Another Word. . .

(Another Word. . .)

To begin, these pages was not un-aware that yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, so named because it was January 27th, 1945, when the Red Army advancing into Poland liberated the Auschwitz death camp. In the time it was in operation, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, not just Jews, were exterminated in Auschwitz's industrial capacity extermination and disposal. And Auschwitz, while probably the most infamous, was only one of dozens of faculties that were committed in the execution of Hitler's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." Current figures place the death toll at over 6 million Jews and various numbers of other prisoners.

The Western World shares a certain guilt for this atrocity. The general public was perhaps not aware of the details but it had been considered policy to not make an issue of the problems of European Jewry. Indeed, a passenger ship filled with Jewish refugees was turned back after seeking asylum in the United States. In short, what Germany was going to do was no secret in the White House or Number 10 and no effort was made to stop it.

After the Allies put ashore in France and the Soviets continued to advance from the east, these Camps were liberated in turn and some even rivaled Auschwitz in barbarity, Bergan Belsen, Treblinka among others. As each camp was liberated, General Eisenhower had ordered the local populace to deal with the dead and also had each site thoroughly documented providing a visual record for future generations.

Historical events need to be commemorated, especially when one is partly responsible. A date was required so the date to the liberation of Auschwitz proved just as good as any. But the same mentality can still exist. How bad will things get in the Ukraine ? War crimes will be filed at some point and there are plenty of violations. One can only hope that point is reached before the descent to the in-humanity becomes irreversible.