Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945. Seventeen years ago today, I was in Poland witnessing the 60th anniversary of the liberation as part of the White House staff and American delegation led by the vice president. The Nobel Laureate and Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel was part of the delegation, as was Congressman Tom Lantos, another survivor. I will never forget the experience. I was profoundly impacted by it, and believe the Holocaust was the greatest evil perpetrated in the course of human history. The Second World War is the deadliest event in human history. Understanding how the Shoa happened is among the most important things for future generations to understand, so that the words “NEVER AGAIN” have meaning.
Thank you for this memorial post, Mr. Schmidt. My late mother was a Nazi refugee, as her parents snuck across the border from Austria into Switzerland right before the Swiss sealed the border so as to prevent any more "refugees" (translation: Jews) from entering their country. The small family remained there until 1950, when they moved to Canada, as my late grandfather (for whom I am named) believe that Jews no longer had a future in Europe. The rest of their family, who had apparently hoped to ride out the Nazi tide, ended up in the death camps.
As someone who's American heritage is about two-thirds German, ever since my first visit to Dachau as a young US Army officer in the early 80s, my heart gets heavy at the very thought of the incalculable brutality and inhumanity by one people upon others. I still can't wrap my head around it and never will. Never again, indeed.
Elie Wiesel: “Never again" becomes more than a slogan: It's a prayer, a promise, a vow. There will never again be hatred, people say. Never again jail and torture. Never again the suffering of innocent people, or the shooting of starving, frightened, terrified children. And never again the glorification of base, ugly, dark violence. It's a prayer.”
History, Humanity, Humility: May we Never Forget and May we Learn and Practice Love and Equality.
I have been to Auschwitz and have to tell you, i went into one room where there were suitcases, or glasses, or shoes, or something - that was it for me - Auschwitz is a series of brick buildings built for the Polish Army before the war. Each building has an entrance up a few steps -each was for a different reason - the selections were not made there, they were made in Birkenau a few short meters from Auschwitz - anyway, i went outside and sat on the steps and just cried. I couldn't stop crying, i am crying as I write this and it was many years ago i was there. Then we went to Birkenau where the gas chambers were (are, i believe they left one) I still have dreams visualizing the horror that went on there. This was not a hoax - SHOAH is there to remember it. The younger generation must be taught about it, as they must be taught African American History. Our education system needs an overhaul, but that's for another time. Thanks Steve
My grandparents all came to the states before the First World War from Austria-Hungary and Kiev area. Every day I wonder about their lives before and the ones in photos in the many boxes at grandmas, that stayed. Typical of that generation and my parents who fought in the second ww, they didn’t want to burden me with the sadness. They’re hope was to end the madness. Now we understand that remembering and carrying the memory of the pain and sadness is important. It’s a message and a warning.
Thank you, Steve, for drawing attention to this important remembrance. As the mother who f Jewish children, my heart shakes at the level of antisemitism in our nation.
Thank you for highlighting this very important remembrance. It is more critical than ever that we speak this alive in our memories given the rampant denialism and antisemitism.
Thank you, Steve, for the written "lighting" and remembering of the Shoa. Because you reminded me, I'm going to add more to my Sabbath candles tonight. The activist in me is calling out and perhaps some others want to build a larger light, to call out inhumanity.
For now I live in FL (moving north in 2 months). This is where I learned the unspeakable horror that lies in hate in so many folks. Tonite I will ask the Holy spirit to remember to give grace to those have forgotten kindness and feed on hate.
I will include those lost their lives in another act of hate, the Black Wall Street bombing of our own citizens by our own citizens in in th Tulsa race massacre in 1921.
Look at what is happening in FL schools, in libraries, in denying womens rights... and its's spreading
I never knew about Black Wall Street ,we didn't learn in any school, but we all need to know because we have to be prepared. It's a way to build strength to be safe from the atrocities that will occur until we stand up to truly build WE THE PEOPLE
My family has never been able to learn who died in the Holocaust. We know who left Europe for the US and Canada in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. In tracing we think that my maternal great-grandmother may have left the US and returned to Lithuania - there are no records of her staying or leaving so we speculate.
I was born just 1.5 years after my father (z"l) returned from serving in the Army in Europe in WWII. In our neighborhood were many Jewish veterans - yes, all in the same Ohio neighborhood because of housing covenants - and Survivors. I can't remember how it was first explained to me. It was probably talked about in hushed tones but I heard: my nightmares, in my attic bedroom included Germans in the trees outside and them attacking our house, me being the only surviving member because I hid in the crawl space. I'd not yet read "The Diary of Anne Frank" - I just knew.
Today, with antisemitic and other hate rampant, it is a recommitment to speaking up. We've begun watching "Ridley Street" on PBS. I've often wondered if I'd lived during WWII - either as a Jew in Europe or a German or other nationality, would I have been part of the Resistance? Would I have hid others or been hidden? Would I, like on this program, have done in the 1960s what we need to do again: infiltrate and stop the harm. I don't know.
Thank you, Steve. You are a mensch in every way in all you write and speak about.
It is truly stunning how human beings can diminish the impact of horror and tragedy over time. It’s part of our unconscious survival system and while it has some usefulness helping people continue to live, it’s dangerous for humanity to forget what has happened. As a species we are all joined together on this planet and our very survival depends on it. Yet, our denial, scapegoating those that are different and warring against each other is going to cause the demise of us all. The Holocaust is the almost indescribable example of the worst of humanity massively wiping out innocent fellow citizens. “Holocausts” have happened many times over to the Jews and to many other populations, the list goes on and on. The reason we must always remember and never forget is manifold. It’s happening again today with Putin decimating the towns and people of Ukraine. We must not detach ourselves, go into denial, sink into helplessness and avoidance. If the US and countries around the world had helped in every way possible from the beginning of Hitler’s scourge there may have been millions of lives saved. Let us remember and have that be our lesson today…to do everything in our power to stop believing our prejudices and to help those that are being scapegoated, marginalized, attacked and murdered.
Thank you for this memorial. My Father was from Vienna. He was put into a camp but at that time my Aunts in Israel and England managed to buy his way out from the camp. He went to London and then to Canada.
He was such a lovely man but there was always such a sadness behind his smile. He couldn’t talk about it so my knowledge is limited. I wish he were still around so I could talk to him about it.
My husband’s Father was an RAF pilot. He helped liberate the camps he said he would never forget.
Steve you honor humanity by remembering The SHOAH…
“NEVER AGAIN “ the children in Germany Today are taught about the Holocaust
And it is required that they physically
Go to Auschwitz’s nightmare concentration extermination camp!!!
Makes me reflect on how shameful
America is burning books … refusing to educate children here about what we did to the enslaved blacks and continue to do
Also what horror we inflicted on the indigenous tribes and continue to do
AMERICA WE MUST EDUCATE and
Remember the Holocaust and FACISM
Wake Up it’s alive LOVE don’t hate!
When will we truthfully take Responsibility
Thank you for this memorial post, Mr. Schmidt. My late mother was a Nazi refugee, as her parents snuck across the border from Austria into Switzerland right before the Swiss sealed the border so as to prevent any more "refugees" (translation: Jews) from entering their country. The small family remained there until 1950, when they moved to Canada, as my late grandfather (for whom I am named) believe that Jews no longer had a future in Europe. The rest of their family, who had apparently hoped to ride out the Nazi tide, ended up in the death camps.
As someone who's American heritage is about two-thirds German, ever since my first visit to Dachau as a young US Army officer in the early 80s, my heart gets heavy at the very thought of the incalculable brutality and inhumanity by one people upon others. I still can't wrap my head around it and never will. Never again, indeed.
Elie Wiesel: “Never again" becomes more than a slogan: It's a prayer, a promise, a vow. There will never again be hatred, people say. Never again jail and torture. Never again the suffering of innocent people, or the shooting of starving, frightened, terrified children. And never again the glorification of base, ugly, dark violence. It's a prayer.”
History, Humanity, Humility: May we Never Forget and May we Learn and Practice Love and Equality.
I have been to Auschwitz and have to tell you, i went into one room where there were suitcases, or glasses, or shoes, or something - that was it for me - Auschwitz is a series of brick buildings built for the Polish Army before the war. Each building has an entrance up a few steps -each was for a different reason - the selections were not made there, they were made in Birkenau a few short meters from Auschwitz - anyway, i went outside and sat on the steps and just cried. I couldn't stop crying, i am crying as I write this and it was many years ago i was there. Then we went to Birkenau where the gas chambers were (are, i believe they left one) I still have dreams visualizing the horror that went on there. This was not a hoax - SHOAH is there to remember it. The younger generation must be taught about it, as they must be taught African American History. Our education system needs an overhaul, but that's for another time. Thanks Steve
My grandparents all came to the states before the First World War from Austria-Hungary and Kiev area. Every day I wonder about their lives before and the ones in photos in the many boxes at grandmas, that stayed. Typical of that generation and my parents who fought in the second ww, they didn’t want to burden me with the sadness. They’re hope was to end the madness. Now we understand that remembering and carrying the memory of the pain and sadness is important. It’s a message and a warning.
Thank you, Steve, for drawing attention to this important remembrance. As the mother who f Jewish children, my heart shakes at the level of antisemitism in our nation.
Thank you again Steve for your work. You are a real mensch. I am truly fearful in the the increase of racism, antisemitism and what the future holds.
Thank you for highlighting this very important remembrance. It is more critical than ever that we speak this alive in our memories given the rampant denialism and antisemitism.
Thank you, Steve, for the written "lighting" and remembering of the Shoa. Because you reminded me, I'm going to add more to my Sabbath candles tonight. The activist in me is calling out and perhaps some others want to build a larger light, to call out inhumanity.
For now I live in FL (moving north in 2 months). This is where I learned the unspeakable horror that lies in hate in so many folks. Tonite I will ask the Holy spirit to remember to give grace to those have forgotten kindness and feed on hate.
I will include those lost their lives in another act of hate, the Black Wall Street bombing of our own citizens by our own citizens in in th Tulsa race massacre in 1921.
Look at what is happening in FL schools, in libraries, in denying womens rights... and its's spreading
I never knew about Black Wall Street ,we didn't learn in any school, but we all need to know because we have to be prepared. It's a way to build strength to be safe from the atrocities that will occur until we stand up to truly build WE THE PEOPLE
My family has never been able to learn who died in the Holocaust. We know who left Europe for the US and Canada in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. In tracing we think that my maternal great-grandmother may have left the US and returned to Lithuania - there are no records of her staying or leaving so we speculate.
I was born just 1.5 years after my father (z"l) returned from serving in the Army in Europe in WWII. In our neighborhood were many Jewish veterans - yes, all in the same Ohio neighborhood because of housing covenants - and Survivors. I can't remember how it was first explained to me. It was probably talked about in hushed tones but I heard: my nightmares, in my attic bedroom included Germans in the trees outside and them attacking our house, me being the only surviving member because I hid in the crawl space. I'd not yet read "The Diary of Anne Frank" - I just knew.
Today, with antisemitic and other hate rampant, it is a recommitment to speaking up. We've begun watching "Ridley Street" on PBS. I've often wondered if I'd lived during WWII - either as a Jew in Europe or a German or other nationality, would I have been part of the Resistance? Would I have hid others or been hidden? Would I, like on this program, have done in the 1960s what we need to do again: infiltrate and stop the harm. I don't know.
Thank you, Steve. You are a mensch in every way in all you write and speak about.
It is truly stunning how human beings can diminish the impact of horror and tragedy over time. It’s part of our unconscious survival system and while it has some usefulness helping people continue to live, it’s dangerous for humanity to forget what has happened. As a species we are all joined together on this planet and our very survival depends on it. Yet, our denial, scapegoating those that are different and warring against each other is going to cause the demise of us all. The Holocaust is the almost indescribable example of the worst of humanity massively wiping out innocent fellow citizens. “Holocausts” have happened many times over to the Jews and to many other populations, the list goes on and on. The reason we must always remember and never forget is manifold. It’s happening again today with Putin decimating the towns and people of Ukraine. We must not detach ourselves, go into denial, sink into helplessness and avoidance. If the US and countries around the world had helped in every way possible from the beginning of Hitler’s scourge there may have been millions of lives saved. Let us remember and have that be our lesson today…to do everything in our power to stop believing our prejudices and to help those that are being scapegoated, marginalized, attacked and murdered.
Thank you for this memorial. My Father was from Vienna. He was put into a camp but at that time my Aunts in Israel and England managed to buy his way out from the camp. He went to London and then to Canada.
He was such a lovely man but there was always such a sadness behind his smile. He couldn’t talk about it so my knowledge is limited. I wish he were still around so I could talk to him about it.
My husband’s Father was an RAF pilot. He helped liberate the camps he said he would never forget.
I wonder how many survivors & perpetrators are still alive. Does anyone know?
I’m not sure how the perpetrators moved on in life. They went to dark places. Hell is waiting to greet them.
How could the general public just sit back?
It still puzzles me.
The 10 years after would of been quiet an experience. I don’t think I could forgiven anyone - bystanders or perpetrators.
Forgiveness is an attribute I would lack in this instance.
In a postscript to my comments to a question about Survivors: I found this paper that is about projections of Jewish Survivors in the US. https://www.claimscon.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Jewish-Survivors-USA_v2-_3_25_14.pdf
Peace be with us all.