to do. If I can get round to it. Not sure the Mrs would fancy it.
The Holocaust exhibition at the imperial War museum was haunting enough. But last time I went it had been scaled down. Mrs wouldn't go in there either.
I researched a little re pow camps in GB. (3 extended family members came from em) And it made an interesting read. Cannon Hall was a repatriation camp for many Polish families. some of who decided to stay.
Some pows (German. Ukraine and Italians.) out of the high green and other camps in the area. Also stayed in locally. Hence the 3 I mention. Ukraine and German.
Quite interesting what buildings were used as camps. 100s
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/nov/08/prisoner-of-war-camps-uk

 

While i can't stand either of those 2 men, I'm not sure this would help. Or be morally right.

 

What a good post!

 

Krakow is a good base for it - there's the Salt Mine close(ish) by too. We didn't have time for that one. Krakow is such a vibrant city, fantastic food, drink and sights.

And then an hour away is one of the most notorious places on earth.

 

It was truly a terrible thing , what else can ethnic cleansing be?
I do find it annoyingly ironic though when the Jewish survivors are saying that such a thing should never be allowed to happen again whilst their government seems hell bent on pounding the Palestinians into oblivion.

 

Sadly as time moves inevitably on the holocaust and other episodes of evil and cruelty become forgotten and overridden by other events. The attempt to keep things like this in the public consciousness becomes more and more difficult. Education can be a factor but ultimately it will cease to be a big issue in my opinion. It will not get the attention it deserves, it will get 'spun' by right wing revisionists and many younger people wont be interested because it won't seem relevant or important enough in their lives. It should be but it won't. The holocaust will gradually become a footnote that not many people know much about just as other atrocities and human-created disasters have become (crusades, Rwanda to name a couple). Sorry to sound despondent but I think that's happening with the holocaust.

 

I know a few who've visited, distressingly eerie. I'd imagine given all their comments.

 

I asked my Granddaughter (11yrs) if she knew anything re WWI and WWII.
And she said they were always (even in junior school) reminded and given a little insight (guess not the Holocaust at such a young age. Maybe later) Every year around remembrance. And tbh she was more aware than I thought she would be.
And I'll stand corrected I was a 60s/70s Schoolkid. And can't ever remember the subject being broached.

 

Which camp was that?

 

Fair point, I might have got a bit carried away.

 

I’ve been and while I was there large groups of Polish schoolchildren were there…..apparently every child has to visit Auschwitz which I think is a good thing……I left Auschwitz in a stunned silence……

 

Great post.

It didn't take long for the lessons of WW2 to be cast aside as witnessed by the appalling genocide propagated by Pol Pot in Cambodia in the 1960s.

 

Poland is full of places you must see, from the Baltic beach resorts in the north to the Tatra mountains in the south, with loads in between. It’s easy enough to fly to Krakow which is a wonderful city. The camps are not too far away (the town is called Oswiecim) and then there are the marvellous salt mines at Wieliczka. The EU grants have helped Poland grow into a must see destination.

 

There was a German POW lived across the road from us in Bolton on Dearne. The town he came from was behind the Iron Curtain after the war so he stayed and married a local woman. He spoke English with a strange German/Yorkshire accent...

 

There's a good reason for that….

As the war ended, Eastern Europe was taken by the Soviets. What happened there was unknown for decades to come. It was only through efforts of Jewish scholars that the atrocities they called ‘The Holocaust’ became known in the late 1960s.

But what about the fact we entered these camps in 1945? Both Churchill and Roosevelt were so appalled at the findings, Alfred Hitchcock was commissioned to make a film showing in detail the extent of the horrors. The film was finished but immediately shelved and forgotten.Why? Because the Nazis were finished and rather than vilify the German people, the allies decided that they needed them onside to face the new Soviet threat.

“When Night Falls.” A story of a cover up that’s almost as chilling as the events themselves.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3455822/

 

Nar zen, ar da doovin!

 

No honestly I get it. We are seeing a move to the right across many countries.

I think however it's important we keep perspective.
The phrase far right is used to describe so many these days.
You put this up against the acts of the Nazi regime and it's night and day.

 

You’re thinking about where the Nazis ended up. They started with hatred directed against people they saw responsible for the demise of Germany. All they wanted was to ‘Make Germany great again’ Not too different.

 

Yes they ended up on the far right. They didn't start there. I agree, and it's always a possibility something awful could happen again given the nature of our species.
However I would say that labelling everyone as far right does not help the situation and actually fuels the rhetoric.