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Stephen Kline's avatar

My uncle helped liberate a camp, same one depicted in Band of Brothers. These neo-nazis are a smear on humanity

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Linda D. Robinson's avatar

Are they ever! Our laws need to be so much more strigent in dealing with hate groups and Neo Nazis. None of them paid their dues in my humble opinion and our laws just keep getting weaker and weaker. Who speaks for the dead?

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Joan Halgren's avatar

Marianne, my heart goes out to you tonight on this solemn occasion. I shall be lighting a candle and praying in rememberance too. I was fortunate enough to learn the truth of those horrid days directly from those who managed to escape from the worst when I was volunteering with Amnesty International--writing letters in the late 1970s to country leaders to help save others from harm.

I met concentration camp survivors at more than one AI meeting--a woman who showed me the I.D. number carved onto her wrist at a camp. Then, another lady, a physician, and we became dear friends since we both worked together at the same public teaching hospital. Her life was spared since she was a medical student in Berlin. She told me how she escaped from being captured by riding the trains and that her large blue eyes and lighter-colored hair made her fit more easily among the majority--at least that's what she thought attributed to her safety. She came from Poland, and upon returning to her village after the war--no one survived that she knew: her parents, siblings, cousins or friends. Gone.

I always marveled at how my friend had the courage and strength to go on and find a new life. She did have a son. And we always shared updates with each other--she loved talking about the the latest movies. She's gone now but I will be thinking of her this evening, along with others whose lives have been lost or harmed due to horrific circumstances.

Peace and love to all who read Marianne's heartfelt message!

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Dr. Joanie Tool's avatar

So excruciating. That image of trying to get to your children as they are being led to slaughter. Hard to hold that image and breathe at the same time. ☮️❤️🌷

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Faith Oglesby's avatar

Prayers 🙏🙏🙏 for all souls killed, survivors of the Holocaust, and generation of family members plus advocates who grieve for those having suffered such atrocities. The killing of innocent children brings to mind of what King Herod had done to children during the time Christ was born all because he was afraid of the Christ child to one day rule and make the country better. Hatred, jealousy, and pure evil towards innocent children and towards a group of God's chosen people.

Thanks for the reminder, Marianne, in regards that Germany was a Democratic country at the time of Hitler's rise. Either I wasn't taught that in all the History classes I had or had forgotten that piece of information. To me the fact Germany was a democratic country and they allowed Hitler to lead them, makes me take a second look at why any country has to have a division of governmental parties such as Democrats, Republicans or Independents. I, too, wonder about our country and others that are seeing a rise of Nationalism, Nazis, etc.

I'm praying alongside everyone who wants an end to the atrocities like the Holocaust and ongoing marginalization of God's people.

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J. L. Aebersold's avatar

My father was 19 when he served in the army and was among the allied solders who liberated Dachau. He was forever changed and passed this excruciating experience on to me and my brother. Indeed, we visited Dachau when I was 5 years old. I didn't understand it then, but I still have images I will never forget. I continually pray we have put these atrocities in the past, but I fear we have not and humankind perhaps never will. I do believe God's love will prevail.

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Green River's avatar

Studying the smallest details of the Holocaust doesn't seem to have motivated people of good conscience to act against the Holocausts being perpetrated on innocent populations in the 21st Century. Black and poor children in the U.S.A., African children being denied food and medicines because their countries are bankrupt, Tibetan children because they lack the racial purity of their Chinese occupiers, Palestinian children who are now the victims of former Holocaust victims. It seems that one serious downside of preserving the memories of Jewish Holocaust victims is to allow people to say "That was then, we don't do that anymore"

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Sandra's avatar

I thought the point was to hold up a mirror for all of us...both victims and oppressors and liberators. Being half baked as opposed to highly enlightened, I can see all three sides of the coin above smoldering as latent or active tendencies in myself. It becomes very personal.

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Marilyn Strozak's avatar

Dear God, may we never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust and the souls of the six million Jews who were systematically murdered - in the 20th century, in a cultured, “civilized” society.

🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯🕯

May we bear witness and call out Holocaust deniers and antisemites wherever they rear their ugly heads, whether on college campuses, on our streets, or in the corridors of power, including our own government.

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Dave Conant - MO's avatar

Thank you for the reminder. Hopefully we'll all realize that achieving "Never again" will require constant vigilance and effort on the part of all of us who support freedom and respect for humanity.

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Phil Mason's avatar

The greatest example of the insanity of the ego mind. "Help us to create a world in which evil such as that will occur no more." (from MW's prayer).

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Arthur Zweig's avatar

May it never happen again, but I worry for what is happening in our own country. Our freedoms are being chipped away and the powerful are doing it all.

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Perla Lovejoy's avatar

In remembrance of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and their extended families murdered for being Jewish and who live in our hearts. Also for the suffering in Cambodia, Serbia, Rwanda and too many other places already forgotten. May their memories be a blessing.

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Annemarie Osborne's avatar

As we remember the horror of the holocaust, let us be vigilant in identifying behavior and manipulative strategies that create division, hatred and lack of empathy. “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it," Winston Churchill.

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Richard's avatar

On this day and always May Their Memories Be Eternal....

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Janice Enzone's avatar

There is a Remembrance Ceremony at the WII Museum in New Orleans today at 6:00 CT. One can watch it virtually. Here is the link. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/events-programs/events/129218-international-holocaust-remembrance-commemoration-ceremony

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Bill Balkus's avatar

Thank You ... Wonderfully written ... it is beyond belief how cruel we can be to one another ... and as you say, we must remain vigilant or it just might happen again right here in our own backyard ... Thank You for your memories and the reminder ... and thank you for all the efforts that you make ... Including our call last night!

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John's avatar

So eloquent and touching. Thank you for bearing witness and reminding us of the horrors of the Second World War and how all of us are responsible for making choices in our lives to support good or evil.

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