Musafir's Musings

And Belzec
Bergen-Belsen
Buchenwald
Chelmno
Dachau
Dora
Janow
Maidanek
Mauthausen
Neuengamme
Ponary
Pustkow
Skarzysko
Sobibor
Stutthof
Theresienstadt
Treblinka
Vilna
Warsaw

Am I, who is not Jewish, fit to write, or do I have the right to comment, about the Holocaust and suffering of the Jewish people ? I do so with humility.

I can say that what took place was terrible and that I understand their pain. But only Jews know what it really meant. It goes too deep, way beyond our comprehension of the enormity of the atrocities during the years when a large number of people in Europe ceased to act like members of the human race and insanity prevailed. The number of survivors of the pogrom is small and getting smaller. Soon there would be none. But a generation of Jews, scattered all over the world, grew up under the shadow of the horrendous fate suffered by their parents and grand parents. To us it is fact; to them it is intensely personal.

As leaders of the world gather at Auschwitz on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous concentration camp, where Nazis killed 1.5 million people, mostly Jews (out of of a total six million plus who died horrible deaths during Adolf Hitler‘s Third Reich), we should all take a few moments to ponder about the Holocaust.

Why did it happen and why did the Germans and others who were aware of what was going on remained quiet and looked the other way ? Not all of them were Nazis. There are many explanations but they do not provide answers. At long last the Germans faced the issue and accepted their responsibility. The Vatican waffled about the failure of Pope Pius XII to speak out. Whether his voice would have done any good is beside the point.

There would be lofty speeches at Auschwitz. The sad fact is that the world remained aloof during the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. According to a 1999 report by Frontline “.....the Clinton administration's failure to intervene in Rwanda 'wasn't a failure to act'. The decision was 'not to act'.” More recently, the European Union refrained from intervening in Sudan because the Darfur massacres were not considered “genocidal”! Again, our government stood by the sidelines. One only heard platitudes. Our leaders talk about moral high ground but there is often a tendency to find pretexts to avoid taking action.

Racial prejudices still exist. Bigots come in all colors and races. Demagogues continue to spew hatred in different languages. There will always be such people. As long as they do not receive support of the broader society in which they live they would remain powerless to persecute and oppress others.

We cannot be absolutely sure that it will not happen again; we can only hope that it does not and do whatever we can toward that goal.
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