Lest We Forget

[RJUKL]

General Eisenhower Warned Us

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps, he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some Little Bustard will get up and say that this never happened'

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This is being posted as a memorial, in memory of the,6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while the German people looked the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forget.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED'
because it offends some Muslim in the U.S. ???

[Clanad]

Excellent observation... even now, here in the U.S. the frightening specter of Political Correctness casts its shadow. There are groups that are fearful of offending nearly everyone and everything at work to re-write history... even near-by history such as the attack on 9/11, much less that of a few centuries ago. Make no mistake about their ultimate aims, though, and that's to weaken the U.S. (and the western democracies) to such an extent that failure of this government and all such elected representative styles of governments are done away with... (you're only paranoid if they really aren't out to get you).

[rojash]

"Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population"

No it didn't.

Which means that your entire rant is pointless.

[Whickerman]

I had copied the text that rojash mentions to make the same point. That is bunk.

Please see here:http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/histori
cal/a/holocaust_chain.htm

In case you can't link:
"According to the same government officials who commissioned the study, the Holocaust was and still is a required subject in U.K. schools. Reports that the topic has been "banned" due to pressure from Muslim groups are erroneous and misleading. "

Further - and I am in no way removing the emphasis that what occurred under the nazis was a horrendous slur on human history - it seems they were not the only ones who commited war crimes at that time. Please see here:
http://www.telegraph....-them-from-camps.html

WW2 should NEVER be forgotten. Unfortunately as the generations pass, the horror will be. If you doubt this, how many of this generation would be moved by the horror of WW1?

[RJUKL]

Thank you for pointing out the above. I have carefully read the llinks and appreciate your posting them.

[KARL]

I find it chilling that posts here reflect an assumption that a modern "enemy" is as threatening as historic monsters and that these are identified in a sweeping way to encompass large numbers of "them". This has an awful similarity to what is being referred to from history. The foam at the mouth is as garish as the shrill voice of the Fuehrer at Nuremberg. Past horrors have not been forgotten nor do I think they will be, but the emotive element is noticeably being brought under control by time - facts are becoming historically set in stone, no matter what a few might say by way of implied or stated denial. What bothers me is that the facts have been rendered less telling by their prostitution for calculated gain. There may be a widely felt resentment of what is seen as unscrupulous elements among descendants and even would-be-kindred of the aggrieved mounting the steed marked victim and flogging it for all it is worth. This has demeaned the memory of those who were among the legions of people who suffered a most awful fate in spite of being utterly undeserving of it. Such indignation - where is the true respect ? Little wonder some get jaundiced by the self-righteous behaving like hired wailers - all to milk the sympathy. I think the victims of the Holocaust and other atrocities deserve more dignity about their memory. I cannot imagine they would want their passing to be a legacy of acrimony and moral or physical offence in their name.

[jake-the-peg]

History is not on the school curriculum in order to indoctrinate our children.

Of all the subjects it is the most politically difficult because everybody seems to want to use it to teach children a "story" from their particular viewpoint.

I personally find the idea of hijacking the subject (for good or ill) quite distastefull

History is no more there to warn children of the Holocaust than it is to tell the patriotic story of "our Island race" or the wickedness of colonialism.

The main drive of history should be to teach children investigative skills. To learn how to weigh evidence of oppsoing viewpoints, to learn how to seperate good quality source matial from poor material and to come to a balanced concusion on a topic.

These are the skills that will stand them in good stead - not knowing that Agincourt was fought in 1415.

The Holocaust is a poor topic for developing these skills as it's something pretty difficult to see "from both sides" - if it's being phased out this will be the reason - not some crazy conspiracy of supposed political correctness

[123everton]

It's a very sad but very true fact that rape and war go together like peaches and cream, the acts by the Russians in the aftermath WW2 were awful, but they pale into insignificence to what the Germans did, take Oradour Sur Glane it is remembered in France as an example of Nazi barbarism, Oradour was repeated almost daily in the east.
Rapes were occurred in the western sector too, a story from the 2nd Anglo Boer war, a tribal chief told a story about the British "a girl was out collecting fire wood when she was met by a British army patrol, one after the other they raped her but the soldiers were each ordered to force a shilling into the girl's hand, the Boers are no better, but at least the British pay for what they steal."
"Positive history" is an issue in Russia today, all history to some extent is political and has an agenda, sources need to varied to understand the events, if a lot of British history was presented unadorned, there would be complaints.
We need the holocaust to be taught as it serves to remind us how easily a vulnerable minority can be marginilised, the failure to remember the vagaries of Pan Turkism led directly to the holocaust.
Lest we forget indeed.

[123everton]

They were cremated mainly, part of the problem for the Germans in this regard is that they were very studious in keeping records, you also have to bear in mind the amount of camps they had, if you went to Auschwitz you weren't doing too badly, you could do worse, camps like Treblinka (and I think Dachau) were purely death camps, and consequently very small.
He recently claimed to have changed his mind on the holocaust, or maybe not then.
Israel is different kettle of fish and owes far more to western political expediency, it's a whole question in itself.

[Sandy-Wroe]

Why should the Holocaust be on a British school curriculum? I would understand if it was on the German one.
The Israelis use it to garner sympathy for their occupation of Palestine.

[123everton]

We need the holocaust to be taught as it serves to remind us how easily a vulnerable minority can be marginilised, the failure to remember the vagaries of Pan Turkism led directly to the holocaust.
Don't ever think it couldn't happen here.

[Sandy-Wroe]

We could tell our children about Rwanda or the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians. Zionists promote their holocaust because it serves their political purpose.

[123everton]

It's precisely because we didn't teach about the Armenian genocide that we had the holocaust (see my post Mon 2229 01/Feb/10 "Pan Turkism) Hitler said "who remembers the Armenians now?"