70th Holocaust Anniversary

Its certainly a day of remembrance isn't it. I have just watch the news coverage from Auchwitz which never fails to move me. Some of my relatives fled Germany before the First World War as anti-Semitism had already been gong on for years as it had in Russia.

Have just heard that a permanent Holocaust Memorial is planned, at a cost of several million (or billion?).

That was 50 million phoenix.

It is certainly a moving memorial day and I realise it must be remembered but I'm afraid I find programs/films about it too upsetting to watch. Even people talking about it (I know it needs to be talked about) makes me turn off the radio or television, there must be a word for people like me who know full well it happened but don't actually want to be reminded of mans cruelty to its own kind in graphic detail . I've never been able to watch 'Shindler's List' or the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas for the same reason.

My senior GD has repeatedly asked me to take her to Auschwitz. I don't think I could hold up, so hopefully one day she will be able to afford to take herself.

We watched Freddie Knoller's War (BBC2 last night) in total silence. He spoke so movingly of his life as a young man escaping Nazi Germany then rather irresponsibly putting himself right back in the most dangerous situations. How he managed to still have a wry sense of humour about some of the more dramatic events was incredible.

I really don't know how survivors are finding the strength and courage to return to Auschwitz.

Agonising to think about, but we must also remember the Roma Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses , the disabled both physical and mental , it isn't the highest number of a particular race but each human being regardless of race . How can man do this to man

There was a gathering of Jewish people at the war memorial in Warwick. They filled the road leading to the church which we intend visiting but I didn't want to intrude.
If only half of what we hear actually happened, it was a horrific time.

I've been watching some of the survivors' accounts on TV this week. Truly horrendous. I watched the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas not quite realising the story. I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks. My granddaughter's class was shown it in primary school when she was 10/11. She was severely traumatised by it. I'm not sure what the thinking was behind showing that to such young children. I suppose to make sure the children appreciated what went on but I wonder whether the parents should have been advised first.

There was an interview on local radio this morning with a survivor of Auschwitz, she was the only member of her family to survive. Asked if she was bitter about what happened she said she refused to be bitter because that would have ruined her life which would have been what Hitler wanted. She also said she could never forgive the people who actually carried out the atrocities but she held no ill feeling towards the current generation of Germans. It was truly humbling to hear her.

Me too tanith
I've read many accounts over the years but now I'm older I find I actively avoid seeing, reading or hearing accounts - am definitely not ignoring the fact that such inconceivable acts happened, just find it too agonising nowadays.
I also avoid, to a probably ridiculous degree, anything involving violence as cannot cope with it (yet have never experienced it) so very illogical I guess.

When my grandson read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas he thought Bruno was a complete dope. A nine year old German boy not being able to pronounce Fuhrer and Auschwitz is complete nonsense. His father was a high ranking SS officer and yet he didn't know what Jews were?

I think it's a badly written and researched book and an insult to the intelligence of schoolchildren.

The film is better BTW

We visited Yad Vashem memorial centre in Jerusalem.
That was profoundly moving.
When Schindler's List came out we went to see it at Bury cineplex.
There's a big Jewish community round there.
Usually when a film ends people get up and leave immediately.
At that screening there was a stunned silence and nobody made a move for ages.
Like one or two others on here I just cannot bring myself to watch the TV coverage this week.

I visited Austwitch in September last year. I've wanted to pay homage (can't think of another way of describing it) for a long time. I won't attempt to describe what we saw, or how it felt, other than to say that despite having seen film of the piles of baby shoes, for example, actually seeing them was more moving and distressing than I thought it would be.

A group of Israeli teenagers photographed each other on what they call "the walk of life" around the railway lines in camp 2, where many of their ancestors would have begun the walk of death to the gas chambers.

I don't suppose insisting that holocaust deniers visit the camp would do anything to change their minds, sadly.

There is 'live' coverage ongoing on BBC News and Sky News reporting AUSCHWITZ REMEMBERED SERVICE coming from Auschwitz Camp, it is still ongoing and I am in awe of the survivors.

It is just simply heart breaking but I am thinking I at least can watch these brave survivors telling their stories.

I am also aware of the horror of all this but I have reached a point where I cannot keep watching such programs. It is too stressful.

However there is a younger generation who do need to be made aware of this.

It would be helpful to get a few UKIP ers to think about how the processes of concerns about "too many foriegners" can develop out of control into paranoia and genocide.

I'm not a UKIP supporter but I cannot see any connection between current concerns about immigration and the genocide of WW2

Katyk I noticed in your post you mentioned your Dgd watched the film "The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas" aged 10/11, and she was severely traumatised. I think that is what happened to me aged 9 when my dad introduced me to the Holocaust history. Also apologies for wrong spelling of Auschwitz in my OP. You'd think at least I'd get it right!

Nelliemoser

Do you honestly believe the Reich was all about 'foreigners'?

I too do not think it was fair to tar UKIP with the holocaust.

I can't watch films about the actual camps either, but I've read a lot.
As well as feeling for the victims I think we need to look at how such terrible things came to happen, on such a huge industrial scale. Until we know this, no-one can say "Never again.".
So any targeting of a certain group of people because of their race or religion should be looked at with suspicion.
Also, there were were many supporters of the "national socialists" in prewar England. Doubt if they expected it turned into a holocaust though, I hope not.

Am I right in thinking that Vladimir Putin was not invited to the commemorations but Angela Merkal was?

DGD1, then 16, was chosen with about 100 others from the SW to visit the Holocaust Experience, and then go back and speak about it at meetings and assemblies etc.

They had a couple of days' training, and were then flown out to Kraków for the day, to visit all the remaining parts of Auschwitz. At the end, they stood where one of the gas chambers had been, and the Rabbi recited the Prayers for the Dead. Afterwards, she said, there was silence as they walked back to their bus. I think it is SO important that all generations are aware of the horros and the tragedy. Some of us here were alive during the war and its aftermath, but many weren't. I only saw the films of the liberation of the camps as a little girl, once we acquired a TV.

As far as UKIP's "policies" are concerned, there is a definite aura of racism and nationalism in its nastiest form. As with the BNP, I sense danger. Moseley had a strong following in this country, after all.

I think to even try to understand the horrors of the second war one needs to understand that the allies humiliation and actual starvation of Germany after the end of the first one was very very foolish. Reducing a conquered country to ruination is asking for that country, full of resentment and despair, to turn to the first apparently strong articulate person that boosted crushed national pride, created jobs and provided a seemingly rational reason for defeat, (the Jews) that appeared on the political scene - an accident waiting to happen. We need to learn by that awful mistake as well.

Hopefully the same thing isn't happening to Greece, as we've all seen what can happen to a devastated nation, which let's face it they are.