Anyone watching the shows on the 70th anniv. of the liberation of Auschwitz?

[Rick Lee]

I'm sort of watching the CNN show in the background and it keeps grabbing me. I went there around 1992 when they were filming Schindler's List. I think about that stuff just about every day and still can't wrap my head around it. I recently visited the dept. store where I grew up in NJ and where the old lady whose sons owned it had a number tattooed on her forearm. I noticed that when I was about 11. My folks asked me if I remembered that. Hell yes. Never forgot it.

[aap1966]

.......Never forgot it.

That's what matters.

[petrolhead611]

UK TV is full of this stuff every evening this week. I watch it all, also its on PBS which I view too.
My grandparents both (just) survived Belsen,but never spoke of it to me, and maybe not even to my dad( he had escaped to England in '38) as he never told me any details, hence my interest in this horrific stuff.
Never forget!!!!!!!!!!

[Bugsinrugs]

My father saw his father taken away by the Nazis. His first wife and baby were sent to the gas chambers. He survived because of his strong will and a lot of luck. My sister and I persuaded him to tell his story to the Spielgerg group after Shindlers list came out. We have his story on VHS tape.

[dyusem]

Thanks for pointing us to these shows!

My daughter is taking a holocaust class at UC Davis this quarter and a survivor came and spoke earlier this week.

My daughter mentioned to me that it was one of the best lectures she has had while at university and the class was mesmerized. This gives me much hope that we will never forget...

[flatbutt]

I am not watching as I've had my fill of man's inhumanity. But I have not forgotten nor do I intend to. A close friend is the child of tattooed survivors but they do not reflect on the memory of it.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

I am not watching as I've had my fill of man's inhumanity. But I have not forgotten nor do I intend to. A close friend is the child of tattooed survivors but they do not reflect on the memory of it.

I go back and forth on this. I've been to plenty of sites of mass atrocities during WWII. I thought I'd had my fill when I went to Buchenwald for the second time with my dad in tow. But each one of those sites is different and many had vastly different purposes. Mittelbau-Dora, for example, was where the slave laborers built the V1 and V2 rockets. It wasn't an extermination camp, but the prisoners did get worked to death and obviously never released unless they made it until the liberation. Buchenwald specialized in executing Russian POWs and then, became another labor camp for political prisoners once the Russians took over that part of what became E. Germany. Some irony in that one. Anyway, that has about nothing to do with the Holocaust, and Auschwitz was a whole other level of industrialized killing. Check out that photo exhibit from about two years ago of the Germans who worked at Auschwitz. All the photos are of them in leisure time away from the prisoners. Very chilling stuff to see.

[Rick Lee]

Found that photo expose.

Roger Cohen: Down Time from Murder - SPIEGEL ONLINE

[strupgolf]

Nope, not watching it. It's on now, oh I didn't see it.

[azasadny]

I saw the video form a drone flying over Auschwitz. Very eerie, and for good reason...

[Rick Lee]

This is kind of heart warming, though he deserved lifelong torture instead of death by hanging.

Rudolf Hoess the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, is hanged next to the crematorium at the camp, 1947

[notfarnow]

The BBC's series "Auschwitz" is on Netflix, and is a really captivating look at the history. Some gripping first person testimonials from survivors, as well as Nazis from the einsatzgruppen. Just incredible to watch

[masraum]

Originally Posted by notfarnow

The BBC's series "Auschwitz" is on Netflix, and is a really captivating look at the history. Some gripping first person testimonials from survivors, as well as Nazis from the einsatzgruppen. Just incredible to watch

Thanks, added to my queue

[masraum]

I have seen a few articles on various places online and a few short videos here and there, but I haven't gotten too deep into the holocaust. I'll eventually get around to reading about it. Over the last few years, my interest in history has increased, and I've been reading about somewhat related subjects, like the POWs held by the Japanese in WWII or the results of the bombs dropped on Japan.

Does anyone have any recommendations for books on the holocaust?

[Rick Lee]

Start out with Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning. It chronicles the very early days of the Holocaust, when the killing was done "one on one" by reserve police units - Ordnungspolizei - who were sent to the forward areas to assist the Einsatzgruppen. The interesting thing about those "ordinary men" was that they were civilian police, many too old to join the SS and thus were not likely to be ideological fanatics or ambitious to climb up the SS ladder. Yet, they still went along with murdering entire villages in Poland, and they did it the hard way. No gas chambers, no lining up large numbers in front of pre-dug mass graves. These guys escorted their victims one by one out to the forest and shot them with bolt action rifles. There are even several incidents where their commanders tell them anyone who doesn't want to participate is welcome to stay behind. And the author claims there is no documented case of a German ever facing consequences for refusing to participate in an atrocity. Anyway, that book is a good starting point, since it takes place years before the real extermination camps were up and running, where the killing was a lot less up close and personal.

[masraum]

ill check it out, thanks. I have read books about the death marches and pow camps that the Japanese had. There were times as Japan was beginning to lose the war that they had to use bayonets to conserve bullets. Granted, they usually weren't executing the large numbers like the Germans.

[Rusty914s]

It's a terrible time in human history. What's worse it's that it's happen multiple times since then and it continues on happening today. If only we were smart enough to recognize it and do something about it.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Rusty914s

It's a terrible time in human history. What's worse it's that it's happen multiple times since then and it continues on happening today. If only we were smart enough to recognize it and do something about it.

IIRC, the UN's charter requires the UN to get involved if the word "genocide" is going on in a conflict. So they call it "ethnic cleansing" now to keep the UN from having to do anything about it.