Unfortunately too many people are forgetting. Perhaps it is not forgetting as much as it is "not being taught." As the people who experienced World War II pass away, it seems to become incredibly easier for people to rewrite the history of the war to suit contemporary political tastes or their own personal agendas.
Well, remember our mutual good friend whose mother could refute Holocaust-denial by her own first-hand knowledge she was able to acquire in post-war Germany? When that generation is gone, it will be open season and I firmly believe that our generation will see that Holocaust-relativism is just one respectable school of thought among many within historology.
A friend of mine, who is not with us anymore, had published the stories of people from her hometown in Germany (she was a Holocaust survivor), one of them the story of an elderly care nurse, who was in the habit of always wearing a nurse's uniform, even on her transport to death. From this, some young German historians (NOT "rightwingers" or "neo-Nazis", mind you!) drew the conclusion that the Germans couldn't have been so bad, hadn't they, after all, given the Jews nurses (and doctors, they just added that, and indeed there must have been doctors on the death trains) along on their way to the gas chambers?
A David Irving, I pity. He is a delusional, very sick man. But I fear and despise those who draw devillish conclusions like that, and believe me, we will see more and more of that ilk as time passes.
2 comments:
Unfortunately too many people are forgetting. Perhaps it is not forgetting as much as it is "not being taught." As the people who experienced World War II pass away, it seems to become incredibly easier for people to rewrite the history of the war to suit contemporary political tastes or their own personal agendas.
Well, remember our mutual good friend whose mother could refute Holocaust-denial by her own first-hand knowledge she was able to acquire in post-war Germany? When that generation is gone, it will be open season and I firmly believe that our generation will see that Holocaust-relativism is just one respectable school of thought among many within historology.
A friend of mine, who is not with us anymore, had published the stories of people from her hometown in Germany (she was a Holocaust survivor), one of them the story of an elderly care nurse, who was in the habit of always wearing a nurse's uniform, even on her transport to death. From this, some young German historians (NOT "rightwingers" or "neo-Nazis", mind you!) drew the conclusion that the Germans couldn't have been so bad, hadn't they, after all, given the Jews nurses (and doctors, they just added that, and indeed there must have been doctors on the death trains) along on their way to the gas chambers?
A David Irving, I pity. He is a delusional, very sick man. But I fear and despise those who draw devillish conclusions like that, and believe me, we will see more and more of that ilk as time passes.
Post a Comment