WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
Posted on 01/25/2005 4:17:53 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
Forwarding this to all other homeschooling families around us so they will hopefully put other studies aside for the day and read things like this and study with it being anniversary.
He was referring to the Gulags.
Who can read of these things without shedding tears? There are no words...
Hey Catonsville-
I'm in Baltimore. The Holocasut Museum is a must see for anyone in the area. Friends of mine who had to visit for school or otherwise often told me they were shaken/moved to tears before leaving.
I guess it's a hard concept to grip until you're put face to face with it.
"Fifty years ago we entered Buchenwald, the concentration camp, the day after its liberation. Though it is not on our itinerary today, we make the decision to go to this place, a haunting and powerful reminder of what we fought against. Trevor, our guide, thanks me for directing our tour to Buchenwald. He has heard of it, but never thought he would ever see it. It is quite different from what it was half a century ago, but the memories are impressed forever.
You can still see the railroad siding that brought the victims here. Two lookout towers, the dispensary and the crematorium are preserved. Inside the fence all else has been destroyed, except for the numbers of the cell blocks carved in granite markers. Outside the camp a few buildings remain that were used for operations and officer barracks
When the war ended, we were in Bad Berka. Buchenwald was about l3 miles away. We rounded up all the citizens of Bad Berka and took them to see the concentration camp. Not one person admits to knowing it was there. Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill, at one of those famous conferences, divided up Germany. Bad Berka and surrounding areas were turned over to the Russians. The 296th went to Berlin. When the Russians took over, they took three months to empty the concentration camp of the those who had been imprisoned by the Germans. Then they used the camp to put their German prisoners in. Remember. The Germans almost reached Moscow. After about 40 years, they tore the camp down."
Supposedly, the 296th was the first American unit to enter Berlin, arriving there three days before any other Americans. Just thought you all might find this interesting.
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
Precisely.
" No, she told me, most are just grateful to God they were never caught and punished."
Not caught and punished while on earth. When they die they will go before One who will ensure they pay for their criminal evil for eternity.
Did Ike ever admit anything about "Operation Keelhaul"?
> Never again.
If only that were so. How many times has the same sort of thing happened just in the 1990's?
I have no idea, but this anecdote involves Ike's son, young General Eisenhower.
My uncle helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp on 29 April 1945 with the US 45th Infantry Division. They were there for a short time, and then pushed through when another unit relieved them. It had a definite effect on his life.
When we were small children, he drug every kid in our family into the living room and told us the story of the liberation. The reason he did it was 'I dont want you to ever forget how bad people can be to each other. I also dont want you to ever participate in this type of thing. Death is preferable to being a barbarian. In this family, we fight for liberty, not death camps."
Then he told us the entire story, from the beginning to end.
He ended the speech by telling us that the children of people who helped liberate the camps were responsible for making sure nothing like that ever happened again after his generation was gone.
After that one time of speaking about it, he never said another word about it as long as he lived.
My father was among the troops who liberated Buchenwald. He said that only constant vigilance and a well armed Israel would prevent such recurrences.
But "all" people are not capable of doing this. We in the US, as a people, would never do this. Nor could most individuals in a "civilized" society be swept up into this. At that time, I was looking at people who may or may not have been directly or indirectly involved in the systematic elimination of a people because of their religious belief. It wasn't an esoteric question of all humanity, it was a question of personal responsibility.
BTTT
Mother Theresa said that she decided to begin her service in Calcutta when she looked into herself and found a Hitler lurking there.
No one knows what is in his own heart of darkness unless he is put to the test.
I love the United States. It is the greatest nation ever to grace the earth. It is God's gift to the world and to all of us.
However, less than a century and a half ago, slavery was legal in the U.S., and at the time of the writing of the Constitution, slavery was legal is every state.
It was possible to buy a man, woman, or child and do whatever you wished with him or her--and, until the Civil War, this had the approval of the American people. Imagination is all one needs to know what some people would do with them; however, historical sources spell it out.
Until the 1880's, a bounty of $5.00 was paid, in some counties of California, for the head of any Indian. This was done with the approval of the people of California.
Then there was Wounded Knee.
Knowing that people are capable of such does not diminish our ability to love and respect people.
For every Hitler, there are many more Todd Beamers and Rachel Scotts.
Goodness and heroism are as inherent in human nature as is the ability to commit atrocities. In fact, it's stronger and more powerful. But the other side of human nature also exists, and we must not forget it. Awareness of it is the only way to prevent ourselves from allowing it to overtake us.
People are beautiful, wonderful, and heroic and to be loved. I do not mean to take away from this.
I was told by a close friend who was a young officer on the staff of General Eisenhower during the war before D-Day and after... that Stalin demanded that all his soldiers be returned after the war and both Churchill and Roosevelt had agreed to it before the D-Day invasion. My friend said, It was ALL about politics.
The lesson of the death camps is that All people are capable of it. Germany was the arts capitol of the world, and one of the most Christian ones. They put secular leaders in charge of the country and it turned into a death camp. All you have to do is listen to the cries of the looney left to realize that under the face paint is a little Nazi that is dying to get into power.
Hilter was put into power on a platform of peace, prosperity and liberal freedom. He use the platform as a gallows. Hitler was a total liberal, gay rights, the works. And Hitler is alive and amoung us today, and rapidly gaining power in the United States.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.