There are clearly some who go for the wrong reasons and don’t show appropriate respect or reverence.
However I have to note the hypocrisy of those on this very thread also berating those people - while simultaneously making trite comments about how we must ensure it “never happens again”...
Because it has and continues to happen again all the time all over the world.
Are you meaning in Europe? Because it’s happened again in Europe too or are you meaning to Western Europe? Which is a fairly narrow remit.
Unless and until we do all we possibly can to prevent ANYONE being targeted for their religion, race, class or other group identifiers we cannot claim to have stopped it happening again.
And yes it terrifies me that in the uk, USA and Western Europe we seem to again be capitulating to extremist, bigoted and othering politics and policies that are targeting many of the same groups that the nazis did:
Mentally ill
Learning disabled
Physically disabled
Romany
Travellers
Anyone with colouring other than European!
Immigrants...
If you REALLY want to pay due respect to those lost to that regime work towards it not being replicated HERE again and to imploring OUR politicians and policy makers to not support it happening elsewhere too.
“People recite "never again" all the time, and then trot off and participate in offering about "benefit scroungers" or "illegal immigrants" or whoever the latest scapegoated segment of society is. Behaviour like that is what created the environment where the holocaust could occur.” Exactly! Happens on here frequently!
“but I fail to see the correlation...seeking to flee terrible situations” what exactly do you THINK they are fleeing?! The exact same type of situation as the Jews and other races and groups were fleeing in wwii - othering, being attacked because of their race, religion, nationality... it’s the same thing!
“in which most countries in Europe either suffered huge losses or were complicit. It’s not the same.” Please DO explain exactly how it’s “not the same”? Could it possibly be because it’s happening to people who aren’t European? Or will you argue it’s a numbers game? That it’s only “important” when it’s millions and not when it’s thousands or hundreds when every life is precious?
I also worked with a Jewish guy who had worked in the Middle East, diplomatic service, he didn’t say much of his experiences there but he did say that some Jews sadly seemed to have learned from their experiences in wwii in Europe not that such horrors should never happen again, but instead how to perpetrate them against others. What a human mind must go through to even consider that I cannot imagine.
@Ineedtogethealthy - well done that artist for rightly shaming those disgraceful people!
I have a slightly different perspective here as I also lived in Germany for a few years. In addition to the actual historic sites and how they’re being preserved, Germany as a nation do a LOT to teach their younger generations about how they ended up doing what they did.
Because what people also often forget is that while the overall horror was orchestrated and planned by the “higher ups” they couldn’t have possibly carried it all out without “ordinary” Germans being willing and able to do the dirty work!
I also saw some harrowing, shocking documentaries made in Germany interviewing the very people who had carried out these atrocities - this was in the 90’s so 40/50 years later and do you know what the TRULY horrifying part was?! They still held the same views and didn’t think they had done anything wrong.
I spoke with German women who had married into uk army about some of this (hopefully without causing offence) and they were very open and said that sadly there were still a lot of the older German folk genuinely believed what had happened was
Right
Acceptable
Necessary
And who still hated having to live near or work with or have their families in communities with “non Arians”. Some had experienced being cut off by parents and grandparents because they married “the enemy”.
It did not happen in a closed nazi bubble.
I have polish Jewish next door neighbours, I have heard them being abused in the street and by other neighbours for their nationality and for their race and religion.
I have family and friends of all backgrounds living in various parts of the uk, the Jewish and Muslim ones in particular (but not solely) I know get a lot of nasty verbal abuse, things thrown at them, graffiti on their homes and cars, faeces through their letterboxes...
And that’s here in the uk today!
Seems we haven’t learnt much at all really
“do most other genocides happen in situ?” Not always.
We have a prime minister openly courting fascists and fascism fgs. The time for meaningless platitudes is over. hear hear!
“You step on the pathto the Holocaust whenever you hear of people suffering in incarceration, and say "well, they broke a law", without asking yourself first, "is this law just?" and "is this penalty just?"” Absolutely