Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Perhaps someone more eloquent and more intelligent than I can write a story about it here to document what the Holocaust was and to commemorate those who were killed simply for being Jews.
Not in medieval times.
Not in some obscure country no one has ever heard of.
Not in a moment of national hysteria.
Not incidental casualties who simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in the middle of a war.
The Holocaust happened in Europe, among the most highly educated and sophisticated people in the world at that time. Within the memories of many still living today. Systematically and totally without compassion, killing Jews only because they were Jews.
When I was a teenager living in Portland one of the members of a group I belonged to was a survivor of a Nazi death camp. I never spoke directly to him, he was a middle-aged man and I was just a very shy teenaged boy. But I knew who he was.
I wanted to think of something to write about him here but I can’t. He was just a regular guy. A bit of an accent, his face perhaps a bit care-worn but not so’s you’d notice. Just an amiable middle-aged man.
Just somebody. And they tried to kill him and damned near did.
I know there are a lot of passions out there right now. I know some of it is legitimate policy disagreements and international politics.
But let’s be careful. It’s a short step to disagreeing with a country and hating an ethnic group who are (not always truthfully) identified with that government . It’s a short step from hating Israel to hating Jews. It is not for me to preach. But….
Well, today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
I wish someone would write a diary about it.