GMB reporting on liberation of Auschwitz (minus the Jews!)

It is a matter of record that the Russians who liberated Auschwitz were not as moved by what they found as one might have thought. Inmates were sent back to the Soviet Union under forced labour. Women were sexually assaulted by their 'liberators'. On the other hand, British soldiers like my uncle, were profoundly moved and scarred by their experience when they liberated Bergen Belsen on 15 April 1945.

People don't talk a lot now about Hitler's weird racial theories. He thought that Jews, Slavs, and Roma were all inferior races, and hoped by eliminating them, at least in certain areas, to promulgate an Aryan master race: the murder of homosexuals and of people with congenital disabilities was part of the same project.

It was quite distinct from the more utilitarian murders of political opponents (socialists, trade unionists, communists, and certain religionists such as Quakers).

And different again from all the millions killed by brutal warfare in all its forms (many now illegal under international law).

"Attention seeking" 🙄

FFS.

We are not moving from Holocaust to war dead. The estimated casualties in WWII are in between 70 and 80 million dead. We are talking about Holocaust - the civilian targets by Nazi Germany to commit atrocities against because of their race, religion, ideology, ethnicity or disability.

So then we're moving from holocaust to war dead

I thought the current russians beef was not being invited as they (single handedly of course) liberated auschwitz.

Never heard of vast numbers of russian civilians in the camp system. Soviet soldiers yes, but russian civilians, no. Every days a school day.

Unless they were also Jewish of course. Although the pogroms had diminished their numbers already

Although Sammy wasn’t talking about the final solution. Had they mentioned that I wouldn’t have tagged.

Im fully aware, as it’s well known, that the Final Solution was only about the mass extermination of the Jewish population.

My apologies. At the time of WWII, Belorussian and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union - they suffered the same barbaric fate as the rest of Balkans by Nazi Germany.

@Alondra As another poster said, Auschwitz was liberated by the red army. Not the Americans, not the British or any allied countries.

The Red Army is Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was allied with GB & USA.

They lost a lot in the siege of Leningrad

Or the Soviet Union did.

I think Alondra was specifically referencing the Russian civilian population. I watched the ceremony yesterday and don’t recall any mention at all of them and yet it seems as @Alondra stated they were the second highest murdered.

So why have they been left out.
Or should they just come under the bracket of

others!
or
etc!

Which isn’t a respectful way to treat anyone. Just as GMB not referencing the Jewish population is also not respectful !

Czechs too actually, though they aren’t often mentioned either. Hitler hated all Slavic people. I’m mentioning this because I am half Czech; my grandfather was shot by the Gestapo just before the end of the war and a great uncle died in Maunthausen concentration camp.

However, it’s true that the vast majority of victims were Jews and it’s appalling that GMB didn’t mention this. If it was a mistake it was a very bad one and it could have easily been corrected. There should definitely be an apology to the Jewish community.

This x

I never knew about the Russians either, how come that is hardly ever mentioned?

I wasn’t aware of this, nor such high numbers.
Have Russians never been recognised by any Country or Religion as victims of the holocaust.
At least at the time , if not now?

@Alondra Is there a reason that you're minimising the impact on Baltic people, Belarusians, Ukrainians?. The ones that also made up the red army.

I can see why it would not be appropriate to invite representatives of a state currently indulging in nazi behaviour themselves, to be honest. There were other ex soviet states involved in the commemoration, so the red army was represented

The ceremonies did talk about this and how Darfur Sudan, Bosnia have all occurred since. The ceremony in the UK had coverage of those genocides too with survivors telling their stories.

It was the primary purpose and has been well recorded. It's what the Final Solution was about, specifically Europe's Jewish population. Please don't diminish this fact.

Never again is now

Why do people still say "never again". Never again has been and gone several times over, despite the well meaning and heartfelt sentiment.

The ceremonies shown on the BBC yesterday, very much mentioned disabled people, gypsies who were also killed. They had individuals from those communities there representing them and speaking for them.

The gas chambers were set up to exterminate the Jews quickly. First and foremost those deemed unfit to work. Women, children and the elderly straight off the trains and not even documented.

The concentration camps were around before then.

I know this is perhaps splitting hairs and a matter of infrastructure here, but let’s be perfectly historically accurate as you did say ‘the camps’.

Hundred of thousands of disabled children and children from different minority ethnic groups suffered medical barbarities, which somehow are never remembered in the Holocaust massacre.

What the Nazi's did against the civil population in Russia was barbaric. Women and children thrown alive in fire pits, POW executed by millions in grave pits they dug themselves.

The only reason why Israel and the West have tried to "forget" the massacre in Russia is because Hitler didn't win the war against them. Hitler built the final solution against Jews in the territories Nazi Germany controlled. Fortunately for us all, the Nazis didn't win the war against Russia.

As another poster said, Auschwitz was liberated by the red army. Not the Americans, not the British or any allied countries.

My post specifically related to the pp I tagged who stated the ONLY purpose was the extermination of the Jewish population.

It wasn’t the ONLY purpose as I stated.

I was not diminishing the horror to the Jewish population but neither should anyone make such inaccurate far reaching sweeping statements. Hence my tag.