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

[ChoochiWoo]

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.

'Balance out' is an unfortunate choice of words. YAB somewhat U.

but the OP isn't talking about Holocaust Memorial Day (which quiet rightly should and did feature other conflicts and genocides) she is talking about the specific coverage of the 70 th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

it's like saying Match Of The Day should feature Ballet

Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January every year) and the liberation of Auschwitz are the same day - it's why that day was chosen. I think that link was relevant because most TV shows give the impression that a only few thousands of non-Jews were targeted by the Nazis (ie Roma and homosexuals) but only Jewish people died in their millions - that simply wasn't the case, it was millions of non-Jewish people as well.

I think a season of documentaries would be brilliant. To show the world that we learnt nothing from the holocaust and that genocide still occurs, often without any intervention or coverage.

Mimi, i work alongside a woman whose grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz. They were not jewish and i don't think many people realise that there were many non heritage victims although they were the main target.

Now I might watch Match of the Day if it featured ballet!

But to be serious, YABVVU OP. Absolutely people's attention should be drawn to the atrocities in other places around the world, but the programme and general coverage of Auschwitz was because it was the 70th anniversary.

Otherwise, why not also talk about Dachau, or Buchenwald - where my own uncle was imprisoned after being shot down?

I would hope people realised that many people who where not Jewish where targets of the Nazis

certainly the programs I have seen didn't just focus on Jewish people

Balance out What a crude way to talk about something as horrific as Auschwitz.
I watched the ceremony on TV with those people who had survived the camps. One of the most moving things I have ever seen in my life

I don't think the OP meant her phrase "balanced out" negatively though do agree that a programme about Auschwitz was always going to be about Auschwitz.

Everyone should know about the holocaust, and they should also know about the other genocides in history. Growing up I mainly knew about the holocaust and it is only later that I learned about the other decimations of vast numbers of people. I think we should learn about all of them.

Some are also I feel deliberately over looked such as the camps set up by the British in the Boer War where thousands of women and children died from starvation and disease.

Agree with this ^

I think it is possible for programmes about the Holocaust to be watched for dubious reasons.

It can - perversely - be seen as a narrative that has comforting elements. 'Good' nations such as the UK can be seen as having opposed and come to the rescue of 'bad' nations, rescuing groups of passive victims.

Stories of resistance by Jewish groups - the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto may not be told.

The reluctance of nations including the UK to accept Jewish refugees from 1933 onwards is not necessarily told

The history of anti-Semitism in the UK (and prejudice against groups such as Roma people, homosexuals) may not be considered.

Collaboration by the population of the Channel Islands with Nazi occupying forces will not be mentioned

Nor will Churchill's policy of internment in which Jews who had got out of Germany were rounded up as dangerous aliens and put in camps, be mentioned.

I dont think mention of other camps is appropriate in docs about the liberation and holocaust memeorial day.

However, I think it was in 'night will fall' that someone said that to forget auschwitz/belsen etc would mean that this could happen again, when in actual fact it IS happening but we are not seeking to stop it (maybe because we are scared of China, DPRK's allies. As well as other places where its not seem right to stop genocide) People are suffering as they were 70 years ago but we turn our backs.

www.amnesty.org.uk/north-korea-life-camps

I'd just like to say it's not true that a documentary would be speculation. We do know what's going on there. Here's a video from Amnesty with survivor testimony.

I totally agree and its funny how sadam and other tryrants are always mentioned and were, and the cruelty and yet whats being done about the largest prision camp in the world which is the whole country of north korea?

• I read the "balanced out" to mean, remind people that although the Holocaust is an historical event, concentration camps are not

same here.

fuzzywizard have you never heard of the book escape from camp 14? its by a man who was born and raised and escaped from one of these canps.

I apologise if 'balance out' was seen as minimising language, I didn't mean it to be, I was referring to the fact that it still continues in other parts of the world, its not 'over'. Although one poster has said Im the reason lots of Jews want to migrate ..its a bit distasteful considering what I actually said in op, and quite wierd actually.

read daily northkorea paper

where would you get that knitted? Ive recently seen the gallows photo from north korea on tumblr, horrendous just horrendous

It's about the Holocaust though. You're trying to paint yourself as a kind and concerned person but you're acting like you've a limited amount of tolerance for hearing about oppression and Jewish people and other victims of the Holocaust are like, hogging it?? It's bizarre. Do you do this with other things?? It's fine to want people to be aware of modern concentration camps but to say it has to come at the expense of Holocaust memorial is horrible.

the sad thing is if you made such programs - I would watch as would you but many other people would be too busy watching BB or Made in Essex to care :(

rinabean, Im not sure where you've got that impression its a strange conclusion to come up with, I think some people are pitbulling slightly so i'll leave it there.

sadly i think thats true ghost, although I totally agree with an above poster that access would be near on impossible.