Do you think when I say Auschwitz?

Published on December 3, 2004 By lifehappens In Current Events

According to a BBC television poll found that 45 percent of 4000 questioned have never heard of the Auschwitz concentration camp in southern Poland. This is right before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of said camp.

I find that statistic shocking. Does this mean that people don't care to remember history? Does it mean that history has been changed to present a more politically correct image? (After all, Germans are just fun loving people who drink beer, always have always will....we wouldn't want to imply that any of them may have done something less than wonderful in the past)

It makes me wonder how many people still know who Hitler was or Stalin or how between 1940 and 1945 more than one million men, women and children -- most of them Jews from around 20 European countries -- died in horrific circumstances at Auschwitz, one of the most infamous of World War II concentration camps.

They say, If you forget history, it is destined to repeat itself. American troops made locals march through the camps after liberation to show them what had been done, and eliminate any chance of them denying it. Maybe we need to find a way of doing this for the current generations. By understanding what happened 60 years ago, we can remember that tyrany, genocide and hatred can spread very easily throughout the world....oh, wait. Have I seen any of these things in the news recently? OH YEAH!

Did Germany attack the United States first when the US decided to go to war with them back in World War 1 and 2? Does it matter to the ignorant masses who condemn the United States for supporting democracy and getting rid of dictators who run modern day death camps?
Let's put more a little more emphasis on reality and less on making everyone "feel" good.

Comments (Page 2)

dharmagrl

on Dec 03, 2004

You are way out of line greywar and

I didn't think so.

This article was not primarily about comparing who did what to kick off WWII. It was about the fact that more than a few people have never heard of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.

You took the ball and ran in (what both he and I considered to be) the wrong direction with it....and he called you on it. As for him being personally hostile...well, if you think that's hostile you really haven't seen anything yet.

oleteach

on Dec 03, 2004

Since I am so much older than most of you, I can recall vividly the history of the concentration camps, Auschwitz and the Holocaust. My brother was a medic assistant in Germany during WWII and he had help to rebury hundreds of victims that had been dumped into mass graves.

I remember seeing a movie called "Hitler's Children" when I was about 13 years old. It shocked me so bad that I had nightmares for a long time after that.

lifehappens

on Dec 04, 2004

T_Bone4Justice-
I ignored your comments because this article was not really about that. I was talking about Auschwitz and the fact history has been PCed and that people have forgotten what signifigance that had. Maybe I will write an article about WWII and how it took an attack on our soil before people woke up to what was happening in the world around us. We should get our heads out of the sand.....but I will save that for another time. Unless of course you manage to write a really stimulating article about it first. Have fun.

Oleteach.
I'm glad to see that Greywar has learned to keep his eyes open and really see the world around him...I bet alot of that comes from you.

T_Bone4Justice

on Dec 04, 2004

lifehappens, I was not trying to "hijack" your article's intent. I simply commented on the last thing you wrote in your article. I was actually suprised to see that you threw the last paragraph in there. That is why I commented on it.

"This article was not primarily about comparing who did what to kick off WWII."

Then why mention it in the article in the first place? I am not trying to say what people should or should not include in any given article but if you DO include something then I think it is perfectly fair to comment on it. Lastly, I believe my "hostility" comments were directed to greywar and not to anyone else. Greywar and I have had some great conversations which is why I questioned his unusual hostility. It is between greywar and I...not anyone else.

kingbee

on Dec 04, 2004

Does it matter to the ignorant masses who condemn the United States for supporting democracy and getting rid of dictators who run modern day death camps? Let's put more a little more emphasis on reality and less on making everyone "feel" good.

a great suggestion--one that i particularly applaud after seeing an hour-long feature about saddam hussein on the history channel thursday morning. i dont believe the history channel has a political agenda. it was very clear however that the chemical horror that hussein inflicted on iran, iraqi shiites and iraqi kurds was a consequence--and i dont think its going to far to qualify it further as a direct consequence--of the reagan administration's short-sighted and seriously flawed foreign policy.

dharmagrl

on Dec 04, 2004

"This article was not primarily about comparing who did what to kick off WWII."

Then why mention it in the article in the first place?

You take one line out of an article and go off on an tangent about it. The author told you herself that she ignored your comments because that's NOT what she wrote the article about. But, you seem to prefer to pick on what I said to you, so go right ahead.

As for the comments being between greywar and yourself.....this is the forums. Anything you write here is fair game......the fact that you wrote a whole response based on one line of an article should show you that.

lifehappens

on Dec 04, 2004

okay guys. keep it nice. BTW, I'm not offended. I appreciate stimulating coversation as much as the next person and if you want to hit that subject head on you are more than welcome to so so. I'm just not really in a big debating mood right now so I'll let this topic rest for another day. (Baby-induced sleep deprivation drains my brain cells) And I know Greywar in the real world and like him anyway, so be very careful about being mean to him.....I might get cranky...

Kingbee, I'm not going to lay the blame only on Regan....the foreign policies and attitudes of many leaders went into the situation. But I do see where you are coming from. I cringe as we look back with 20/20 hindsight at what we should have or could have done.

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