YIZKOR - Remembrance

Sunset today begins the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day set aside to remember the six million Jews who died as a result of the Nazi Final Solution. I care not what your ethnic or religious affiliation is nor whether you believe the Holocaust happened. I'm not a fool and only a fool could deny the evidence that came out of Europe in the form eye witness testimony and photos of  piles of bodies, mass graves, death camps and living victims. It happened.

It should never be forgotten.

It should always be the icon for what can happen when one man is allowed complete power over any nation or group of nations. When a group of people sell their very souls to that kind of person, this is what can and will happen.

It should not be forgotten.

I recently read something that pointed that the Jews were only the beginning and had Hitler not been stopped, the world population would have been radically decimated. He hated not only Jews, but dozens of other races and religious groups. The Jews were just his closest and easiest targets. His actions were stones dropped on water, rippling outward and his intent was for the ripples to sweep over the world. He and his henchmen murdered an estimated two million ethnic Poles, six million Soviet citizens, two million Soviet POW's, 1.5 million Gypsies, 200,000 handicapped and mentally retarded Germans, 5,000 – 15,000 homosexuals. One source said Russian deaths comprised 15% of their total population.

It should never be forgotten.

The toll in human suffering and loss is still, to me, unimaginable. To watch your parent or child be dragged away and know the horrible things they would endure would have been worse than death. To go into the showers in the beginning may have been frightening but imagine once the word got out what happened in those showers. Those who followed would feel abject terror. The moments when you were lined up naked along a ditch and facing a line of men with rifles must have been the most horrible moment of your life. And if your loved one stood with you, your torment would have been doubled or tripled.

It should never be forgotten, by any race, ethnic group, religious group, or nation. Carve the memory of it in your heart, mind and soul. And tell your children to remember.

God help us all if we forget.

For More Information:
* http://www.yomhashoah2013.com/index.html
* http://www.ushmm.org/
* http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/ihrd/comment_post.php