Post by Buckeye Dale on Jan 27, 2020 13:58:41 GMT -5
An acquaintance shared a story this morning in this regard...
Let me share his story, and a couple comments in regards to this in general...
75 Years ago today Auschwitz was liberated. My father was held there for 6 months.
He was a 15 year old boy in the spring of 1941 when German Soldiers came to his small Polish town and took him to what was then an old army barracks in what became know as Auschwitz 1. He was giving some office and outdoor gardening work to do. The problem was the food. They basically received one bowl of water with one potato and 2 leafs of cabbage per day. The other problem was the shootings that were done at times in and around the place. This was not a gas chamber place that was to be Auschwitz 2 later in the war. They would shoot Polish political prisoners here and captured Russian soldiers. After 6 months a German officer let him an several other local kids go. The most likely reason was they were kids and not Jewish.
Like most in WWII it was an extremely difficult thing to get him to talk about at all. When Schindler's List came out I asked him to see it and his only response was I was there, no reason to. The only tale he told about in great detail was the retreat of the German Army from the Russians. None of the local towns people could believe it. What was one a powerful well equipped army in pristine uniforms was now retreating west in rags. There were German soldiers 2-3 on a bicycle running for their lives. It was shocking the difference in 2-3 years. Also the Russians arrived with over whelming resources; the amount of tanks, artillery, troops was something no one had ever seen before. Its very similar to what the Japanese saw when the Americans showed up at Iwo Jima and Okinawa with all their resources.
At 19 my dad became an soldier in the new Warsaw Pact Army where he and several others crossed into West Germany thru the Czech Republic boarder in the 1950's. As an officer at that time he was able to take his wife to the USA legally on a fast trak in 1955 and thats how we all wound up in America. He lived a fabulous life until age 90 in the USA as a staunch anti-communist and all around great guy.
Thanks for everything you sacrificed dad to make my life happen in this great country.
Some comments -
- It's incomprehensible to me how someone could come to the conclusion that the Holocaust never happened.
- Ignorant is due to a lack of knowledge. Those people are deliberately obtuse.
- Great legacy. When I was driving to work this morning, the radio guys were talking about Auschwitz. I was reminded of a woman who came to our high school to give us a speech on the Holocaust. She was Jewish, and she was a survivor of Auschwitz. This would have been somewhere between 1982-84. She was probably around 60 years old. I could not tell you a single detail of her address except two things towards the end of her speech. 1.) She read off the number tattooed on her forearm. She said that she was nothing but a number to those who hated her. As she had gotten older, she said she looked on that tattoo as a reminder of her survival. She told us we were tougher than we thought. 2.) She said, "Some people say there never was a Holocaust. Don't believe them. I was there. I will tell you that it was very real." Looking back on my high school experience, this woman's address to our high school stood out.
As we listen to the so called 'democratic socialists' (who IMHO, are just America Haters) I'm reminded of the old adage concerning those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it...
Let me share his story, and a couple comments in regards to this in general...
75 Years ago today Auschwitz was liberated. My father was held there for 6 months.
He was a 15 year old boy in the spring of 1941 when German Soldiers came to his small Polish town and took him to what was then an old army barracks in what became know as Auschwitz 1. He was giving some office and outdoor gardening work to do. The problem was the food. They basically received one bowl of water with one potato and 2 leafs of cabbage per day. The other problem was the shootings that were done at times in and around the place. This was not a gas chamber place that was to be Auschwitz 2 later in the war. They would shoot Polish political prisoners here and captured Russian soldiers. After 6 months a German officer let him an several other local kids go. The most likely reason was they were kids and not Jewish.
Like most in WWII it was an extremely difficult thing to get him to talk about at all. When Schindler's List came out I asked him to see it and his only response was I was there, no reason to. The only tale he told about in great detail was the retreat of the German Army from the Russians. None of the local towns people could believe it. What was one a powerful well equipped army in pristine uniforms was now retreating west in rags. There were German soldiers 2-3 on a bicycle running for their lives. It was shocking the difference in 2-3 years. Also the Russians arrived with over whelming resources; the amount of tanks, artillery, troops was something no one had ever seen before. Its very similar to what the Japanese saw when the Americans showed up at Iwo Jima and Okinawa with all their resources.
At 19 my dad became an soldier in the new Warsaw Pact Army where he and several others crossed into West Germany thru the Czech Republic boarder in the 1950's. As an officer at that time he was able to take his wife to the USA legally on a fast trak in 1955 and thats how we all wound up in America. He lived a fabulous life until age 90 in the USA as a staunch anti-communist and all around great guy.
Thanks for everything you sacrificed dad to make my life happen in this great country.
Some comments -
- It's incomprehensible to me how someone could come to the conclusion that the Holocaust never happened.
- Ignorant is due to a lack of knowledge. Those people are deliberately obtuse.
- Great legacy. When I was driving to work this morning, the radio guys were talking about Auschwitz. I was reminded of a woman who came to our high school to give us a speech on the Holocaust. She was Jewish, and she was a survivor of Auschwitz. This would have been somewhere between 1982-84. She was probably around 60 years old. I could not tell you a single detail of her address except two things towards the end of her speech. 1.) She read off the number tattooed on her forearm. She said that she was nothing but a number to those who hated her. As she had gotten older, she said she looked on that tattoo as a reminder of her survival. She told us we were tougher than we thought. 2.) She said, "Some people say there never was a Holocaust. Don't believe them. I was there. I will tell you that it was very real." Looking back on my high school experience, this woman's address to our high school stood out.
As we listen to the so called 'democratic socialists' (who IMHO, are just America Haters) I'm reminded of the old adage concerning those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it...
