Catholic St Maximilian Kolbe, who died in the Auschwitz extermination camp… not all of its victims were Jews…
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On January 27, a Russian exhibition will reopen in the museum devoted to the history of World War II in the Polish city of Oświęcim, better known under the German variant of its name… Auschwitz. During that war, during the Nazi occupation of Poland, one of the most terrible Nazi concentration camps was in Auschwitz. In 1947, the Polish government turned the former camp into a museum, with the aim of it to be a constant reminder of the Nazi horrors, so that we wouldn’t repeat them. The organisers chose 27 January for the Russian exhibition’s reopening because the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz camp on 27 January 1945.
In particular, the Nazis intended this camp for the killing of nationalities that, according to incoherent Nazi “theory”, were “underdeveloped” peoples. More than 1.1 million people died in the Auschwitz camp, including about 900,000 Jews, at least 140,000 Poles, and about 23,000 Roma. Every day, trains brought thousands of people, including many old people and underage children, to this camp from more than 30 countries… Romania, France, Czechia, Slovakia, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, the Netherlands, the USSR, Poland itself, and others. The Nazis immediately killed the majority of new arrivals comers in the gas chambers. Witnesses said that, every day, the camp’s crematoriums disposed of about 8,000 corpses.
Those not immediately killed had to perform debilitating work. The daily ration consisted of 300 grammes of bread and a cup of watery soup. After several months spent in such conditions, people turned into living skeletons. Besides, medical experiments… if one could call sophisticated torture medical experiments… were performed in Auschwitz. One of the doctors (if could call sadists doctors), Josef Mengele, dubbed the “Angel of Death”, was especially notorious for his cruelty. When the Red Army liberated the camp, they found only 7,000 people alive there.
The organisers of the Russian part of the Auschwitz museum’s exposition don’t hide the fact that they want it to upset visitors. Hard as it may be, such horror would help people to realise one thing… we must never allow Nazism to rise again. Olga Sokolova, One of the Russian organisers, said, “The visitors should realise that they’re witnessing a hideous occurrence. Of course, only the part of the exposition devoted to the camp’s liberation by the Red Army should produce positive feelings”. There are eight expositions in the Auschwitz museum, devoted to this-or-that particular country, from whence the prisoners who suffered in the camp came from… Poland, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Czechia, Austria, Hungary, France, and Belgium. A part of the exposition is devoted to the Roma people. For the last five years, the Russian section remained closed. Officially, it was under renovation, but the real reason was a cooling of relations between Russia and Poland.
Victor Skryabin Deputy Director of the Moscow Museum of World War II and one of the organisers of the Auschwitz exhibition, pointed up, “Russia and Poland might have certain disagreements concerning politics, but I believe that these disagreements shouldn’t affect the two nations’ need to commemorate World War II’s victims. After all, many Soviet people, including about 15,000 Red Army men, died in the Auschwitz camp. One of the aims of our exposition is to show the criminal nature of Nazism. We also wish to emphasise that the Red Army liberated the camp, and, of course, to commemorate the dead”.
The camp in Auschwitz was the largest, but it wasn’t the only extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Europe. There were ten such camps, four of which were in Poland. In total, about the Nazis killed 3 million people in extermination camps.
25 January 2013
Maria Dunayeva
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_25/Auschwitz-history-to-be-remembered-but-never-repeated/
Editor’s Note:
Horrid as it was, the Holocaust wasn’t unique. Mankind has indulged in mass murder throughout history, especially, when others lived on land coveted by this-or-that group… two prominent examples being the Israelite ethnic cleansing of Old Israel (the Biblical version of events) and the American campaign against the Native population (justified by the racist doctrine of Manifest Destiny). I’m four-square against anti-Semitism, but I’m equally-against the white-washing of the historical record to fit a convenient mythos. Never forget this… ordinary human beings carried out the Holocaust. Ordinary humans could do it again… and DID… in the Rwandan Genocide and the Cambodian Genocide. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee…
One last thing… the agitation by some Jews against the Carmelite convent at Oświęcim was unjustified and hateful in the extreme. Edith Stein, a Carmelite nun, died there. St Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan monk, died there. They weren’t the only Catholic victims of this horrific place. In short, some Jews were upset that the Carmelite nuns were praying for the soul of Edith Stein… a convert from Judaism to Christianity. I hate religious bigotry of all sorts… I despise anti-Semitism and Jewish anti-Christianity equally. Thank God, only a small minority of Christians and Jews actually engage in such filth… but it should be a warning to all of us… the urge to evil exists in all groups. Never forget… just as there wasn’t ever a “pure” human group, there’s never been a totally-evil one. We should keep a watch over our hearts… Solzhenitsyn reminded us that there’s a bridgehead of evil in every soul… we forget that at our peril…
BMD
Hopes for the New Pope
Tags: Barack Obama, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, Catholic Church, Christian, Christianity, Estonia, EU, European Union, Italy, Jorge Bergoglio, Poland, political commentary, politics, Pope, Pope Francis, Pope Francis I, Pope Francisco, Pope of Rome, President of Georgia, President of Russia, President of the United States, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Rome, Sistine Chapel, Sweden, United States, US President, USA, Vatican, Vatican City, Vladimir Putin
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As I stood on St Peter’s Square awaiting the famous smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney, I felt an immense sense of satisfaction. Daily, journalists, political analysts, and the public bemoan a lack of leadership in the world. On the other hand, here, here was a definitive opportunity to see a new leader in the making. After all, irrespective of who occupies the Holy See, the papacy has a potential for leadership that’s probably only rivalled by the potential of the office of the US President.
Already, Pope Francisco shows that he’s keen to give the Catholic Church a new sense of itself. His gestures (like shunning an armoured limousine with a bodyguard and going to pray at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore on short notice) demonstrate that “leading by example” isn’t just an empty concept for the new pontiff. I have a feeling that he’ll be a respected global figure, both as a spiritual leader and statesman. Actually, if one looks around the world, there are plenty of leaders. Although I didn’t approve of his policies, the late Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was one. Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma is yet another example of charisma, ideas, and perseverance fusing to create a real leader. Vladimir Putin and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, despite their bitter hatred of each other and no matter what one thinks of their policies, have already left their mark on history.
Curiously enough, the emergence of major political personalities in the EU is an increasingly-rare occasion. European leaders aren’t almost universally dull and uncharismatic, but they’re also mostly mediocre intellectually. A few bright exceptions, like the clever and ironic Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the President of Estonia, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Tomasz Sikorski, and Sweden’s long-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs (and former Premier) Nils Daniel Carl Bildt are the only exceptions I could find. They combine sharp intellect, willingness to challenge dated truisms, and a public presence. The EU is the only area of the world where these characteristics frequently disqualify a person from achieving major public office. What started as a European post-war yearning to avoid future conflict morphed into complacency and a fear of healthy debate. Don’t mention religion (except if it’s the infamous “religion of peace” of 9/11 fame), don’t mention national history, don’t mention values… unless it’s the prescribed medley of secularist dogmas on permanent offer from Brussels… and you can count on great advancement as a political leader in the EU’s councils of the holy … er, sorry, just councils.
Hence, the result… if you’re looking for fresh thinking in Europe, you’re left with either the Front National and its imitators, the “New Left”, or clowns like Beppe Grillo (but then, who said they’re actually thinking anything?) Actually, Grillo’s astonishingly-high standing is sharp and dark testimony to European disillusionment with traditional politics and their inability to cope with it. It’s no wonder the EU can’t find its way out of the current crisis… the politics of consensus evolved into a politics of paralysis. I don’t think highly of Barack Obama’s policies and I don’t find him a very effective leader, but those European politicians who pledge their love to him look small compared to the US President. In contrast, here comes Pope Francisco, who may well try to shake up Europe’s lethargic Catholics into remembering that they are Christians… and Catholics… after all. I wish him success, but I’m not very certain that he’ll succeed in the Old World. For leadership and vision these days, it’s more logical to look to Brazil, rather than to Brussels.
18 March 2013
Konstantin von Eggert
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/columnists/20130318/180088088/Due-West-Hopes-for-the-New-Pope.html