What Should I Have Said? Re: Holocaust

How do you suggest we help exactly?

Oh be quiet.

I agree with this.

Did she actually say we should forget it? The quote suggests she said they should move on from feeling guilty which isn't unreasonable IMO if you played no part in it. Obv it's still a weird topic for the dinner table.

I did have a lovely woman once bring up the Holocaust.
In 1990's we used to exercise our dogs on local field.

Occasionally we'd see an elderly small lady with a little boy there.

One day, there was a pain in the backside Alsatian dog that was without it's owner , and this dog was terrifying the old lady and the little boy.

They were flying a kite, and the kite probably attracted the GSD, but the woman was clearly terrified.
My two dogs saw, and charged like Exocets and drove the GSD away.

The old lady and her little boy left the field.

A few weeks later, they were there again , and the old lady came up and said ''Your dogs saved me. Thank you. Ever since a child I have been terrified of that type of dog, as they were used to terrorise.

Turned out she had been at a Death Camp and it had been liberated.

She talked of travelling in a train truck, seeing snow through the cracks in the wagon, and {we live near a steam train that whistles} ..she said ''The whistle of the train takes me right back.

Her accent was still strong.

She was lovely.

I hope she is at peace now, as she would be a very elderly lady if alive still.

@TowerRavenSeven "if this ever happens again, what is a good response to such a statement?"
Gosh, I have no idea what it is like to have been in your shoes, tell me more. My instinct is to say "oh wow 'we' must of course remember" but I'm not even sure who the 'we' is here that I'm talking about; I'm interested to hear and learn about your experience.

That’s disingenuous of you. You absolutely wanted to derail the thread about the Holocaust by talking about Gaza. That’s what antisemites do.

That maybe true. But this post touches on antisemitism and that’s what I’m commenting on. But I think you know that don’t you.

The Holocaust wouldn't normally be on anyone's minds as a topic when speaking with Germans.
Especially as those who are alive currently would never have taken part, or been involved in it.

I’ve seen one or two little protests in London! And a whole load of antisemitic attacks as revenge.

I don’t understand.

You were chatting about modern day Germany - the internship that wasn’t to be - maybe some of the famous cities and sights? You did not reference WWII and the holocaust at all?

Then the host did raise the holocaust, followed by her outburst?

Or you were chatting about Germany and mentioned the war and then the holocaust?

if the latter, yes you were rude to bring up an atrocity that happened in someone’s country generations ago while a guest of that person and at a dinner party.

If the former, she sounds a bit mad - or perhaps her English isn’t perfect and she misheard or misunderstood someone’s comment.

Either way, put it behind you!

And after it's sunk in... what?

The British population of today (now including descendants of peoples oppressed by British colonialism) hold no responsibility for what was done by their ancestors.

You mention that they - I'm not sure who "they" are - "ran anti-Irish sentiments against (British) Anglo-Celts well into the 90's", but so what?

I've lived in the UK since the 70s and, as a Celt, have largely been a supporter of one Irish republicanism even when it was extrememly unpopular due to the actions on mainland UK of the IRA. Am I to be held responsible for the anti-Irish sentiments of "them", even if I was opposed those sentiments?

It's happened... it's gone...

If you can find the people who committed these wrongs at the time, then fine, hold them to account. But don't expect current populations to feel guilt about what their predecessors did.

Whereas the majority of British people in the era of the slave trade had little knowledge of anything outside their immediate environment and had a pretty miserable existence themselves, being exploited by the same class of people who were trading slaves. It doesn't make sense for ordinary working class Britons to feel responsible in any way.

This is false. You talk of “the majority of British people” as though they were peasants in medieval times. Not so. There was continual, contemporaneous (as far as “technology” permitted) accounts of what colonists were doing. There was debate in parliament. The newspapers were full of it. There was a not-so-silent minority against the horrors of it - coming, as it did, more or less simaltaneously with the horrors of the Dutch, Belgian and French colonial efforts - also very vocal in rural and urban regions. It’s a myth to think that only a few aristocratic, landed folk were involved. It was a root and branch endeavour, from farmer to banker to Lord and Lady.

Other countries (UK and USA for example) knew what was going on and didn't allow even allow Jewish people to escape to their country, much less do anything to stop the death camps.

Yes. The Balfour Agreement, at the root of this latest iteration of Middle Eastern strife, was born of an attempt to ensure continental Jews settled somewhere other than Britain. They took from Palestine to create Isreal, the original nimbyism.

Lol. Loving your ability to skirt the issue here

Have you thought about going back in time & applying for a cushy government job ? Perhaps abroad...?

The world is not silent about muslims being killed.

🫣

Both. England is the forefront of Britain

Yep, my point exactly. Muslims being killed all over the world and the world is silent. Except about Gaza. Now why is that you think?

Genocide is a more appropriate word, but agree it was a (series of and a mass) massacre.

You're using Britain and England interchangeably, which do you mean?