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AIBU?

To think the Auschwitz memorial television shows should have been balanced out with some about the current concentration camps in North Korea?

63 replies

ChoochiWoo · 30/01/2015 06:52

That really, I think a lot of people don't even register that concentration camps exist at large over there still...so vast you can see them from Google space, and regard things like Auschwitz as a.'war problem'of a another generation, I think an opportunity to educate, and inform making something like this really relevant was really missed.

OP posts:

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trufflesnout · 30/01/2015 06:57

I understand what you're saying, but I really don't think it would have been appropriate to slip it in to the memorial shows. Material for an alternative show? Sounds great.

AuntieStella · 30/01/2015 06:58

They didn't cover the use of concentration camps in subsequent conflicts either.

Maybe they were concerned that it would remove focus from the actual subject of the the programmes?

(The only one I watched was Night Will Fall, in which I think it simply would look wrong).

ChoochiWoo · 30/01/2015 07:00

to clarify i mean have like a short season with separate documentaries

OP posts:

ChoochiWoo · 30/01/2015 07:11

yes auntiestella , but the Holocaust going on in North Korea has been going on for decades , with no sign of stopping.

OP posts:

26Point2Miles · 30/01/2015 07:13

Are they going to let film crews in to make these 'films'?

FuzzyWizard · 30/01/2015 07:24

Just to be clear referring to the use of concentration camps in other contexts as a "Holocaust" is really not on. The reason why there aren't programmes about what is going on in North Korea is pretty simple, nobody knows with any certainty what is going on there. There is no verifiable survivor testimony as they have yet to be liberated. We have no idea what conditions are like, no idea what sort of treatment prisoners get or what labour they do. The programme would either be very short or would be wild conjecture. It's the same reason there were no holocaust documentaries before the end of WW2.

AuntieStella · 30/01/2015 07:25

I was thinking if the camps in the former Yugoslavia.

And the genocide in Rwanda.

FuzzyWizard · 30/01/2015 07:39

Sorry should of been clearer- I think referring to other genocides in that way is not offensive but to refer to the use of concentration camps in contexts where genocide is not the aim and where we have no idea what the camps are used for or what conditions prisoners face as a "Holocaust" is just plain wrong.

NancyRaygun · 30/01/2015 07:42

No need to "balance out" Auschwitz. The more aware and publicised atrocities are the more we can support our governments to take action. So you are saying lets raise awareness of genocide that is still happening.

Good idea.

No need to dilute or piggyback any other experience - they are all equally shocking.
They don't get equal billing as its a holocaust memorial year. The Holocaust is a unique human atrocity.

There are other atrocities happening around the world - but we don't really know what is happening in N Korea - that it is good that we become more aware of.

FuzzyWizard · 30/01/2015 07:42

Should have have have... Not of obviously.

NancyRaygun · 30/01/2015 07:43

"to clarify i mean have like a short season with separate documentaries"

sorry - missed this. Yes - I agree.

wouldliketoknow2 · 30/01/2015 07:50

I agree. There have been so many genocides (or indiscriminate killing of millions of people who were deemed anti regime as in Stalinist Russia), and I think we need to be educated about all of them.

HellKitty · 30/01/2015 08:05

I'm on the app so can't read your full title but I think (?) you were wondering why there wasn't more documentaries about other regimes?

I do think it was important to focus on the Auschwitz mainly due to the anniversary of the liberation. I watched a documentary the other night asking why the allies did nothing earlier. They knew but due to the random way bombs fell, could do little.

As for other regimes read 'Escape from camp 14' by Blaine Harden about one man who did escape a North Korean death camp. 'Unit 731 testimony' by Hal Gold, documented facts and interviews about the atrocities the Japanese unit 731 carried out - totally shocking, and possibly Google 'Holidays in the axis of evil', a bbc series which took hidden cameras into Libya, N Korea and Syria, among others.

I'm a bit of an anorak - not much chick lit here

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 30/01/2015 08:07

I agree that the focus should be wider and more up to date. I imagine in N Korea getting any material is a big issue.

UptheChimney · 30/01/2015 08:10

balanced out BALANCED OUT? So, the 2000 years of anti-Semitism, culminating in the "Final Solution" to "rid" Europe of those terrible Jews, in a set of policies driven by a huge nation-state (remember, GErmans voted for the National Socialists, and there were supporters and sympathisers all over Europe, including the UK) -- so, that needs balancing out

YABU. And you don't even realise how unreasonable you are being, and how utterly offensive your language. No wonder several of my Jewish friends and family are thinking of going to Israel to be safe.

MarianneSolong · 30/01/2015 08:17

With any historical event there are questions about how it should be remembered and presented. This has come up in relation to World War 1. TV producers tend to want 'simple' messages that everyone can 'agree' with. I think what concerns me is that aspects of the truth are complicated - so not everyone gets remembered or people get remembered in the wrong way. I found this article thought-provoking.

www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/anna-h%C3%A1jkov%C3%A1/how-should-we-remember-auschwitz

mimishimmi · 30/01/2015 08:17

The programs about Auschwitz would have been because it was Holocaust Memorial Day the other day. It would not have been relevant to mention North Korea. My only gripe is these shows only briefly, if that, mention the many non-Jewish people sent to these camps and also used for forced labour. 40 million Europeans died in WW2...I grew up with the grandkids of many of the survivors.

MarianneSolong · 30/01/2015 08:28

I think its also noteworthy that organisations like the Holocaust Educational Trust do significant work with young people about the relationship between the Shoah and other genocides. There have been many recent TV programmes about the Holocaust - as the daughter of someone who got out of Germany in 1937 I decided to avoid them - as it's a topic which I've learned quite a lot about by other means.

I am inclined to agree that one programme considering how other totalitarian states copied and echoed what happened in the Third Reich could have made a valid contribution to the season. But that it would not be at all fitting within a programme looking specifically at the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

ghostyslovesheep · 30/01/2015 08:29

I think you are confusing two things op - holocaust Memorial Day ... Which did cover other genocides and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of aushwitz which, rightly, focuses on Aushwitz

TendonQueen · 30/01/2015 08:31

No need to 'balance' anything out. Auschwitz and the other camps are perfectly deserving of coverage in their own right. Would you also say that Martin Luther King day should be 'balanced out' with coverage of continuing civil rights struggles in the world? Of course these things also deserve and should have more airtime. But there's no need to approach it as if the Holocaust is unfairly taking up excess screen time. Agree with
Nancy's post above. And yes, a separate documentary about it would be a very good idea.

mimishimmi · 30/01/2015 08:31

www.ukemonde.com/holocaust/victims.html

JapaneseMargaret · 30/01/2015 08:35

There is something incredible unsavory about your thread title, and original post.

It almost reads as if Auschwitz is just a noteworthy episode in history to you, or something...

BarbarianMum · 30/01/2015 08:40

I don't think anything will 'balance out' the concentration camps of World War II - at least I hope nothing can. I'm comfortable with this 1 week being devoted to the memory of Auschwitz ( well not comfortable obviously, more rightfully harrowed by the reality).

There are a lot more abuses of humanity both historic and current that could do with serious air time (Stalin's death camps would be my particular choice) but not this week.

Samcro · 30/01/2015 08:42

yabu

ghostyslovesheep · 30/01/2015 08:42

Mimishimmi I don't understand the point of that link - Holocaust Memorial Day focuses on all victims of genocide and covered the different groups murdered in the camps as well as more recent conflicts

The coverage I have seen around Auschwitz has also touched on this

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