International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2013

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Today Auschwitz was liberated. In order to try and understand the Holocaust make sure you don’t attempt to visualize…

Three thousand

Jehova’s witnesses, or

Four Thousand

Communists, or

Nine thousand

African-Europeans, or

Ten Thousand

Gay Men, or

Eighty thousand

Free Masons, or

One Hundred thousand

Disabled people, or

One Hundred and ninety thousand

Unionists, Socialists, and religious/political dissenters, or

Two hundred thousand

Romani (gypsies), or

Four million

Slavic Prisoners of War, or even

Six Million Jews.

Don’t try to visualize this, simply because you can’t. Instead try to visualize one person. Their religion, age, gender, political opinions, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, or occupation is of no importance. They could be a righteous person or they could be a terrible and corrupt criminal. It does not matter. It’s your choice. Give them a history. Give them an age, do they believe in a god, what gender are they, what do they look like, what’s their name, do they vote, where were they bourn, are they kind, have they hurt anyone, are they angry, who do they love, have they loved before, what holidays do they celebrate, what is their family like? Breathe into them so that they can breathe. Hold them in your mind’s eye for a moment. Know them. Love them because they are your own creation. Now let them die 11 million deaths. Now see if you can promise you will never let it happen again. Only then can one begin to understand that though the holocaust affected specific groups and specific people… its message is clear. It’s not about what we are but about the simple fact that we are. Never again. Not to anyone.

Je vous ai mis un lien