NEWS: Auschwitz Liberation Remembered

World leaders and holocaust survivors gathered today in Poland to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. An estimated 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, died at Auschwitz during World War II.



People around the world will commemorate the day on which 7,000 survivors were freed from the death camps at Auschwitz. This sad story of torment, torture and death must be shared with younger generations, painful though that may be, so that the atrocities committed in those Polish towns will never be repeated. We can't afford to forget.

[edit on 27-1-2005 by Banshee]

We can't afford to forget but we do...

Any one remember American "strategic hamlets" in indo-china? Or Guantanamo?

How about the Brits practically inventing the concentration camp during the boer war?

it would be nice to think we'd learn and some individuals seem to but as a whole, as humans..

[edit on 27/1/2005 by Corinthas]

If we had learned something, there would have been no Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur...and all the countries of the world would have have stopped an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation. Gitmo and Abu Ghraib are only two of the shameful results...

I'm just watching the live coverage of the ceremonies @ Oswiecim (Auschwitz) now. Its very sad...it began with the sound of a train... Some survivors there are wearing their striped hats... Its a snowy and blustery day there.

to think that torture is still going on today.in many countires around the world is sad.it sad because we fought so hard to get rid of this.my grandfather fought over this.so not happy at those who still join the forces of torture.why cant they see that the long term outcome will be the same as this.we have forgotten those who have fought for our rights.we have forgotten those who have been tortured.we look away.these words have been spoken many times.we are not alone.we all must stand up say no to torture.i will not forget and will always help those out there still behind the fence of torture.ex homeless, women, children ,old people,the sick and above all the poor.flukemol........

So many people patting themselves on the back, in society and in the media and government, because they're "remembering" and "honoring", making speeches, feeling so well-educated and wordly, while harboring and expressing the same sort of ideas that allowed the Holocaust to begin, grow, and fester. Even the same words, from people who believe that they're above and better than such things, blind to see their own actions, and their own celebrated heroes, are fostering exactly the same hatreds.

How many people claim to be "tolerant" and "anti-racist" but live only in their safe, segregated white-bread suburbs? How many watch the news and immediately put blame to Israel for terrorist acts? How many scream for acceptance for alternative lifestyles but cannot refer to those who are not in their camps without using derogatory slurs? How many of you wun to your branch of religion, or away from religion completely, and harbor in your mind condescending attitudes toward the rest of humanity who does not follow your faith/logic/belief?

I've read the transcripts of diaries of german sailors and soldiers, and of people living within smokestack-distance of the death camps. So few could actually believe "their side" would do such a thing. And today, the attitude is back, in America. Among the conservatives, and frighteningly increasing amongst liberals as well. No one who identifies themselves with a "side" is willing to accept the thought of evil committed by their prominient leaders, it's all "propaganda by the Left/Right".

Two last points to those who love to find ways to make America as bad or worse than all other nations: not one of the internment camps during WWII had large ovens, gas chambers, and acid baths for euthanasia. Also remember, the Italian-and German-americans were also stripped of property and interred as well. No one seems to remember that and make multigenerational lawsuits in their name-ponder why that is.