OT: Remembering April 11 in History

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

 

I'd like to take a moment to recall this day in history. On this day, 65

years ago, soldiers of the American 3rd army, under the command of General

George Patton, arrived at a place called Buchenwald, located in east-central

Germany near the famous town of Weimar. Although Russian soldiers had

already encountered various concentration and death camps operated by the

Germans of that period, this was, to my knowledge, the first time American

troops had experienced such a " liberation " .

 

To their credit, a great number of officers assigned to the American command

made a point of visiting this and other such sites, and to his particular

credit, General Eisenhower ordered every available army photographer into

the camps. He was determined that what the troops found there be documented,

because he knew that it would not be long before people would come forward

to claim that these things had never occurred.

 

Today, various parties do indeed so claim. In particular, this claim is

pervasive throughout the Muslim world, and it is the official policy of the

government of Iran, at the very least.

 

I share this brief note, in the interest of promoting our self-awareness as

a species, that we might always remain cognizant of the worst of which our

species is capable. For although the Holocaust was unique in certain

respects, the willful mass murder of millions of people is by no means an

isolated or uncommon occurrence. In fact, anyone with a passing knowledge of

our species' recent history can easily identify at least a dozen holocausts

that have occurred during the past century or so.

 

So here's to the memory of all those who have died and otherwise suffered in

the midst of such atrocities.

And here's to the hope that we humans shall never again commit such an act.

 

May we humans soon learn one of the fundamental lessons of our species'

history, namely, that we humans cannot kill just once, regardless of whom or

what we are killing. May we learn this lesson soon and well. For until we

do, we shall never experience peace.

 

Best to all,

Elchanan