Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

I saw this movie last monday - and was stunned at the ending. An event too awful to contemplate - but the consequence not really surprising when
- a drive for personal career advancement
- placing of mindless duty over accountable moral responsibility
- ignoring the reality that is playing out in one's backyard and under one's nose
- prejudice and
- evasion
encounters naivety and innocence.

We need to be reminded of the horrors of WW2 and the inhumanity of man to man. When supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, Genl. Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps, he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead. He did this because he said, in words to this effect: 'get it all on record now - get films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the track of history some b*stard will get up and say that this never happened'. These photos were taken in Germany by James Emison Chanslor, an Army Master Sergeant who served in World War II from 1942 until 1945. They are a stark reminder of the reality of the Holocaust.




I have heard that the UK has removed 'the Holocaust' from its school curriculum because it 'offended' the population adhering to the Islam faith, who claim that it never happened. I hope that this is not true, but I would not be surprised as it is more and more evident, from what we heard from friends in England on our recent visit there, that compromises are being made to the detriment of truth and long-held, Christian-based values in Britain.
On the 27th January commemorations were held in Brussels and in the U.S. of the holocaust, and were attended by survivors of the camps. This photo shows Nazi death camp survivors commemorating the 64th anniversary of the liberation from Auschwitz by the Red Army on 27 January 1945.
To see more check out here

1 comment:

Wessel Bentley said...

Beryl

This is haunting stuff. It needs to haunt us and remind us every day of the severe consequences of our own inhumanity. Seeing the little baby, I can't even contemplate seeing my own in that situation.

Heartbreaking. Thanks for a great post.