Holocaust Nexus?

[YorktownGal]

Originally Posted by Coney

I noticed that some of the posters relate stories about how their associates felt the need to cooperate because of fear of Nazi repercussions. They didn't want to "salute" and only joined Hitler youth under duress. It's just like the gentile neighbors who did business and were friends with their Jewish neighbors until they felt threatened. No one will admit that they were friends with the Jews while it served their purpose and when it no longer served their purpose, the business relationships and friendships were dropped suddenly. It was only discontinued because of fear of Nazi reprisals. What if everyone in the general population, who claims to not be bigoted, took a stand and refused to comply.

The Danes refused to comply with the Nazi orders and almost every Jewish Dane survived.

It's apples and oranges.

1) There were Danes who did comply.

2) There were Germans who didn't comply.

Within the United States, Sophie Magdalena Scholl is not the best-known resistance fighter, but her story is a powerful one. She was a key member of the Weiße Rose (White Rose)—a resistance group run by students at the University of Munich who distributed leaflets and used graffiti to decry Nazi crimes and the political system, while calling for resistance to the Nazi state and the war. On February 22, 1943, she was beheaded for treason at just 21 years old.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/wa...and-white-rose

2) The Danes were invaded from outsiders which is very different from a native, elected government.

3) The German people were traumatized by the pre-war inflation and poverty which Denmark never experienced. It made Germans less resilient.

4) The German people spied on each other. German neighbors informed on their German neighbors and children informed on parents. It just wasn't anything on this level in Denmark.

5) The Germans lost grandparents, disabled and homosexual children and siblings. The fear this cause in Germany can't be underestimated.

6) "It was only discontinued because of fear of Nazi reprisals." It's not like Germans were going to get a slap not the hand, it meant the death of themselves and their children.

My second generation Polish father hated the Germans. However, I can see how ANY traumatized people can be reduced to this level. The Black Shirts of the Nazi were young criminals without conscience or ethics. Groups of these young men roaming the streets must have been frightening.

As for the Danes, if you have Amazon or PBS online, you should watch Badehotellet or Seaside Hotel. It pretty accurately shows how the Nazi's brought up Danish businesses to influence the population.

As for German, Netflix has Babylon Berlin. It shows Nazi influence as does PBS's World on Fire.

I visited my family in Poland during the 1970's. You have no idea the level of destruction from the German Nazi's. It's very hard to imagine it from the USA. Hindsight is 20/20, no so easy in 1939 German/Poland/Denmark.

[Disgustedman]

Originally Posted by galaxyhi

In a similar vein to the depression thread, I was wondering how many of you have a "Nexus" to the Holocaust? And/or WWII?

I've had 20-somethings ask me about the Holocaust, did it really happen?.

We are losing the people who survived the liberation of the Jews towards the end of the war.

How many here have a "Nexus" to the second world war in such a manner?

Best

I worked as a NA for a care facility, had three elderly former camp survivors which slapped me with the reality of the Holocaust

Then a stint with a Jewish rest home, over 40% were camp survivors.

The obvious lack of teaching history has been shown often on YouTube as people were asked basic WW II questions.

Who started it, who was involved, what was the Holocaust.....few got it right......

[Coney]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

It's apples and oranges.

1) There were Danes who did comply.

2) There were Germans who didn't comply.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/wa...and-white-rose

2) The Danes were invaded from outsiders which is very different from a native, elected government.

3) The German people were traumatized by the pre-war inflation and poverty which Denmark never experienced. It made Germans less resilient.

4) The German people spied on each other. German neighbors informed on their German neighbors and children informed on parents. It just wasn't anything on this level in Denmark.

5) The Germans lost grandparents, disabled and homosexual children and siblings. The fear this cause in Germany can't be underestimated.

6) "It was only discontinued because of fear of Nazi reprisals." It's not like Germans were going to get a slap not the hand, it meant the death of themselves and their children.

My second generation Polish father hated the Germans. However, I can see how ANY traumatized people can be reduced to this level. The Black Shirts of the Nazi were young criminals without conscience or ethics. Groups of these young men roaming the streets must have been frightening.

As for the Danes, if you have Amazon or PBS online, you should watch Badehotellet or Seaside Hotel. It pretty accurately shows how the Nazi's brought up Danish businesses to influence the population.

As for German, Netflix has Babylon Berlin. It shows Nazi influence as does PBS's World on Fire.

I visited my family in Poland during the 1970's. You have no idea the level of destruction from the German Nazi's. It's very hard to imagine it from the USA. Hindsight is 20/20, no so easy in 1939 German/Poland/Denmark.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/conte...rticle/denmark
"Unlike in other western European countries, the Danish government did not require Jews to register their property and assets, to identify themselves, or to give up apartments, homes, and businesses.

In addition, Jews were not required to wear a yellow star or badge. Two attempts were made to set fire to the Copenhagen synagogue View This Term in the Glossary in 1941 and 1942, but local police intervened both times to prevent the arson and arrest the perpetrators. The Jewish community continued to function, including holding religious services regularly throughout the German occupation. The refusal of the Danish authorities to discriminate against the Danish Jews and King Christian's outspoken support of the Jewish community has given rise to the apocryphal story that the king himself wore a yellow star. View This Term in the Glossary Though untrue, the story reflects the king's opposition to persecuting Denmark's Jewish citizens and residents and the popular perception of Denmark as a country which protected the Jews."

Yes, I did watch Seaside Hotel. Did you not see the part where the Danish Naturalist marries a Jew and agrees to raise their child Jewish? Although she is at first resistant, the mother-in-law gradually accepts her daughter-in-law. I've got Scandinavian family. In general, they have a different attitude than the Germans and Poles.

I well know all about the destruction of Poland during WWII, thank you. There was and still is a large antisemitic population, blaming all of their problems on the Jews. They had no issue making claims on Jewish property when the Jews were forced out of their homes. Marian Marzynski has made several documentaries about his experiences as a child in Poland. Upon his return, he found one neighbor who remembered him and his parents. She agreed to hide them, thinking that since they were Jewish, they had gold and while she had no intentions of stealing any of it, she had hopes for a reward. The buried gold trope is an old one.

[VTsnowbird]

This has devolved into arguments over the Holocaust. Closed.