For the last hour I have been watching a film on the Holocaust. A film that was started in 1945 after most of the concentration camps had been liberated. The film was being prepared and edited by a group of British film makers. The purpose of the film was to show the horrors of the Nazi program of extermination of Jews and other ethnic groups. The film producer, who was a close friend of Alfred Hitchcock , wanted Hitchcock to use his directorial skills to make this the definitive film about the Holocaust.
The British film editors along with Hitchcock and script writers began the tedious job of going over Nazi death camp films but also the films that were taken by the British, Americans and Russians when the camps were liberated. Hitchcock wanted to include film images how Germans lived in geographical proximity to the death camps. Here he juxtaposed the horror of the camps to the idyllic life style of those who may or may not have known what was happening just a few miles from where they lived.
When the camps were liberated, a new set of problems developed. What to do with the survivors. The British commander of one of the liberated camps observed about how quickly the psyche of the now freed prisoners changed from accepting their deaths to becoming human again. The film showed how women, became human again when they were given new clothes, and provided the opportunity to join the human race again.
A major concern was what do you do with all these displaced persons. The British and American governments did not want to allow these refugees to emigrate to England and America. Simply stated they had to many issues to deal with. Most refugees did not want to return to the land of their birth. The only alternative was to get to Palestine. For the British this was not acceptable. The British foreign policy was based on maintaining good relations with the Arab nations so they could keep the oil flowing. The Arabs did not want Jews in Palestine because they considered them threats to their political control over the Middle East.
The Nuremberg Trials were impaneled to punish those who initiated the Final Solution and carried out the orders for the mass extermination of the Jewish European population. The prosecution stated that these actions were crimes against humanity and civilized peoples should not only punish all those who participated but to ensure that the world should never forget these atrocities and prevent them from ever happening again.
I am not sure how many people know this, but pictures of what was happening in the concentration camps were smuggled out of Europe and shown to President Roosevelt. What these American Jews wanted the president to do is destroy the railroads that led to the death camps, since American bombers were dropping bombs on factories close to the camps. One of Roosevelt’s military advisers told him that it was not in our best military interests to divert or missions to blow up rail lines just to save a few lives. It never happened and thousands more died as a result.
The Holocaust is taught in most school districts throughout the United States. I taught Holocaust studies for six months in high school. I used movies and documentary film to reinforce the horrors of the Holocaust. The bottom line objective of the class was inculcate into our students the horror of what happened and that civilized nations never allow this to happen again.
The documentary twisted my gut. I got from my seat and made a cocktail and out on the walkway for a breather. The sun was shining and there were a few people walking slowly past the complex. It was quiet and peaceful. I looked out at what I saw peace, tranquility. I felt so content and happy to be living in Century Village.
Unfortunately we can not escape the realities of the real world. The horror of what happened in Boston is going to be relived when the cretin is put on trial. How can we forget the images of our own Daniel Pearl and then the contractors and journalists who were publically beheaded. Now it is a young 26 year-old women, Jean Mueller becomes another victim of these inhuman terrorists. The terror attacks in Paris has prompted many French Jews who thought they had found a safe haven in France are now accelerating their exodus from France and to Israel.
Leading from behind. You have heard that phrase over and over again. It clearly defines American foreign policy. When the President refuses to identify these evil sub-humans as murders of the worst kind and not providing the military equipment to Jordan it reminds me of Neville Chamberlain giving the Nazi’s carte blanch, termed appeasement. We all saw how that worked out. Former President Bush stated, "The allies of terror are equally guilty of murder and equally accountable to justice." Bombing these terrorists in the manner we are doing it is liken to the little Dutch boy who attempted to stop the flooding by putting his finger in the dyke. Based on what our leadership is doing now, what awaits us down the line is more and more killings. Let us hope that the newly elected Congress has the will to fortitude to act. Inviting the Prime Minister of Israel to speak to Congress is a good first step.
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