27 January IH Remembrance Day

[Vince82]

"International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is an international memorial day on 27 January commemorating the victims of the Holocaust."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...emembrance_Day

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30996555

[kranz]

the 70th anniversary of the liberation of (Polish) concentration camp Auschwitz (by Obama's grandfather).

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30996555

[Von Tonner]

A day that the human race I hope will always remember and take cognizance of. If not, no lessons of history or human failings will ever be learnt. Our past and future will be for naught.

[Jimbuna]

It is expected to be the last major anniversary event that survivors are able to attend in considerable numbers.

No kidding.

~SALUTE~

Been to a few of these in the past in an official capacity:

http://www.southtyneside.info/articl...al-day-service

[Von Tonner]

http://honestreporting.com/bbcs-holo...tweet-shocker/

Today I bow my English head in shame

[fireftr18]

Originally Posted by Von Tonner

A day that the human race I hope will always remember and take cognizance of. If not, no lessons of history or human failings will ever be learnt. Our past and future will be for naught.

Well put. We need to remember our darkest hours so that we don't repeat them.

[Betonov]

I hope the deniers will stay in bed today

There's a ''branch'' of Mauthausen camp near me, Ljubelj camp. It was used as a work camp for captives to build the Ljubelj pass tunnel.

https://translate.google.com/transla...-text=&act=url

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Von Tonner

http://honestreporting.com/bbcs-holo...tweet-shocker/

Today I bow my English head in shame

Demographics man, with comments like they look foward to gain another 2.7 million more subscribers.

[u crank]

Canadian woman who survived Auschwitz returns for anniversary.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1791824/au...0-years-later/

Miriam Friedman Ziegler 79, shows her tattoo, then and now. She is second from the left, age nine.

The interviews and media attention has worn Friedman Ziegler down. She’s emotional and ready to move on, but believes it is her duty to talk.
“I was lucky enough to live,” she said. “I want the world to know.”

[Schroeder]

The whole Holocaust was some disturbing stuff to put it very mildly. Never understood the mindset of the people who did that.

[Oberon]

I think today should be a day for not just remembering the barbarity of the Holocaust, but a lesson of what gross generalisation of a subset of people can lead to, the sort of propaganda against the Jews put out by the Third Reich that helped turn peoples mindsets against the Jewish people.
It was insiduous, and as a warning from history we need to always be vigilant not to let the same things happen again, against anyone, be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Homosexual, Female, Transgender, Eastern European Immigrant, or African-American. The moment you start generalising people by a set subculture, the moment you tar all of these people with one brush, that's the first step on a long walk to Dachau.
People may think I'm trying to hijack a commemoration of a horrendous event for a political agenda...well, honestly that's nonsense, politics has nothing to do with it, compassion and human decency has more to do with it, and a desperate hope that we can all learn from what happened, why we commemorate this day, to remember what happened so that we may never let it happen here again.

[U-15]

Originally Posted by Von Tonner

A day that the human race I hope will always remember and take cognizance of. If not, no lessons of history or human failings will ever be learnt. Our past and future will be for naught.

Beautifully put.
Amen

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

The whole Holocaust was some disturbing stuff to put it very mildly. Never understood the mindset of the people who did that.

Christopher Browning's "Ordinary Men" covers this topic very well imo, as it's about the people who were on a grunt level rather than on the political one. It's available in German, too.

[fireftr18]

Originally Posted by Oberon

I think today should be a day for not just remembering the barbarity of the Holocaust, but a lesson of what gross generalisation of a subset of people can lead to, the sort of propaganda against the Jews put out by the Third Reich that helped turn peoples mindsets against the Jewish people.
It was insiduous, and as a warning from history we need to always be vigilant not to let the same things happen again, against anyone, be they Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Homosexual, Female, Transgender, Eastern European Immigrant, or African-American. The moment you start generalising people by a set subculture, the moment you tar all of these people with one brush, that's the first step on a long walk to Dachau.
People may think I'm trying to hijack a commemoration of a horrendous event for a political agenda...well, honestly that's nonsense, politics has nothing to do with it, compassion and human decency has more to do with it, and a desperate hope that we can all learn from what happened, why we commemorate this day, to remember what happened so that we may never let it happen here again.

No, you're not hijacking the commemoration of the event. What you wrote is precisely why we need to remember.
During this commemoration, let's also remember the American internment camps for those of Japanese descent. Those in themselves were a step away from Dachau.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by fireftr18

Those in themselves were a step away from Dachau.

I have to disagree. Yes, the US internment camps were wrong. Locking up your own citizens for nothing more than being descended from the same ancestors as your enemy can never be right.

That said, locking up your citizens for the wrong reason, however shameful, is a lot more than one step away from wholesale slaughter.