"As long as there are human beings, there is a possibility of another Auschwitz." Stark but very true. I fully believe that Trump, Musk, Patel, and so many others could easily be a party to recreating such a horror, and the MAGAT faithful would follow their cue, blind and stupid as they appear to be. Cruel, too.
And the only thing more horrifying than the billionaire influencers that would recreate such a thing is the indifference of the world as we see is happening in Gaza - where the world turns a blind eye to the absolute horrors that ironically the Israeli government inflicts on people they consider to be nothing more than animals.
It’s not that simple. If palestinians laid down their weapons there would be a two state solution. Not perfect, but a solution, and palestinians could live in peace. If Israel laid down it’s weapons every last jew would be killed, from the river to the sea.
I don't think you understand - it's Israel that has the weapons lol
And it's Israel that has committed daily atrocities against the Palestinian people for decades after stealing their land and their homes. And hopefully it's a Israel that will have it's ass kicked out of Palestinian completely.
Mark, because it is made up of humans. "As long as there are human beings, there is the possibility of another Auschwitz. The human being is a pitiful species.
We have to look at who we are electing. We have 27 MAGA Governors and I will tell you that almost all of them support very Draconian laws when it comes to women. In fact, for some of them, the laws in their respective states are not Draconian enough. Steve asks why we do not remember. Valid question. I ask why do we elect people who seek to enslave women?
A beautiful, painful, clear-eyed synopsis of systematic evil. Denial and indifference play a large role - but what can one do with powerful individuals who lack all empathy?
Keep telling the undeniable truth of the horrors humans can inflict on one another in the name of power and greed.
And to think that one of Trump‘s first objectives is to get rid of the Department of Education. Keep America stupid! That is your answer Steve, as to why people don’t remember anything? We aren’t very smart here in the United States.
We are a stupid nation; we stopped producing citizens decades ago. There are teacher whistleblowers trying to expose what’s going on in our schools - WhiteChalkCrime.com. People must listen to them and run for school boards. It’s something we still have the power to do.
Musk may be on the spectrum and a engineering/computer genius, just doesn't mean we have to put up with his misplaced politics and beliefs. He may have all the money in the world to throw around but, we have to put a stop to this. If we sit back and let all of this happen for 4 years of Trump and what may come after we are all in trouble. Start the fight now!
Musk is no genius, he is a p.r. man who got very rich from stealing inventions and claiming it was his. His billions of dollars come mostly from the government contracts (our taxes).
At 69, I have terrible recall, I must enter just about everything in my calendar that I constantly consult in order to remember things I have to do, however, I can say this. The crimes that took place in Europe perpetrated by the Nazis, the crimes of abuse and slaughter we brought upon Native Americans, the Japanese interment camps America deployed on our fellow citizens during WW II, the events of 9/11, American Slavery, The Civil War, are some examples of what I do not need a calendar to remember.
This question you pose, seems to me, to connect a dot or two with the stupid, the poorly educated and the poorly informed among us. Then there are the indifferent, they know and don’t care. And that brings us to Elon, with him, it is all indifference, deliberate willful belief in who and what they are, it is who he is. He’s a fucking Nazi, just like Trump. This is why Pawel replied to your query vis-à-vis Elon’s visit with “I’m afraid not”.
I haven’t been to Auschwitz, but I’ve been to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. I remember an immense pile of shoes left by people who wouldn’t be coming back for them. Tears.
Thank you for this reflection on Auschwitz and the evil of Elon Musk and the Nazis. I have been to Dachau numerous times, Bergen Belsen where Anne Frank died, Flossenburg where Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed at the end of the war, Buchenwald, and the Euthanasia Center at Hadamar where 10s of thousands of sick, crippled or handicapped children and later adults were euthanized, and thousands of adults with physical, emotional, psychological impairments were sterilized. I’ve also been to the Wannsee house where it was all coordinated. I have been privileged to meet Auschwitz survivors and studied the Shoah/Holocaust for decades, my primary professor in my undergraduate years at California State University Northridge, Dr. Helmut Haeussler began my journey, into understanding. He was the child of German immigrants who volunteered to serve with the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII and stayed on as an interrogator and translator during the trial of the major Nazi War criminals and remained for the subsequent 12 American trials including the Einsatzgrüppen, Malmedy, Doctors, Judges, Industrialists, the High Command and others. I took more classes from him including independent study research. The evils of the Nazis are beyond comprehension to most people.
I think that Spencer Tracy’s monologue as Judge Dan Haygood in Judgement at Nuremberg, the fictional adaptation of the Judge’s trial, speaks to this in a manner seldom seen in film.
“The trial conducted before this Tribunal began over eight months ago. The record of evidence is more than ten thousand pages long, and final arguments of counsel have been concluded.
Simple murders and atrocities do not constitute the gravamen of the charges in this indictment. Rather, the charge is that of conscious participation in a nationwide, government organized system of cruelty and injustice in violation of every moral and legal principle known to all civilized nations. The Tribunal has carefully studied the record and found therein abundant evidence to support beyond a reasonable doubt the charges against these defendants.
Herr Rolfe, in his very skillful defense, has asserted that there are others who must share the ultimate responsibility for what happened here in Germany. There is truth in this. The real complaining party at the bar in this courtroom is civilization. But the Tribunal does say that the men in the dock are responsible for their actions, men who sat in black robes in judgment on other men, men who took part in the enactment of laws and decrees, the purpose of which was the extermination of humans beings, men who in executive positions actively participated in the enforcement of these laws — illegal even under German law. The principle of criminal law in every civilized society has this in common: Any person who sways another to commit murder, any person who furnishes the lethal weapon for the purpose of the crime, any person who is an accessory to the crime — is guilty.
Herr Rolfe further asserts that the defendant, Janning, was an extraordinary jurist and acted in what he thought was the best interest of this country. There is truth in this also. Janning, to be sure, is a tragic figure. We believe he loathed the evil he did. But compassion for the present torture of his soul must not beget forgetfulness of the torture and the death of millions by the Government of which he was a part. Janning’s record and his fate illuminate the most shattering truth that has emerged from this trial: If he and all of the other defendants had been degraded perverts, if all of the leaders of the Third Reich had been sadistic monsters and maniacs, then these events would have no more moral significance than an earthquake, or any other natural catastrophe. But this trial has shown that under a national crisis, ordinary — even able and extraordinary — men can delude themselves into the commission of crimes so vast and heinous that they beggar the imagination. No one who has sat at through trial can ever forget them: men sterilized because of political belief; a mockery made of friendship and faith; the murder of children. How easily it can happen.
There are those in our own country too who today speak of the “protection of country” — of “survival.” A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient — to look the other way.
Well, the answer to that is “survival as what?” A country isn’t a rock. It’s not an extension of one’s self. It’s what it stands for. It’s what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult!
Before the people of the world, let it now be noted that here, in our decision, this is what we stand for: justice, truth, and the value of a single human being.”
Keep writing on this and other subjects, keep being a witness. Stay safe and watch your six.
"Lest we forget," you have provided us with a moving reminder that evil, the potential for evil, evil doers and those who are complicit in evil, are always with us, compelling us to resist. Thank you!
Indifference-----what a horrible....awful word. And yet it appears to encapsulate a feeling widespread in this country in those who don’t vote or even bother to register. If the Proud Boys started machine gunning families in Trump’s migrant “camps”, would the indifferent bother to look up? I wonder.
Thanks, Steve. What should never be forgotten about Auschwitz and, on a larger scale, the Holocaust, is that the Nazis were immensely proud of their thoughtful, efficient and rigorous plan to rid their country of 'vermin.' So proud were they that they installed windows to allow visiting dignitaries to view the gas chambers in action. And let us not buy into the notion that Germans did not know what was happening. The camps were built by many civilian contractors. Requests for Proposals (RFPs) were issued and widely circulated so that the Nazis could select the lowest bidders. Many companies joined forces to attempt to exterminate my family. I am reminded of this every time I see a Nazi salute, a swastika, and, now, Elon Musk. Make no mistake: Evil holds power over this country. For now, anyway.
The scariest thing to imagine is the Mega movement now believes it is on a mission from G-d because DJT said that's why he was saved from the bullet. There need be no questioning that the leader's orders must be served and not questioned. All of us who are 'others', that is, not white Christian nationalists, are literally in the headlights of these believers.
Buckle up; the bastards are creating Gilead. But, as a handmaid wrote on the wall of a closet where her "Commander" imprisoned her, "Don't let the bastards grind you down." Actually she wrote, "nolite te bastardes carborundorum."
Some people have suggested I should give Trump a chance. I told them that Trump does not get a second honeymoon. Do I wish him success in meeting the needs of all Americans? Yes. However, his value system is an anathema. The man has shown himself to be evil.
I then gave them the following two quotes that are highly relevant:
"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." (Ellie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor)
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." (A German pastor and anti-Nazi dissident)
I've heard the same argument, that we should see what happens in this second go-round. My response: we do not abide fascists or Nazi sympathizers. Eighty some years ago, all the world went to war against them. We may have to do it again. But this time it won't be in Europe, it will be here. There is no possible compromise.
Amazing writing, obviously from the heart. Thank you Steve.
❤️🙏❤️ beyond words … a deep soul filled ache
"As long as there are human beings, there is a possibility of another Auschwitz." Stark but very true. I fully believe that Trump, Musk, Patel, and so many others could easily be a party to recreating such a horror, and the MAGAT faithful would follow their cue, blind and stupid as they appear to be. Cruel, too.
And the only thing more horrifying than the billionaire influencers that would recreate such a thing is the indifference of the world as we see is happening in Gaza - where the world turns a blind eye to the absolute horrors that ironically the Israeli government inflicts on people they consider to be nothing more than animals.
How can the nation founded as a response to the Holocaust have visited this crime against humanity upon another people?
It’s not that simple. If palestinians laid down their weapons there would be a two state solution. Not perfect, but a solution, and palestinians could live in peace. If Israel laid down it’s weapons every last jew would be killed, from the river to the sea.
A lot of Palestinians are captives of Hamas. Hamas has all the weapons.
I don't think you understand - it's Israel that has the weapons lol
And it's Israel that has committed daily atrocities against the Palestinian people for decades after stealing their land and their homes. And hopefully it's a Israel that will have it's ass kicked out of Palestinian completely.
Wake up FFS
Mark, because it is made up of humans. "As long as there are human beings, there is the possibility of another Auschwitz. The human being is a pitiful species.
It is an unsolvable problem. Two peoples who each want the other wiped off the face of the planet. There will not be a real peace in our lifetime.
We have to look at who we are electing. We have 27 MAGA Governors and I will tell you that almost all of them support very Draconian laws when it comes to women. In fact, for some of them, the laws in their respective states are not Draconian enough. Steve asks why we do not remember. Valid question. I ask why do we elect people who seek to enslave women?
Is there not a hint of Auschwitz when a governor of Florida or Texas ships immigrants in the middle of winter to Chicago or New York City?
A beautiful, painful, clear-eyed synopsis of systematic evil. Denial and indifference play a large role - but what can one do with powerful individuals who lack all empathy?
Keep telling the undeniable truth of the horrors humans can inflict on one another in the name of power and greed.
And to think that one of Trump‘s first objectives is to get rid of the Department of Education. Keep America stupid! That is your answer Steve, as to why people don’t remember anything? We aren’t very smart here in the United States.
We are a stupid nation; we stopped producing citizens decades ago. There are teacher whistleblowers trying to expose what’s going on in our schools - WhiteChalkCrime.com. People must listen to them and run for school boards. It’s something we still have the power to do.
Musk may be on the spectrum and a engineering/computer genius, just doesn't mean we have to put up with his misplaced politics and beliefs. He may have all the money in the world to throw around but, we have to put a stop to this. If we sit back and let all of this happen for 4 years of Trump and what may come after we are all in trouble. Start the fight now!
Musk is no genius, he is a p.r. man who got very rich from stealing inventions and claiming it was his. His billions of dollars come mostly from the government contracts (our taxes).
At 69, I have terrible recall, I must enter just about everything in my calendar that I constantly consult in order to remember things I have to do, however, I can say this. The crimes that took place in Europe perpetrated by the Nazis, the crimes of abuse and slaughter we brought upon Native Americans, the Japanese interment camps America deployed on our fellow citizens during WW II, the events of 9/11, American Slavery, The Civil War, are some examples of what I do not need a calendar to remember.
This question you pose, seems to me, to connect a dot or two with the stupid, the poorly educated and the poorly informed among us. Then there are the indifferent, they know and don’t care. And that brings us to Elon, with him, it is all indifference, deliberate willful belief in who and what they are, it is who he is. He’s a fucking Nazi, just like Trump. This is why Pawel replied to your query vis-à-vis Elon’s visit with “I’m afraid not”.
I haven’t been to Auschwitz, but I’ve been to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. I remember an immense pile of shoes left by people who wouldn’t be coming back for them. Tears.
Musk is acting like one rich sick punk. Some good and fearless people know what he is and will exposed him.
Steve,
Thank you for this reflection on Auschwitz and the evil of Elon Musk and the Nazis. I have been to Dachau numerous times, Bergen Belsen where Anne Frank died, Flossenburg where Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed at the end of the war, Buchenwald, and the Euthanasia Center at Hadamar where 10s of thousands of sick, crippled or handicapped children and later adults were euthanized, and thousands of adults with physical, emotional, psychological impairments were sterilized. I’ve also been to the Wannsee house where it was all coordinated. I have been privileged to meet Auschwitz survivors and studied the Shoah/Holocaust for decades, my primary professor in my undergraduate years at California State University Northridge, Dr. Helmut Haeussler began my journey, into understanding. He was the child of German immigrants who volunteered to serve with the 82nd Airborne Division in WWII and stayed on as an interrogator and translator during the trial of the major Nazi War criminals and remained for the subsequent 12 American trials including the Einsatzgrüppen, Malmedy, Doctors, Judges, Industrialists, the High Command and others. I took more classes from him including independent study research. The evils of the Nazis are beyond comprehension to most people.
I think that Spencer Tracy’s monologue as Judge Dan Haygood in Judgement at Nuremberg, the fictional adaptation of the Judge’s trial, speaks to this in a manner seldom seen in film.
“The trial conducted before this Tribunal began over eight months ago. The record of evidence is more than ten thousand pages long, and final arguments of counsel have been concluded.
Simple murders and atrocities do not constitute the gravamen of the charges in this indictment. Rather, the charge is that of conscious participation in a nationwide, government organized system of cruelty and injustice in violation of every moral and legal principle known to all civilized nations. The Tribunal has carefully studied the record and found therein abundant evidence to support beyond a reasonable doubt the charges against these defendants.
Herr Rolfe, in his very skillful defense, has asserted that there are others who must share the ultimate responsibility for what happened here in Germany. There is truth in this. The real complaining party at the bar in this courtroom is civilization. But the Tribunal does say that the men in the dock are responsible for their actions, men who sat in black robes in judgment on other men, men who took part in the enactment of laws and decrees, the purpose of which was the extermination of humans beings, men who in executive positions actively participated in the enforcement of these laws — illegal even under German law. The principle of criminal law in every civilized society has this in common: Any person who sways another to commit murder, any person who furnishes the lethal weapon for the purpose of the crime, any person who is an accessory to the crime — is guilty.
Herr Rolfe further asserts that the defendant, Janning, was an extraordinary jurist and acted in what he thought was the best interest of this country. There is truth in this also. Janning, to be sure, is a tragic figure. We believe he loathed the evil he did. But compassion for the present torture of his soul must not beget forgetfulness of the torture and the death of millions by the Government of which he was a part. Janning’s record and his fate illuminate the most shattering truth that has emerged from this trial: If he and all of the other defendants had been degraded perverts, if all of the leaders of the Third Reich had been sadistic monsters and maniacs, then these events would have no more moral significance than an earthquake, or any other natural catastrophe. But this trial has shown that under a national crisis, ordinary — even able and extraordinary — men can delude themselves into the commission of crimes so vast and heinous that they beggar the imagination. No one who has sat at through trial can ever forget them: men sterilized because of political belief; a mockery made of friendship and faith; the murder of children. How easily it can happen.
There are those in our own country too who today speak of the “protection of country” — of “survival.” A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient — to look the other way.
Well, the answer to that is “survival as what?” A country isn’t a rock. It’s not an extension of one’s self. It’s what it stands for. It’s what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult!
Before the people of the world, let it now be noted that here, in our decision, this is what we stand for: justice, truth, and the value of a single human being.”
Keep writing on this and other subjects, keep being a witness. Stay safe and watch your six.
Steve Dundas
Dear Steve:
"Lest we forget," you have provided us with a moving reminder that evil, the potential for evil, evil doers and those who are complicit in evil, are always with us, compelling us to resist. Thank you!
A profoundly moving piece. Thank you, Steve.
Yes, a profoundly moving and important piece. Thank you, Steve.🙏
Indifference-----what a horrible....awful word. And yet it appears to encapsulate a feeling widespread in this country in those who don’t vote or even bother to register. If the Proud Boys started machine gunning families in Trump’s migrant “camps”, would the indifferent bother to look up? I wonder.
Indifference. It is the one unforgivable crime. And it is what will be our undoing.
Thanks, Steve. What should never be forgotten about Auschwitz and, on a larger scale, the Holocaust, is that the Nazis were immensely proud of their thoughtful, efficient and rigorous plan to rid their country of 'vermin.' So proud were they that they installed windows to allow visiting dignitaries to view the gas chambers in action. And let us not buy into the notion that Germans did not know what was happening. The camps were built by many civilian contractors. Requests for Proposals (RFPs) were issued and widely circulated so that the Nazis could select the lowest bidders. Many companies joined forces to attempt to exterminate my family. I am reminded of this every time I see a Nazi salute, a swastika, and, now, Elon Musk. Make no mistake: Evil holds power over this country. For now, anyway.
The scariest thing to imagine is the Mega movement now believes it is on a mission from G-d because DJT said that's why he was saved from the bullet. There need be no questioning that the leader's orders must be served and not questioned. All of us who are 'others', that is, not white Christian nationalists, are literally in the headlights of these believers.
Buckle up; the bastards are creating Gilead. But, as a handmaid wrote on the wall of a closet where her "Commander" imprisoned her, "Don't let the bastards grind you down." Actually she wrote, "nolite te bastardes carborundorum."
Some people have suggested I should give Trump a chance. I told them that Trump does not get a second honeymoon. Do I wish him success in meeting the needs of all Americans? Yes. However, his value system is an anathema. The man has shown himself to be evil.
I then gave them the following two quotes that are highly relevant:
"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." (Ellie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor)
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." (A German pastor and anti-Nazi dissident)
I've heard the same argument, that we should see what happens in this second go-round. My response: we do not abide fascists or Nazi sympathizers. Eighty some years ago, all the world went to war against them. We may have to do it again. But this time it won't be in Europe, it will be here. There is no possible compromise.