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Germans in particular are noted for their attention to detail. The idea was to make the things seem like anything other than what they were, and at first it probably worked. But as more and more arrivals came inmates that had been around long enough to know would whisper/tell newcomers as they got off trains or whatever what the deal was. Many of course couldn't or wouldn't believe; they also didn't believe when those same persons also told them "you see/smell that smoke? that is your grandparents, your parents..."referring to the smell and smoke rising from the crematorium's chimneys.
Of course who would believe such a thing? Jews in Europe had been used to all sorts of discrimination and or violence, but *that* was simply beyond the pale. However it wouldn't take long before such persons understood the truth.
In Lithuanian villages they didn't bother with gas chambers; merely rounded up the local Jewish population (men, women and children) and shoved them into synagogues. The building would then be hermetically sealed and for two or more weeks those inside died in their own filth surrounded by corpses. At the end of that period the doors would be open and any remaining live Jews would be marched into the woods, forced to dig mass graves, then shot. It wasn't just the Nazi's that did this but Lithuanians as well, the same people that had been "friends" and neighbors of the very same Jews they were now killing. No force from the Germans was involved either, those that participated did so willingly.
This was true in many places. Anti-semitism was nothing new in Europe and the Nazi's allowed it to run rampant.
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Originally Posted by Red_Devil
And Jews back stabbed each other, willingly.
Some did in order to buy themselves time to live or improve their condition in the ghettos and camps.
Of course, none of that changes the narrative of what the Nazi's did.
I saw that documentary last night. It was chilling, but I wish they had mentioned all the others that were exterminated - mentally and physically disabled people, gypsies, Hungarians, political dissidents, etc. It wasn't just the Jews.
One of the points that is seldom raised about treatment of the Holocaust in First World media is that the story is somewhat distorted to fit the circumstances of the usually-upscale audience.
Neither Anne Frank, not the fictional Family Weiss cited in the NBC-TV series of some years ago, nor the Jastrows in Herman Wouk's War and Rememberance fit the profile of "typical" Holocaust victims; the majority were still simple farmers, somewhat tied to the land and living in the shtetels (agrarian settlements), the structures of many of which remained semi-intact as a form of "ghost towns" long after the War itself ended.
These people were the easiest to round up and exterminate, both because they had nowhere else to go, and lacked the resources, connections and worldly knowledge to offer much resistance. And they represent the majority of those who perished. The typical Western Gentile knows little more of Jewish history than what he/she might have read in the Bible, and that a large contingent of European Jewry eventually gravitated to Poland, Russia and the Baltic States -- nothing about what happened in between.
This was true in many places. Anti-semitism was nothing new in Europe and the Nazi's allowed it to run rampant.
Some did in order to buy themselves time to live or improve their condition in the ghettos and camps.
Of course, none of that changes the narrative of what the Nazi's did.
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Originally Posted by NJGOAT
You have obviously never attempted to actually study anything about the Holocaust or the setup and operation of these camps.
How gullible are people who slurp down the lies of Holocaust deniers?
And some natives that exposed/killed Jews did so in order to buy themselves time to live or improve their condition under occupation and camps.
My grandparents met in a Nazi labor camp. I've spoken first hand with family that encountered both the Nazis and Soviets, their stories about those that never made it back. Stories of how they hid etc.
And some natives that exposed/killed Jews did so in order to buy themselves time to live or improve their condition under occupation and camps.
My grandparents met in a Nazi labor camp. I've spoken first hand with family that encountered both the Nazis and Soviets, their stories about those that never made it back. Stories of how they hid etc.
Spare me the Steven Spielberg American version
Spare me your attempt to sound educated on the topic.
Only 70 years later and the whole world wants to deny it ever happened
General Eisenhower was right they did try to deny it ever happened
Trust me the monsters that did this are still among us
First step to this happening again is disarming the public
Only 70 years later and the whole world wants to deny it ever happened
General Eisenhower was right they did try to deny it ever happened
Trust me the monsters that did this are still among us
First step to this happening again is disarming the public
More like the World has moved onto recent and on going genocides. Suffering didn't start or end with the Holocaust.
People don't deny it occurred, people debate the legitimacy of the narrative taught in Western schools / by the media. Like why would the Nazis destroy this camp 2 years before the end of the War if their goal was mass genocide.
No, there really are people out there who denied it ever happened.
It did happen. My uncle was one of the liberating troops that walked into Belsen camp (the largest taken in the west) on the first day. Mounds of dead bodies greeted them. He would graphically tell me about it - but only when in the right mood, otherwise he never ever mentioned it.
There is this very evocative book which I read in days it was so compelling, Its about the liberation of the camps and other other places it was too late, but in the words of the men who liberated them. Their words are sparce and careful, but betray the shock and horror they felt. And how they reacted before officals came. I reccomend it for anyone who is interested in the subject. It also details the experience of the three hundred and fifty US pow's taken to a slave labor satalite camp of Buchenwald in 1945, a combination of Jewish, Catholic and 'troublemakers'.
This book is not about sweeping historical generalizations, but the personal experiences of prisoners and the soldiers who liberated them and the ones left behind to try to help the survivers as the war moved on.
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