[LauraJean]

I am going to tell you all something that has been in my and that I have cherished for many years. It may seem off the point but please bear with me.
I read a book about the history of the Gypsies many years ago. Hitler targeted the Gypsies along with Jews. Mengeler even did experiments on Gypsy children to see if he could turn their brown eyes blue.
In a death camp the Gypsy violinists would go around through the work camp playing their songs. A tummler (I think that is the Yiddish word for comedian) would be with them telling jokes. They would go all through the camp trying to give a little hope and joy.
I can hear the music in my minds eye. I can smell the filth and the stench of fear and death they must have been smelling.
I always cry when I think of them. Cries of pain for their suffering. Here they were widowed, orphened, their children taken away and killed in unspeakable manner.
But I always cry tears of joy. These are because these men lived and they lived through the most horrendus of times. And they played their violin when lesser men would have cursed God and beg to die.

[Pegita]

Thank you, LauraJean ...

[Velveeta]

And they played their violin when lesser men would have cursed God and beg to die.

Blurry screen, tears.

[shezza]

Expanding the culture of death

THE NETHERLANDS has become the first nation since Hitler's Germany to legalize euthanasia -- the direct killing of patients by physicians. There are restrictions. There must be voluntary consent to be euthanized; the patient must be suffering irremediable and unbearable pain; and a second physician's opinion must be obtained.

But these restrictions already existed during the years in which euthanasia was quasi-legal in the Netherlands. That is, patients were put to death by doctors who were very rarely even prosecuted, let alone convicted. During that time, official figures revealed that many patients were euthanized without their consent. Their compassionate doctors felt those lives were of such low quality that they were not worth being continued.

(articles must be excerpted...read the rest at jewishworldreview.com)

This article from 2001 detailed the "slippery slope" pathway taken by the Netherlands in recent years, and how places like Canada and The People's Republic of California have healthcare professionals begging courts to be allowed to follow suit. Chilling. And it's from 4 years ago...it's becoming obvious how much as changed in the few years since.

Before the gas chambers, before the Holocaust, German doctors euthanized not only the "incurable" but also mentally defective patients on the principle that some lives are unworthy of living ("lebensunvertes Leben"). Later, the Nazis called those unfit to live "useless eaters."

[valleygal]

Reminds me of "Life is Beautiful"...a movie I have only seen once and will never watch again. It is too painful. But it was a powerful and beautiful movie.

[valleygal]

Reminds me of "Life is Beautiful"...a movie I have only seen once and will never watch again. It is too painful. But it was a powerful and beautiful movie.