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| Lest They Forget / Murray Stein / Dallas Holocaust Museum |
This week the United States commemorates The Holocaust. This week in many public and private arenas-- civic, governmental, military, schools, universities, churches and synagogues, we will be reminded of the systematic mass genocide of six million Jews (one million children, 2 million women, 3 million men) by the Nazi government in Germany during World War II as their "Final Solution" in making the world ready for the "perfect Aryan race." If you include the mass murder of other people groups, including people with disabilities, the number increases to 11 million, some say 17 million.
Yom Hasho'ah in Israel occurs on the 27th day of the month of Nisan. It is an official day of mourning. All television broadcasting is dedicated to the remembrance of the millions that were murdered. Banks and schools are closed, as are movie theaters. Throughout the country people light 6 candles to represent the 6 million Jews that were slaughtered. A long siren is sounded at a specified time (11 AM) throughout the country and every one stops what they are doing, stands, and observes 2 minutes of silence. A special ceremony, that includes Holocaust survivors, is conducted by Israel's President in the holocaust museum in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem.
Yesterday, some of us at Sar Shalom accompanied Rabbi Mark to the Holocaust Museum in Dallas. Reminders of the Holocaust for me have always been heart breaking. This time it was no different. Hatred, as exemplified by the Holocaust boggles the mind. It is incomprehensible.
The pictures we saw at the museum did not tell the whole story and for good reason. The exhibit is open to the general public and this includes children. Photographs of the atrocities are difficult for adults to handle, much less children.
Photos taken by American and Allied Forces when the concentration camps were liberated, while not displayed at the museum, paint a horrifying picture. They are too gruesome to post. All of these horrors were going on in peoples "back yard" so to speak. Here is a picture of Eisenhower inspecting one part of the Ohdruf concentration camp.
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| General Dwight D. Eisenhower / Ohrdruf concentration camp on April 12, 1945. |
"During the camp inspections with his top commanders Eisenhower said that the atrocities were “beyond the American mind to comprehend.” He ordered that every citizen of the town of Gotha personally tour the camp and, after having done so, the mayor and his wife went home and hanged themselves. Later on Ike wrote to Mamie, “I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could really exist in this world.” He cabled General Marshall to suggest that he come to Germany and see these camps for himself. He encouraged Marshall to bring Congressmen and journalists with him. It would be many months before the world would know the full scope of the Holocaust — many months before they knew that the Nazi murder apparatus that was being discovered at Buchenwald and dozens of other death camps had slaughtered millions of innocent people.
General Eisenhower understood that many people would be unable to comprehend the full scope of this horror. He also understood that any human deeds that were so utterly evil might eventually be challenged or even denied as being literally unbelievable. For these reasons he ordered that all the civilian news media and military combat camera units be required to visit the camps and record their observations in print, pictures and film. As he explained to General Marshall, “I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’”
His prediction proved correct. When some groups, even today, attempt to deny that the Holocaust ever happened they must confront the massive official record, including both written evidence and thousands of pictures, that Eisenhower ordered to be assembled when he saw what the Nazis had done." http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/stories/death-camps.html
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| Yad Vashem / Jerusalem / Wikepedia |
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| Hall of Names / Yad Vashem / Jerusalem / Wikepedia |
Sadly, today we have the same hatred generated against Jews. Few of us speak up, if at all, against this hatred. And I am reminded of the statement by Martin Niemoller, a Protestant minister that had originally supported Hitler's rise to power. The statement has many variants as poetry. This is one of them:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
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