The Holocaust

I received this email today, but didn't pass it on. I try to be selective about forwarding emails; I know folks don't want their in-boxes cluttered up with junk. This doesn't seem to be junk, though, and I feel it's important enough to copy here:

"MEMORIALS It is a matter of history that when 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 track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened' 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing'. Edmund Burke This week, the UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offended' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. This is a portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it. It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the: 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated. Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world. Please don't just delete this. It will only take a minute to pass this along. Thank you"

I'm always amazed when I hear people deny that the Holocaust happened. I was amazed when I visited the memorial in Paris to the 200,000 French men, women and children (mostly Jews) who died in concentration camps; how could anyone think this was a hoax? And I was amazed again when I heard an interview this morning on NPR with a man, Jim Shields, who was a 19-year old Army private in WWII and helped liberate Dachau. How can anyone deny his story of the unspeakable horrors he witnessed there? Yet, as he said, the people living in the town of Dachau denied knowing that the concentration camp even existed, although it was only two miles from town and the stench of the decaying dead and burning bodies permeated the town.

If you want the email to send on to others, please leave your email address, and I'll send it to you.

Pictures: above from the NPR website; to the right is a photo I took in 2005 at the Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation on the Ile de la Cite in Paris. Each lighted crystal represents one of the 200,000 French citizens who died in concentration camps. An inscription reads: "Dedicated to the living memory of the 200,000 French deportees sleeping in the night and the fog, exterminated in the Nazi concentrations camps."