World remembers Auschwitz victims

[Gypsy-Rhiannon]

Dozens of world leaders will pay their respects at a ceremony at the Auschwitz death camp where up to 1.5 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis.

The camp, near Krakow, in Poland, is the site of the greatest mass murder in the history of humanity. Its gas chambers and furnaces are a symbol of terror, unimaginable suffering and death.

The Queen's youngest son will light a candle in memory of over 6 million Holocaust victims at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation by Russian soldiers.

Edward, Earl of Wessex will be joined by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw at the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony.

Before the ceremony, Edward will meet relatives of the 39 British prisoners of war killed in an air raid by American bombers on the Monowice concentration camp in Poland.

Among the leaders of 37 countries attending the ceremony are Israeli President Moshe Katsav, Germany's President Horst Kohler, Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Vice President Dick Cheney, President Jacques Chirac of France, newly-elected President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and Ireland's President Mary McAleese.

Three British survivors, will witness the commemoration. Bob Obuscovski, 76, from Ilford, Essex, Zigi Shipper, 75, from Stanmore, Middlesex, and David Herman, 77, from Hampstead, north London, are VIP guests.

The 100-minute outdoor ceremony, in sub-zero temperatures, will be attended by heads of state or their representatives from around the world.

Former Auschwitz inmates Wladyslaw Bartoszewski - prisoner 4427 - Simone Veil - prisoner 78651 - and Romani Rose, on behalf of the many gypsies put to death at the camp, will address the gathering.

Gypsies, homosexuals, beggars, alcoholics, the mentally ill, the disabled and the homeless also faced extermination in their hundreds of thousands.

If the victims had not been gassed, shot or tortured to death in a criminal medical experiment at the hands of the infamous Dr Josef Mengele, they had surrendered life to disease or starvation.

Many survivors were so close to death that the only sign of life on their bony bodies was the lice eating into their flesh.

The camp is now a museum and monument to the 1,100,000 to 1,500,000 people, mostly Jews, who were systematically slaughtered there during the 1939-1945 German occupation.

Barbed-wire fences, punctuated by watchtowers, define the landscape where Adolf Hitler's henchmen constructed a purpose-built killing machine employing ruthless efficiency.

Jews arrived packed in cattle trucks to be methodically murdered in the gas chambers and their bodies burned in furnaces. When the crematoria could not cope with the vastness of the slaughter, the Nazis resorted to digging pits.

As the Allies closed in on Hitler's defeated armies, the Nazis attempted to destroy the evidence of their evil. They failed - and close to the ceremony are the ruins of gas chambers blown up by the SS.

[ShangriLaTroubl]

What a terrible tragedy that was...I've been watching the specials on PBS, and HISTORY CHANNEL this week about it...and even though I've seen it all before it is nevertheless just as gut wrenching each time...

Chris

[strandinthewind]

So sad - and even sadder that it still happens to this day as it has in the last 200 or so years:

Genocide & Ethnic Cleansing


“In Germany they first came for the communists; and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews; and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists; and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics; and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Catholic. Then they came for me – and by that time there was nobody left to speak up.”
– Martin Niemoller

IDespite the presumed advance of civilization the phenomenon of mass hate and killing continues. The impact of historical cases of genocide remains a potent root cause of the ethnic and religious divisions that fuel current violent conflicts.

The Jewish Holocaust has been ingrained in the world’s collective memory, but it is not the only case of genocide, nor even the worst. The Irish, Armenians, Chechens have all suffered the similar human devastation. In Africa, the killing fields of Rwanda have not yet recovered, and the memory of Khymer Rouge is still fresh in the minds of Cambodians. In Russia the purges of the Stalin era were among the worst cases of crimes against humanity.

Genocide, as defined by the United Nations in 1948, means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, including:

(a) Killing members of the group
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

What remains unclear is the question of when institutionalized killing rises to the level of ethnic cleansing, or genocide. The answer depends on whether events are seen through the eyes of victims or perpetrators. More important is whether the international community recognizes genocide and whether it is prepared to act to stop it.

The Irish Famine [1845-1850]
Estimated Death Toll: 1,500,000, Refugees 1,500,000
Even today, anti-British murals on the walls of West Belfast proclaim: “There was No Famine,” as many of the Irish argue that England exploited the potato famine of the early 1840’s to decimate the population of its unruly colony - Ireland

The Irish Famine of 1846-50 took as many as one million lives from hunger and disease, and another one million emigrated and many died on the “coffin ships” to America, Australia and Canada. As a result of the famine, disease and emigration, Ireland's population decreased by an estimated 3 million people. From this tragedy sprang a renewed fervor for Irish nationalism that would lead to independence for part of the island and decades of war for Northern Ireland.

Additional Information:
The Irish Famine BBC by Jim Donnelly

Northern Ireland Country Briefing at Flashpoints.info

Stalin’s Purges and Forced Famine [1932-1938]
Estimated Death Toll: Approx. 100-200,000 Jews; 5 million Ukrainians killed 1932-33, 14-15 million Soviet peasants 1930-37, and at least 3 million "enemies of the people" 1937-38.
During Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror in Russia and the Soviet Republics his regime killed or starved an estimated 15 million peasants, 5 million Ukrainians, 200,000 Jews; and as many as 3 million enemies of the state. Stalin used mass annihilation as a tactic to control dissent, force cooperation with state policies and to unify an incredibly diverse population people by targeting specific scapegoat groups.

Soviet Jews were killed as scapegoats, Ukrainian peasants were killed as part of Stalin’s collectivization pogrom and political opponents and intellectuals were killed as enemies of the state. The combined tragedy of the Soviet’s political genocide exceeds even the scope of the Nazi Holocaust.

Today’s revolts in Chechnya, Georgia and other former republics of the U.S.S.R., have deep roots in the atrocities of the Stalin era.

Additional Information:
Soviet Union at The Campaign to End Genocide

Stalin's Forced Famine at The History Place

Chechnya Country Briefing at Flashpoints.info

Armenians in Turkey [1915-1918]
Estimated Death Toll: Approx. 1.5 million killed, 500 thousand expelled
After a group of “Young Turks” seized full control of the Turkish government in 1913,
Christian Armenians, representing about 10% of the population were branded as infidels (non-believers in Islam). The Turks first disarmed the entire Armenian population and issued orders to provincial governors to arrest and kill the Armenian leaders and intellectuals, and then proceeded to round up all Armenians and deport them. During long overland marches deportees were killed, or died. An estimated 2 million Armenians were killed, while as few as 500,000 survived the deportation to Syria and Iraq. By 1918, an Armenian resistance emerged that resulted in establishing an the independent Republic of Armenia. Today, the region remains a focus for conflict involving Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Additional Information:
Armenians in Turkey at The Campaign to End Genocide

Armenians in Turkey at The History Place

Nagorno-Karabakh Country Briefing at Flashpoints.info

The Japanese Invasion of China [1937-38]
Estimated Death Toll: Over 300,000 people

In the prelude to World War II, Japan invaded China in 1937. In December, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking, murdering an estimated 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. Challenged to assert control over a population many times larger than its army, the Japanese resorted used mass murder to terrorize the Chinese. The so-called, Rape of Nanking was considered the single worst atrocity during the World War II era.

Additional Information:
Rape of Nanking: at The History Place

The Nazi Holocaust [1938-1945]
Estimated Death Toll: 6 million Jews, 5 million others including 500,000 Gypsies, 6 million Poles, 5,000 to 15,000 homosexuals
Adolf Hitler came to power after Germany’s defeat in World War I, and blamed the Jews for Germany’s failures. He launched a sophisticated propaganda campaign demonizing the Jewish scapegoats and glorifying the Germanic Aryan race. The Nazis expelled Jews and imposed pogroms of forced migration, but as World War II demanded more decisive action, Hitler adopted his Final Solution. State-sanctioned anti-Semitism and persecution gave way to liquidation squads and concentration camps. The Nazi leaders developed intricate programs to capture and kill Jews, Gypsies, Slavs and homosexuals in factories of mass destruction. While the estimate that the Holocaust claimed the lives of 6 million Jews is well known, historians also estimate that, the Nazis exterminated an additional 5-6 million non-Jews.

Additional Information:
The Holocaust The Campaign to End Genocide

Nazi Holocaust: at The History Place

Cambodia and the Khymer Rouge [1975-1979]

Estimated Death Toll: Approx. 1-3 million killed in Cambodia
After fighting a vicious insurgency campaign since 1970, the Khymer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975 after the U.S. withdrawal from Viet Nam and Southeast Asia. Once in power Pol Pot launched his plan to establish an agrarian utopia forcing millions of city-dwellers to perform virtual slave labor in Cambodia’s “killing fields.” Those who resisted were killed, others died from starvation and labor abuses. In January 1979, an invasion by Vietnamese forces deposed Pol Pot, ending one of the centuries most notorious reigns of terror. .

Additional Information:
Cambodia at The Campaign to End Genocide

Pol Pot in Cambodia: at The History Place


Indonesia [1965-66; 1972 & 1999]

Estimated Numbers: Approx. 500,000 killed in Indonesia, 500,000 arrested; 200-300,000 killed in East Timor
After a failed coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), the army retaliated against the PKI, killing an estimated 500,000 PKI supporters and arresting 500,000 others, mainly civilians. In 1967, Suharto became president of Indonesia, and with continued U.S. backing, was relentless in repressing communists until 1998. Indonesia invaded the island of east Timor in 1975, the day after a visit to Jakarta by President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited Indonesian. Despite U.N. appeals, the subsequent occupation by Indonesia claimed over 200,000 lives, or 1/3 of the population.

Additional Information:
Indonesia at The Campaign to End Genocide


Rwanda [1994]

Estimated Numbers: 500,000-1 million killed, 1.5-2 million refugees

Rwanda is comprised of two main ethnic groups, the Hutu (85-90%) and the Tutsis (10-15%) The Tutsis were the ruling class. After independence from Belgium in 1962, the Hutu majority seized power, oppressing the Tutsis, many of whom fled and formed a rebel guerrilla army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front. The Tutsi rebels invaded Rwanda and forced the Hutu President to accept a power-sharing agreement.

In October 1993 the first elected Hutu president of Burundi was assassinated, sparking conflict and a U.N. 2,500 strong peacekeeping force was sent to preserve a cease-fire while Rwandan and Burundi presidents met to work out a peace plan. After their airplane was shot down the Hutus began an unprecedented killing spree, while the international community watched in horror and did nothing. In July 1994, Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutus, stopping the genocide, which had claimed over 800,000 lives, more than 10% of Rwanda’s population.

Additional Information:
Rwanda at The Campaign to End Genocide

Rwanda: at The History Place

Bosnia-Herzogovina [1992-1995]Death Toll: Est. 200,000
Yugoslavia has a long history of conflict between a very diverse mix of ethnic and religious groups. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, fighting erupted between various ethnic groups in Yugoslavia, leading to independence for Slovenia and Croatia. When Bosnian Muslims declared independence, Yugoslav president Slobadan Milosevic attacked to support the Serbian minority. As the Serbs forces advanced, they began to systematically eliminate Muslims and Muslim villages, in what became known as “ethnic cleansing.” Over 200,000 Muslim civilians were murdered and 2,000,000 fled as refugees before NATO forces intervened to halt the genocide. After agreeing to a cease-fire in Bosnia, the Serbs focused their attention and ethnic cleansing on Kosovo, which led to the NATO air war and the arrest of Milosevic on war crimes charges.

Additional Information:
Bosnia-Herzegovina at The History Place

Kosovo Country Briefing at Flashpoints.info

Sudan [1983- present]

Estimated Death Toll: Approx. 2 million killed, 4-5 million displaced

In 1948, Britain granted independence to Sudan, a divided country dominated by Arab Muslims in the North and Christians, or native animists in the South. Since then , the government in Khartoum has tried to impose Islamic rule over the entire country and has pursued a policy of genocide or ethnic cleansing to eliminate the non-Muslim populations. According to the US Committee for Refugees, around 2 million people have been killed and 4 to 5 million internally displaced since 1983. Refugee organizations report that, as of 1999, 420,000 Sudanese refugees are dispersed across 7 countries. To add to the hardship, the UNHCR estimates that 391,500 external refugees from neighboring conflicts have fled into Sudan over the past 35 years.

Additional Information:

Sudan at The Campaign to End Genocide

South Sudan: A History of Political Domination – A Case for Self-Determination, by Riek Machar

http://www.flashpoints.info/issue_br...ocide_main.htm

I just do not get how people can be so cruel

[tynan88]

I just do not get how people can be so cruel

It's when people believe so strongly in something they are willing to do nething to ensure that their goal is reached. That includes killing, it's sad but true, it is just ashame that no one with good motives have so much determination to achieve their goals.

Tynan

[SuzeQuze]

When I visited Amsterdam I went to the Ann Frank House which is now a museum and it was sobering. They left up her photographs she taped up of stars she idolized. You could feel her presence there. The heinousness of the Nazi crimes isn't even possible to articulate.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by tynan88

It's when people believe so strongly in something they are willing to do nething to ensure that their goal is reached. That includes killing, it's sad but true, it is just ashame that no one with good motives have so much determination to achieve their goals.

Tynan

Yep - and the rest of the world just watches - as it is doing now.

[amber]

I just learned a weird thing about this the other day (which some people may already know, but i didn't)
The numbers tatooed on the arms of the people there were IBM codes. About 1939 IBM contracted with germany because germany needed a more efficient way to keep track of the people going to the death camps. I have the full article, but i haven't read it yet.
Weird, no?

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by amber

I just learned a weird thing about this the other day (which some people may already know, but i didn't)
The numbers tatooed on the arms of the people there were IBM codes. About 1939 IBM contracted with germany because germany needed a more efficient way to keep track of the people going to the death camps. I have the full article, but i haven't read it yet.
Weird, no?

That is weired - I did not know that, though I knew the numbers were a system of tallying the prisoners.

Interestingly, many companies did business with Germany prior to WWII. It was not illegal.

Here is one on IBM - http://www.acsa.net/ibm_and_hitler.htm

Note - there are many many articles on this topic.

[The Catdancer]

And then there are people who say to this day:"The holocaust never happened, it's made up". That one makes my blood boil

[tynan88]

You have to remember that before WWII started Hitler was almost seen as a capitalist god and worshipped by the American heirarchy because he did such amazing things with the economy.

Tynan

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by Lux

The Germans weren't a race of crazy people. They're weren't a race of stupid people either. The Germans were a people so exposed to propaganda that most really believed in the appropriateness of what they thought was occuring. My point being that these weren't people walking around with horns on their head, not even Hitler himself until the final rise. You inform some people that they are living under a regime headed towards the fascist tendencies of those in our past and they respond just how the Germans would have. They simply won't believe it and why would they? Propaganda works.

Yup.
I haven't contributed to this thread because it is just so heavy and there are so many things I could say. But I will just say...I am sorry for what these people had to endure.

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by The Catdancer

And then there are people who say to this day:"The holocaust never happened, it's made up". That one makes my blood boil

That drives me insane, too. A few years ago I got into an argument with some guy on the internet about it. He seemed to be clearly a lot older than me, and that was even worse. He explained to me in great detail (though I've forgotten pretty much all of it) all about how the Jews planted all of that evidence so that people would feel sorry for them, and that the concentration camps were fictional. It was unbelieveable.

Anyway, I couldn't help but wonder if Prince Harry was there at the ceremony, because he probably should've been.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Lux

I think it was Uncle Edward.

it was - though I think Harry should have gone- we all were crazy in youth - but none of us had THAT spotlight

[tynan88]

The Germans weren't a race of crazy people. They're weren't a race of stupid people either. The Germans were a people so exposed to propaganda that most really believed in the appropriateness of what they thought was occuring. My point being that these weren't people walking around with horns on their head, not even Hitler himself until the final rise. You inform some people that they are living under a regime headed towards the fascist tendencies of those in our past and they respond just how the Germans would have. They simply won't believe it and why would they? Propaganda works.

As some of you may know I am heavily in to politics and have a desire to do it as a career in the future. For this I actually admire Hitler, he is the epitome of qualities a good politician should have, exuding in confidence, a brilliant orator, and the ability to win over an entire population (which really happened, in general the Germans followed what Hitler said), however I rarely state this because it is often misinterpreted as me saying I support Hitler's policies, what Hitler did was wrong but the skills he had in politics should be admired by all in that field.

Tynan

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by tynan88

As some of you may know I am heavily in to politics and have a desire to do it as a career in the future. For this I actually admire Hitler, he is the epitome of qualities a good politician should have, exuding in confidence, a brilliant orator, and the ability to win over an entire population (which really happened, in general the Germans followed what Hitler said), however I rarely state this because it is often misinterpreted as me saying I support Hitler's policies, what Hitler did was wrong but the skills he had in politics should be admired by all in that field.

Tynan

I understand your point, but when I disagree so strongly with someone's policies (Hitler is a prime example) that often overshadows whatever positive characteristics he or she may have had. Just my view.

Originally Posted by Lux

I think it was Uncle Edward.

Well, I just named him because he foolishly wore a Nazi uniform to a party.