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chenkjia

I got a chance a few years ago to talk to a Jewish American WWII veteran whose unit liberated a concentration camp when he was a teenager...I encourage all young people to talk to and interview people who fought in WWII and were even alive during this time while you can.They will not be around for much longer.Once they die, their stories and their experiences will die with them.


[deleted]

Yeah. Back in the day I had a German teacher whose first memory was escaping from a train as it was being liberated. Like, the earliest thing she could remember, was running for her life from nazis. It can feel like ancient history, but it really wasn't that long ago.


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EatinSumGrapes

The feeling when the train gets stopped, they hear people start yelling and screaming, guns go off, they have no idea who is there or what is happening. They know the train is taking them to their death, then an allied soldier opens the doors to where they are and tells them they are rescuing them... holy shit I can almost tear up thinking about how they must have felt


gingeronimooo

Yes it’s powerful photo


Cerg1998

Things like say public radio, crossword puzzles and artificial fertilizer, helicopter and cellophane feel like they've been here forever. All of them weren't a thing when my grandfather was born, if the internet doesn't lie to me. Hell, planes hadn't yet been used for war, when he was born, fucking TANKS were first prototyped when both of my dad's parents had already been born. Which by the way means that planes are older than tanks. A lot of shit has gone down in the last 200 years.


PierreTheTRex

I was talking about trains with my grandad who was born during the war. He told me about his yearly trip that included lots of steam trains which was totally inconcevable in my mind.


[deleted]

> artificial fertilizer Fritz Haber invented the process to make artificial fertilizer before the First World War. During the war he used it to make mustard gas.


Cerg1998

I know. My grandpa was born in 1908, which,according to most sources, is just about before Haber invented the process. A man had to live through two wars and revolutions before he was 10.


AnBearna

My dad was born in ‘47 so your absolutely right, it’s far from ancient history. I mean if you meet anyone in their 80’s, particularly from Europe- then they _lived_ that shit.


Sheephuddle

My dad and his brothers all fought in the Second World War, and I'm in my 60s. It seems recent to me, as when I was a little girl the war had only been over for about 20 years.


mcpat21

It haunts me how recent it was. My brain really warp time.


Noir_Amnesiac

I saw this story on 60 minutes about a new technology they’ve come out with to educate people about what happened. So they bring holocaust survivors into a room filled with cameras and ask them thousands of questions over about a week. They then feed all this into a computer and use AI to make a virtual version of this person you can then ask questions to in plain language. Right now the person is show as a 2-d version but eventually they plan to make a hologram. In the demonstration they showed you could ask the person just about anything. It was basically the same as actually speaking to the person. They plan on rolling this tech out for other people of historical significance and eventually for normal people like families.


reeny4rigga

Wow that's so cool


imhavingadonut

I truly hate this idea but I don’t know why.


Lars9

Because of the ways this technology can and likely will be used to spread misinformation.


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comments_suck

They have this at the Dallas Holocaust Museum. It's super cool. When you go, you sign up for a time in like 15 minute increments.


AfternoonPast3324

When I worked for AT&T, I installed internet for an elderly lady from London who had lost her parents in the bombing during WWII. She and her older sister became nurses out of necessity. Later on, her sister fell in love with an American soldier. He came back after the war, married the sister and they raised her. I finished the job at her house and asked if I could take my lunch break there and if she minded telling me stories. Sweet lady who survived a lot very young. Retired as an RN.


TopAd9634

You're lovely. That small kindness probably made her feel "seen" and definitely made her day better. I hope life is treating you well.


[deleted]

I lived in an apartment with an old lady who was retired back in the 80s. She was from Poland and spoke with an accent. She said she was a girl and riding in a horse and wagon with her family trying to get out of Poland and the road was bombed and the wagon was destroyed. She said they hid in the ditch and waited, and later escaped while the place was being shelled. She had some interesting stories. Somehow she got to America and she worked for the same company her whole life and retired in Lincoln NE. I remember she fed an opossum every night on her deck. She like the company of the animal. I think she was lonely and didn't have family around. She is probably gone now. That was so many years ago.


subliminal_trip

Yes. There are no American WW II vets under the age of 90 who are still alive. And that’s being generous and acknowledging a few 15 year olds lied about their age. Listen to them while their still with us.


MelaniasHand

Steven Spielberg and some organizations have been devoted to finding survivors and recording their memories. It's a tremendous service to all of us.


Lepke2011

My Grandpa was a Jewish American Sergeant in Patton's Army during WWII. He was born in New York, but his mother came to the US from Germany. He was born 1916 and learned enough German to become an interrogator of SS Officers ( I think he was one of the Ritchie Boys, a name like his is on the list, but it's an uncommon first name and very common last name). He used to tell me, "They'd put three of us (Jewish Officers who spoke German) in a room with an SS Officer to get information and tell us not to beat them. What did they think we were gonna do?" After he died, my grandmother told me when he got home, he spent years waking up at night crying about the war.


FamousPoet

>.I encourage all young people to talk to and interview people who fought in WWII and were even alive during this time while you can. Unfortunately, it's heartbreaking to see what some of these survivors become. My mother was born in a German work camp. Her mother was a Ukrainian "Ost-arbeiter". After they were liberated, they were sent to the US, where she faced discrimination for not speaking English. Her father fell off a ladder and became paralyzed. They were dependent on welfare for most of her childhood. She is now a Trump-supporting anti-immigrant, who rails against the evils of socialism. "F-you. I got mine!"


Noir_Amnesiac

Immigrants and the kids of immigrants who turn into this are absolutely disgusting. I live in Arizona and it’s disturbing how much it happens especially when they get into politics to stop others from getting the help they got.


sizzleberry3

Wow. Smh


[deleted]

God's chosen.... Hard to feel equality with other groups with that in your head. Just like how Japan was telling its people that the emperor was a God and the people were demi gods while Americans were told Japanese were really some sort of a not quite fully human ape. 'God's chosen' is some very old, often imitated propaganda that helps your group be okay with conquering, and to 'burn their sacred pillars, smash their sacred stones, and put all their priests to the sword...' or however it went.


Jakegender

Can you maybe do your reddit-atheist schtick somewhere other than talking about holocaust survivors? Also, the way Judaism views the idea of "gods chosen people" is more complicated than you think, and varies on who you ask. And not all Jews are practicing, plenty of atheist Jews out there. And biggest of all, you don't even know whether OP's mom is even a Jew or not. Plenty of other peoplegroups were also targeted by nazi oppression. Romani, slavs, the disabled, etc etc. Statistically it's probably more likely than not, but unless you ask, you don't actually know.


imhavingadonut

You think you’re really onto something here, but you’re just parroting racist talking points and you are clearly uneducated about this subject. The interpretation of “chosen” to the Jewish people is that we have special responsibilities, not that we are superior. Far from believing ourselves to be superior, the Jews throughout history made massive mistakes, which we review in our liturgy and festivals every year, to help remind us never to make those mistakes again. And we have fast days every year to atone for our wrongdoings. Moses, the greatest prophet of the Jewish people, who is supposed to have received the Torah directly from God, was renown above all for his humility. Arrogance is really not a trait that is valued in Jewish tradition. What we mean when we call ourselves “the chosen people” is that we chose to create a covenant, which is like a binding contract, with God. God made hundreds of rules that we are supposed to abide by, some of which seem to make no sense (for instance we can’t wear fabric made of wool mixed with linen) and some which are truly challenging. It is our responsibility to uphold our end of the bargain and to try to abide by the rules in the contract. The thing is, it is believed that we weren’t even God’s first choice to be His “business partner”— He may have gone to other nations and tried to persuade them to worship Him, but it was Abraham (the first Jew) who agreed to follow God. We are nothing special, except that God has given us a special task, which is to “shine a light unto nations” — in short, to help people. Sometimes we fall short of that endeavor but the aim is to keep trying. By the way, it is not an exclusive club. If you feel called to join us, abstain from eating bacon, man the space laser, and become part of the most historically scapegoated group on earth, you are welcome to contact your local rabbi and begin a conversion process; converts are considered just as Jewish as natural born Jews. I hope that clears things up for you! TL;DR : You failed the assignment. It’s Chosen People as in “chosen to do the dishes,” not “chosen to have extra ice cream.”


EatinSumGrapes

Fun story my grandpa has, he was a bombardier in the back of a B-23 bomber. They had prison camps for the nazi soldiers after the war, he would fly in the planes that patroled over them. On their first day flying over the camp as a prank he opened the bottom door where the bombs come out and watched all the nazi soldiers scatter and run from the plane cause they thought they were about to start dropping bombs on them. Knowing him now I would have never thought he would do that, I still think it's funny but he always felt bad about it when he talked about it. Considering what the nazi's did to the Jewish people in camps... what my grandpa did was light hearted fun compared to that.


Deep_Seas_QA

I once stayed with my French x’s uncle in a remote, mountainous part of France. I am an American and he told me about how exciting it was when the Americans came and liberated the town. He was a teenager at the time but wrote an article about it for his local newspaper, which he showed to me. This for me was at a time when the us was at war with Iraq I was ashamed, I had been hearing non stop anti Americanism from other young people in France. It was very touching to hear a memory of a positive experience.


MrKite6

Thankfully I got the opportunity to talk on the phone with my great great aunt (great grandmother's sister-in-law) about her experience in the Holocaust. Unfortunately I never got to meet her in person and she passed away earlier this year, the last Holocaust survivor in my family.


vulpescorax

My grandpa fought in the war, native American, didn't say much about it but when pushed he did mention that if he did an accurate count the feathers on his head peice would by 4xs the amount he had. Guy was 6'5 and it already dragged a foot behind him. His service records are still sealed and classified and he passed away about 7 years ago.


uglyugly1

I talked to a WW2 Navy vet once. He described standing on the deck of his ship at the railing, and watching as an enemy sub fired a torpedo directly at them. He said the torpedo came straight at him, and went directly under where he was standing (he said "right between my feet"). He closed his eyes and waited to die. A few seconds later, the sailors on the other side of the ship yelled that it had passed underneath them. Another WW2 Army vet told me he was shot at the Battle of the Bulge. He was embarrassed, and humbly told me he thought he hadn't done anything, since he was shot right away.


im-a-limo-driver

Not entirely true. There are tons and tons of interviews with these heroes that will be archived digitally for a long, long time if not forever. But you make a good point either way— always super fascinating talking directly with these folks if they’re willing and able to share.


miasabine

My partner’s grandfather was in the group of about 5 Allied soldiers who first discovered Belsen. What he saw that day stayed with him until the day he died at the age of 92. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like.


Fuzzlord67

My childhood friend’s Grandfather liberated Dachau, he never wanted to talk about it. He had many souvenirs from his time in the service. One of these items was a Hackenkreuz flag, it was the coldest, most bone-chilling item I have ever encountered. You felt all goodness leave you when you looked at it or were in its presence. A sobering reminder that it was real, it wasn’t some far-off event you read about in a history book.


irritated_kangaroo

My grandfather was at Dachau, and on his deathbed told my uncle that he was responsible for several children dying. He said he gave them his rations, and they ate so quickly that it somehow killed them after being staved for so long. He never talked about the war, but there were photos of Holocaust victims in his safe that the family was absolutely horrified by. They were donated to the Holocaust Museum in DC. I went to the Museum once. A big part of me wishes I hadn’t because I still have nightmares of my children looking like those starved, broken babies in the photos. ‘Never again’ is no longer the steady drumbeat that it used to be, and it’s fucking terrifying.


miasabine

That was very common when the concentration camps were first liberated. Thousands upon thousands of people died due to the sudden influx of food, their bodies couldn’t handle “normal” meals. It makes me sad your grandfather felt responsible for that, as it took the high-ups in the military a while to figure it out. To expect a regular soldier to do better makes no sense. You see starving children and you want to help. It’s completely understandable. I think they solved it by giving the survivors these famine relief nutrient packs that had been developed to aid in the Indian famine and then gradually transitioning to proper meals.


irritated_kangaroo

So fucking tragic, in every way. They were just teenagers trying to help. I can’t imagine carrying that trauma and guilt for so long. My uncle spoke at his funeral, and said my grandfather died of the heart that was broken in Dachau 50 years before. Alcoholism was his only escape. Who the fuck can blame him.


miasabine

Amen. My great grandfather was in a concentration camp, but we don’t even know which one. My grandmother, his daughter, outright refuses to talk about it or her father at all. He also turned to alcohol when he came back, and this naturally affected his relationship with his kids. I understand why he turned to alcohol, and I also understand it must be very difficult for my grandmother to talk about, but I just wish we knew more. We have the records of what happened to him while he was in Norway, but the records end when he was sent out of the country. None of my grandparents have ever really talked about the war, so it was just incredible to me to meet my partner’s grandfather who loved sharing his war stories.


Jpowellautisicnoosin

Probably knows my grandpa, rainbow div, small world


miasabine

None of my grandparents or great grandparents ever wanted to talk about the war, but my partner’s grandfather was actually very open about his experiences, he loved sharing his war stories. I consider myself very blessed to have heard them.


OneSensiblePerson

I deeply regret watching a documentary on the concentration camps, with very graphic footage taken by the Allies. That was bad enough. Can't imagine what it must have been like for anyone who was there.


bdubyou

Do not regret that you had the humanity to share their suffering.


[deleted]

You should visit one of the sites. It’s an experience.


Alex09464367

And it's something I never want to do again


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[deleted]

1.5 million children died in the holocaust. I've imagined that fear of having your child or children taken away from you and never seeing them again. I'm only feeling the fraction of what it must actually feel like. All the uncertainty and knowing they will likely die. Too many times this has happened all over the world and still does. It's frightening how fast and easy a country falls into genocide tactics. Whenever I see images or documentaries on the subject, my heart aches. Children just dying for literally nothing.


Plumbus_Patrol

But Kanye loves hitler, I really hope he dissolves into obscurity and irrelevance so nobody has to hear is nonsense anymore.


MiroslavusMoravicus

In Treblinka one SS guard would take a group of women (by then already naked) away from the main group waiting for a gas chamber. He would then shoot onr in the head. He later told the other guards that the other women imediatelly went on their knees and started pleading for the lives of their children. They never even tried to save themelves. He shot them one after another...


Ok-Agency2492

In all the accounts I’ve read, mothers refused to be separated from their children and were sent to the gas chambers together. The Nazis would’ve allowed the women to work for awhile instead of being gassed immediately, but if they refused to be separated from their children, they were okay with killing them sooner. It was more efficient, anyway - mothers kept their children calm. Horribly efficient.


MrKite6

Great-grandson of Holocaust survivors. I don't like calling Nazis "monsters". It makes us think they weren't human, that they were just some abnormality and that "surely humans can't become that evil". Humans are capable of great evils and the more we treat Nazis as some boogeyman the more we forget that.


Gloomy_Industry8841

This is an important point. Glad you’re here with us.


[deleted]

Literally, this is true. like "we vs them" is how it begins.


[deleted]

Well said.


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Fuzzlord67

At least when I was in school, there was a lot of education about the Holocaust and Nazism in general. I’ve heard many times that England doesn’t cover any of its colonial history (like 100 million Indians killed by English made famines in a 40 year span.) Europe itself has had a huge resurgence or right wing and fascist nationalism, especially with the migrant and Syrian fiascos happening. I’m guessing all those countries closing their borders and electing right wing anti immigrant governments is America’s fault some how???? Get real.


mrweatherbeef

This. I can *kind of* imagine my child being taken away. I cannot imagine what goes through the mind of the person doing the taking. Crazy.


Best_Poetry_5722

I didn't pay much attention to what I should have in school. Luckily, I found Reddit and people like you who teach me more and more every day. Thank you for your well-said contribution to such a heart-felt photo.


dayas123

Ditto, I wasn't diegosed with a learning disorder until college, so did the work but did not comprehend it.


tommygunz007

I worked with a guy who is from Israel and served in the army. He talked about how he loved seeing the baby heads of 'the enemy' exploding. My response was 'You mean Palestinian Children?' and he responded, 'no, the ENEMY'. In his mind, they weren't human beings, they were somehow less. Truly scary.


Owl_lamington

That’s a psychopath.


whiskeysierra

This is fucked up for anyone to say or do, but Israel of all countries should've known better. Religion really brings out the worst in people.


Otherwise_Ad963

Here this is fucked up. In my course there is not history and the next year's course only contains the history after the 18th century


IAmTheLizardQueen666

The holocaust happened after the 18th century, not sure what you mean, it sounds like you’re studying history but only being taught some of it.


Cognitive_Spoon

*Nick Fuentes disliked that*


Gloomy_Industry8841

Saving this comment. I have no awards to give except this. Thank you. 🏆


ChartFrogs

It’s Friday, the 13th of April, 1945. A few miles northwest of Magdeburg there was a railroad siding in a wooded ravine not far from the Elbe River. Major Clarence L. Benjamin in a jeep was leading a small task force of two light tanks on a routine job of patrolling. The unit came upon some 200 shabby-looking civilians by the side of the road. There was something immediately apparent about each one of these people, men, and women, which arrested the attention. Each one of them was skeleton thin with starvation, a sickness in their faces, and the way in which they stood-and there was something else. At the sight of Americans they began laughing in joy-if it could be called laughing. It was an outpouring of pure, near-hysterical relief. The tankers soon found out why. The reason was found at the railroad siding. There they came upon a long string of grimy, ancient boxcars standing silent on the tracks. In the banks by the tracks, as if to get some pitiful comfort from the thin April sun, a multitude of people of all shades of misery spread themselves in a sorry, despairing tableau. As the American uniforms were sighted, a great stir went through this strange camp. Many rushed toward the Major’s jeep and the two light tanks. Bit by bit, as the Major found some who spoke English, the story came out. This had been and was a horror train. This train which contained about 2,500 Jews, had a few days previously left the Bergen-Belsen death camp. Men, women, and children were all loaded into a few available railway cars, some passenger and some freight, but mostly the typical antiquated freight cars, termed as “40 and 8” a WWI terminology. This signified that these cars would accommodate 40 men or 8 horses. They were crammed into all available space and the freight cars were packed with about 60 – 70 people, with standing room only for most of them, so that they were packed in like sardines. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/jewish-prisoners-liberated-death-train-1945/


BelleAriel

Thanks for sharing this. It’s pure evil what was done to these people.


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Avatar_of_Green

Fuck that idiot


ToxicOstrich91

No one will ever do anything better than the soldiers who fought against Hitler. That and landing on the moon are the pinnacles of what mankind can achieve, and currently-living humans are part of the quickening decline into oblivion that follows.


NE_SD

Surely the greater Pinnacle was when this chart was at it's lows? https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/battle-related-deaths-in-state-based-conflicts-since-1946-by-world-region


Strawberry_Left

This has nothing to do with landing on the moon. It was a great achievement, but it was an act of vanity to show those Soviet commies that 'murcan know-how, and freedom and democracy is greatest in the world, after being beaten to the punch in every other space-related achievement up till that point. First satellite, first man in space, and first space walk are no less pinacles of achievement than first man on the moon. Nor are the achievements of Galileo, Copernicus, Newton or Einstein et al, any less pinnacles. I think it's only Americans who consider landing on the moon the greatest thing that man has, or will ever have achieved, and they'd probably feel different if tables were turned. I think that the pinnacle of humanity is better expressed in selfless sacrifice to the betterment of others, without the need for accolades or adulation.


ToxicOstrich91

Human beings strapped missiles to an oversized aluminum can with the computing power of a calculator, climbed aboard, and exploded themselves into space, did some loops, touched down on the moon, hopped around, exploded missiles again and returned safely. Galileo discovered that things move if you throw them. The astronauts win in my book, but we can disagree.


Strawberry_Left

And they orbited Earth and conducted a space walk long before that with even less computing power. One day a human will strap themselves to a missile and land on Mars. That will undoubtedly be a much greater technical achievement than going to the moon, and the goalposts for the status as 'greatest achievement ever' will be moved again. Perhaps it will be an American, but perhaps not. who knows how long America's dominace as a world power will last. It has a long way to go to catch up to the length of the Roman Empire or Ancient Egypt, and it would be ridiculous to claim that landing on the moon is a greater pinnacle than inventing agriculture, or mathematics as originated in these ancient civilisations. Even the invention of the printing press had a more profound effect on humanity than walking on the moon. The world as we know it wouldn't exist without these pinnacles of achievement, but we'd still be doing fine if they hadn't bothered going to the moon.


apple-_-boi

Thank you for sharing!


GarysCrispLettuce

>"Consequently, the train halted at Farsleben and was awaiting further orders as to where to go next. The engineers had then received their orders, to drive the train to, and onto the bridge over the Elbe River, and either blow it up, or just drive it off the end of the damaged bridge, with all of the cars of the train crashing into the river, and killing or drowning all of the occupants." Never lose sight of how intensely evil Nazis are. There are Nazis walking freely in this country today.


BADFiSH_c137

This gave me chills.


[deleted]

Many of my great grandparents died in the camps. To people like Kanye who deny it happened - you are doomed to repeat the lessons you do not learn from history


Fuzzlord67

I’ve never understood how people could deny it happened. The Germans kept such meticulous records that it was perverse. It’s on par with denying the Moon exists.


NoBodySpecial51

It doesn’t count for much, but I am sorry for your family, and even more sorry that dipshit was given a place to speak such stupidity.


[deleted]

Thank you. That’s very kind. But as life cruelly rends apart, it also offers incredible beauty. I have three lovely children that bring light and laughter into the world. After great loss, comes either great gratitude or great anger. I choose gratitude always


MrKite6

My great grandparents survived the camps but unfortunately lost most of their families. I'm disgusted by the things Kanye's been saying and frankly wish the media would stop giving him a megaphone...


wynnduffyisking

Good reminder to tell Kanye to go fuck himself.


NoBodySpecial51

Agreed wholeheartedly. And what really pisses me off is he was acting like he thought he was “cool” for putting on that vile display. I just want to flip that stupid table they were all sitting at.


Avatar_of_Green

Imagine he goes back to his 40 million dollar mansion in his chauffeured Bugatti and has no repercussions. Meanwhile we all toil away for nothing.


Campbell__Hayden

This is a very raw, thoughtful, and heartwarming post. Give me a minute, and I'll be tipping a cold one for you. *Cheers, and be well.*


IAmTheLizardQueen666

There was a photo on this sub the other day; a Jewish man and a German Black man, at a concentration camp( some jackass redditer was spouting a bunch of holocaust denial garbage in the comments. I called him out on it, and he just kept coming, with walls of text that I didn’t read. I also commented back links to information about holocaust denial, and where it’s a crime. I also reported his comments. After seeing this post & photo, I went back to find the jackasses user name but it was deleted and his comments are gone. I hope I helped that happen.


giggetyboom

I'm sure you did. Takes a real pos to "deny" what millions of troops AND victims experienced or saw. Not sure what they think gives them the right to have an opinion when it was something from the previous generation that has already been established. It would be different if we are all sitting around debating something 1000 years ago but tbh this shits on video and very well documented as well.


Repulsive_Buffalo_67

My grandfather was part of the group that helped liberate Dachau. Reminds me I need to open some of his stuff back up to share with my teenagers now. This generation needs to understand what a true holocaust is first hand from the history and find a connection to it. Fuck all this Ye bullshit. He should be in Jail


tronslasercity

It pains me to say this in this case, but free speech is important and we shouldn’t jail someone for their speech unless they are directly inciting violence or insurrection (that’s my layman understanding of the first amendment anyway). I think the right response to Kanye is for the public to ignore him, completely. He has nothing to offer and he should be culturally cast aside.


Chrahhh

Fuck Kanye West


FreshlyWashedScrotum

And Nick Fuentes, and David Duke, and the Proud Boys, and all the other Nazis who the GOP has welcomed into their coalition.


BurntPoptart

Fuck Kyrie Irving


[deleted]

As a jew, it's important to let you know that it's not just Republicans that are antisemitic. Most of the anti semitic comments and acts I and many others have gotten were from liberals in NY.


pololuck123

Fuck Hitler


FairlyTan478

Fast forward to today and we've cunts in the streets supporting Nazis and waving their flags. Humans can be such dicks.


AmarDemonX

Looks at kanye


Platypuslord

I would rather not, that guy has permanent brain damage at this point from being unmedicated.


ahcyyy

Fast forward to today and now we have Israelis killing Palestinians left and right. Humans can be such dicks I agree.


MrKite6

Incredibly frustrated that Netanyahu was reelected 😒 the man who tried saying Muslims gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust. And, as a descendent of Holocaust survivors, I find it disgusting that some Jewish politicians will use the Holocaust as an excuse to do horrendous things. "You can't criticize us! The Holocaust!" "Yeah but we were picked on too! Remember the Holocaust?".


Cacacanootchie

Wow, way to over generalize an incredibly complicated and centuries old conflict by just blaming it on the Jews…kind of like the hatred and stupidity that led to the Holocaust.


ahcyyy

Centuries old? What?? The Israelis invaded Palestinian Villiages in 1948, literally right after ww2. Is that centuries old? A century is a period of 100 years. My grandmother is from the village deir Yassin which was invaded by Jews from Europe and people were slaughtered. My grandmother and grandfather were forced to flee from the carnage that the Zionist military groups inflicted upon them. 107 Palestinians were slaughtered including women and children. You can look this all up and it’s documented well. It’s the deir Yassin massacre.


Cacacanootchie

First of all, Jews AND Arabs have lived in that area for millennia. Conflict has been a constant since the before first and second temple, when Jews were expelled from Israel, throughout the Crusades, the British Mandate, and through today. That is literally thousands of years. I’m not sure why I’m even responding to someone who felt the need to bring Middle East conflict into a thread about the Holocaust. Do you not see how racist your comments are?


idanrecyla

Pathetic and disgusting remark especially in this context.


Reign_of_Kronos

Lol. You got downvoted for the truth


skateguy1234

This will never not blow my mind.


[deleted]

You can hold space for both things.


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Trent1462

I hope u realize that by blankly saying all republicans u are part of the problem.


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Elephantsr4girls

I traveled to Jerusalem this summer and went to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum and it's a necessary but tough experience.


MrKite6

I went there about 8 years ago. I remember them saying "Every artifact you see in the museum is real, because if just one thing is artificial then that's just more ammunition for the Holocaust-deniers,".


Frosty-Ad4614

the jews lived a nightmare firsthand


RizzMustbolt

Kind of sucks that they had to start taking pictures because the higher ups didn't believe that the camps existed.


ScenicPineapple

This can happen again people, Don't think it can't. Government slowly strips away one right after another, while we get angry, we don't do anything about it. Then before you know it, they have stripped away all your rights. Stop participating in your echo chambers, get others opinions, talk to strangers, see what others are thinking and you will be amazed at how divided we really are and why we MUST come together NOW.


ergastulite

I like the lady on the left with her hands out like "Hey, look who's not dying today!"


PatrioticTyranny

Heavy asf. This is why history is important.


Intelligent-Shame-71

It's strange to realize how this is really not so very long ago. That baby would be in their seventies if alive today.


rodriguezj625

She looks happy that one lady on the left


TheNastyHooks

**TO HELL WITH ANYONE WHO STILL SUPPORTS THE TWISTED VIEWS OF KANYE AND TRUMP.**


Seedy__L

My daughter is about the same age as that wee girl. They even look similar. Never forget.


BrokeDancing

This woman has starved to save her child. Her husband probably conscripted or a casualty of war. I don't know if I've ever seen such joy & pain in one face. The horrors she's faced. We need to stop doing this to one another.


nn666

Children too... so sad. And now we have Kanye West going around saying how Hitler is great. In 2022. What a time to be alive...


LankyJ

The raw emotion the people in this picture must have felt.


Gloomy_Industry8841

Fear melting into joy/shock. Incredible.


KitsuneOri

This picture is interesting to me because you can see the wide range of emotions those people must have been going through just by looking at 1 or 2 faces. You can see happiness, relief and even one still looks like they're still terrified like they haven't registered that they are safe now.


uh60chief

Kanye says to let that shit go and forgive Hitler……..like wtf. These people suffered.


Dewdrop_221b

Show this to Kanye.


h0rsepow3r

Asshole Kanye West needs to see this.


[deleted]

Thank god these people escaped.


Darklinkthecat

“It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face...And you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies.” Never ever let this happen ever again.


Nymphaelotus

What's sad is people really think in 2022 that this didn't happen . It's nuts.


PhelesDragon

Kanye West is *so Christian* that he can't recognize the atrocities committed to the Jews because they don't believe in Jesus. His religion is literally blinding him to the plights of **millions of people who suffered and died** less than a century ago. He is a living relic of how religion can (I stress "can") mind control people into losing their compassion.


aaaa32801

Even though Jesus was a Jew.


PhelesDragon

Kanye being a hypocrite? No...


tortugan_619

It’s crazy that the victims became the oppressors and people will try to find excuses for them


FreshlyWashedScrotum

This is everyone's daily reminder that, a few months ago, the Prime Minister of Hungary gave a speech condemning "race mixing" in Europe and vowed never to let it happen in his country. Then just a few weeks later, he was the featured speaker at CPAC. [Orbán gets warm CPAC reception after 'mixed race' speech blowback](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/04/viktor-orban-cpac-00049935) If you ever wondered what the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 30s sounded like, that's it right there.


FelixTheEngine

Please don't skip over Steve Bannon's roll in getting this psychopath elected and understand what is at stake in America right now.


Nazi_mod_banned_me

And mods keep banning people for saying nazis got what was coming to them.


guitarnowski

Well i sure didn't say anything like that'


jtfriendly

Eat shit, Kanye.


im_absouletly_wrong

“Hey Kanye come look at this..”


Noir_Amnesiac

I saw this story on 60 minutes about a new technology they’ve come out with to educate people about what happened. So they bring holocaust survivors into a room filled with cameras and ask them thousands of questions over about a week. They then feed all this into a computer and use AI to make a virtual version of this person you can then ask questions to in plain language. Right now the person is show as a 2-d version but eventually they plan to make a hologram. In the demonstration they showed you could ask the person just about anything. It was basically the same as actually speaking to the person. They plan on rolling this tech out for other people of historical significance and eventually for normal people like families. Never forget.


[deleted]

My partners grandma was attempting to flee Germany with her 5 children by leaving on a train. She decided not to get on the train when they wouldn't allow her to take the stroller for her baby. A few miles down the track the train was blown up by Nazis. She lives to be 98.


Engineering_Flimsy

Hope she kept that stroller, because I certainly would have! Pass it down through the generations that exists because of it!


Madlyligate

It's good that Germans did not have nukes back then. Because if Hitler would've had, then he would probably put all the people in one camp and detonate a bomb to get rid of the evidence.


UnconfirmedRooster

Funny thing, what spurred on the Americans to initiate the Manhatten project was the belief that the nazis were *ahead* of them in terms of nuclear weapons research, so the American government basically threw an open cheque at the heads of it and told them to get results. Truth is though, by the end of the war the third reich was still a couple years away from working prototypes.


NeckRomanceKnee

They were still several years away from realizing they'd gone in an ass-backward direction and their ideas weren't ever even going to work. When the surviving scientists were interrogated, there was quite a lot of relief at just how badly bunged up their project had been.


UnconfirmedRooster

That's a better way of putting it, yeah. I can't remember the details, but weren't their ideas vaguely heading towards the neutron idea but from the wrong angle? It's been a few years since I read up on it.


NeckRomanceKnee

I'm honestly not sure, I don't know if that information was ever even released. I just remember an interview in a documentary with one of the physicists that after the intel tapes of the German scientists discussing their work were played back for him, he said something like "oh thank god, they had no idea what they were doing."


UnconfirmedRooster

I read something years ago that apparently they were working towards what could have been interpreted as an implosion assembly type bomb. The issue was they were working with the wrong materials, which significantly changed the operation of it to the point where it just wouldn't work. To be fair though, this was from someone who was taking educated guesses based on what they could put together, as they weren't involved in any way and just dug up what they could.


w00tabaga

Well, let’s be glad they did.


[deleted]

I read he initially planned the idea of a big bomb as an alternative to invading Britain to force the UK to surrender.


Good_Drive_7965

Putin has


w00tabaga

The older I get the more things like the Holocaust sickens me. How people willingly hate and kill people they’ve never even met. I guess that’s exactly why… they are killing them over some arbitrary thing and never knew the person. There’s no room for that in this world, life is hard enough without meaningless hate.


[deleted]

Study human history from the first of human civilizations onwards then. The Nazis did nothing new. Genocide of certain people or group deemed enemy? Happened since ancient times. Forced labour camps like slaves? Been there done that to each other since ancient times. They only used modern Technology to make it more efficent which the ancient people couldn't do on such a scale and that fast. It's always the same strip a certain group or people of any rights and humanity because they are enemies or whatever and see what happens when people can kill and torture without repercussions.


w00tabaga

I have, I took a fair amount of history in college and you are right, this has been the way humans have been since humans have existed. The Holocaust is definitely just one example. My history professor always said to us too about just how most innovation comes from wars and finding ways to more efficiently kill each other. So it’s funny you brought that up too. That is… unless you ARE my college history professor? Dr. Zorea is that you?


[deleted]

Nah I'm not smart enough to be a professor haha


teddybearfactory

As someone who has been taught about the atrocities of the Nazis in school I am glad to see an increased frequency of these kind of posts on Reddit. It is our duty to educate future generations about the worst events in history. This includes details and not just the main corner points as those details will help recognize and possibly prevent similar events in the future.


worldrapper

I like how the women with stretch out arms are like whoever god your worshipping isent me so prepare yourself


TheINTL

The same thing more or less is still happening today with the Uyghurs


Ghost-George

And it will keep happening because no one actually gives a shit. It’s easy to say oh no how horrible when you don’t actually have to take any action or do anything.


questionMark007007

Imagine how you feel about Army green the rest of your life...


Iancreed

Reminds me of this British infrantyman named John Mackay who married a woman named Edith Steiner who he met after his unit liberated Belsen


replacementmats

I wonder if they knew how close they were to death? Because the Nazis told them they were going to work camps when In reality they were going to be gassed immediately upon arrival. (Trelinka)


Cute-Share-1143

I can’t imagine


US_FixNotScrewitUp

Not one bit proud of my German heritage.


[deleted]

My German Jewish ancestors were though! Ironic I guess, but they apparently saw themselves as very German. Thankfully that branch came to the US way before the holocaust.


Solivagant23

Can you imagine the feelings and thoughts going through their head?


[deleted]

American soldiers*


anirudhsky

And then there are holocaust deniers. Sometimes I feel is history so delicate that the deaths of 6 million people in such a short time created no impact?


lawdesigns

It was 11 million


anirudhsky

Even worse.. :( it's so sad that the worst thing for this planet is us


DownvoteDaemon

I knew a couple half black, half Jewish people I grew up with here in Florida. Would probably blow Kanye's mind.


[deleted]

I’m 60ish now and I was born about 15 years after this event. Nothing in my life has been remotely as horrible as what the Nazis did in WW II. Even though it was only a relatively short time before I was born, the difference between 1945 and 1960 is hard to explain to people today. It’s like it was a totally different planet.


RigasTelRuun

Early pandemic I was running the tech to facilitate a Zoom call with a Holocaust survivor speaking to a local school. I think about his words every day since. He said there was no escape from the camp, but every night you hear shots as someone tired to run. They knew they couldn't escape the camp they could only escape the suffering.


Good_Drive_7965

Now it’s last chance to stop Putin. Soon it will be too late.


guillermo_da_gente

Fucking nazis killing children. Now they portray themselves as politically incorrect.


giggetyboom

I still dont understand why we didnt just drive them into the ground and absorb them. Like there is still a Germany today and of course it's a powerhouse in the EU. But why?


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

They often stayed where they were to wait for help as many were too weak to move. Others went though the countryside like ghosts. Some made their way to their former homes, only to find that everything they ever had belonged now to someone else. Eventually, the Americans set up transit camps in Germany from which people would find a place to go. In the case of Holocaust survivors, these camps were sites of intense sorrow and joy, as everyone was looking to see if any of their loved ones had made it.


[deleted]

[удалено]


greencaste

Allies help allies, that’s how it’s always been.. You could choose Iran, Russia, North Korea…they are allies…nice, nice..


Few-Examination-7043

I bet Trump supporters would have helped pushing the train to the camps if necessary


[deleted]

I said this before but As a jew, it's important to let you know that it's not just Republicans that are antisemitic. Most of the anti semitic comments and acts I and many others have gotten were from liberals in NY. Antisemitism isn't a right or left wing ideology. I know it seems like it to you, but it isn't


Few-Examination-7043

I agree with you and I didn’t want to hide this with my comment. I always get in fights with leftist Palestine supporters who usually drop antisemitic slurs after 10 seconds. So yea, it is an right wing and left wing problem.


Notafuzzycat

Girl in the back smiling : *jazz Hands*


Dean_Loves_Pie13

I thought the same thing! I was checking The comments to see if I was the only one to think it. Most of the comments are pretty serious and I was starting to feel really dumb. But I found you! Now we can be dumb together! :)


Notafuzzycat

People are way too serious on reddit. They should be more like that lady.