Auschwitz I - January 2, 2019
Today was an extremely sad and dark day. I was in Krakow with friends to celebrate the New Year festivities. But we decided to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps today...
To actually step foot at places where the Nazis committed these atrocities was a surreal experience. Emotional to say the least.
The Nazis didn’t all of a sudden start off gassing and burning innocent men, women and children. It was a slow and systematic process that started with the destruction of the free press in Germany, while at the same time, through propaganda, instilling fear and paranoia about their political adversaries such as the socialists and communists.
They then went after the intellectuals (ie “elites”), priests and anyone else that stood in the way of their brutal regime. And of course they directed their fierce Nationalism against the ones they felt were inferior to their “superior” Aryan race. The Nazis wanted to cleanse their Nation of homosexuals, the disabled and mainly the Jews, who they antagonized and blamed for their socioeconomic troubles. The rest is of course history. A brutal and disgusting period that no one with a conscious would ever want repeated.
We are lucky to have the US Constitution, a (semi)independent judiciary, a free press that fights back and shines light on our government when the president of the country deems it “the enemy of the people”, and a strong oppositional Democratic Party.
We would be in much darker times right now if we didn’t have these safeguards when there is a self identified “Nationalist” occupying the White House.
This narcissistic, paranoid maniac has shown the world that he is devoid of human compassion and empathy, and spends his days attacking the free press, the judiciary, Hispanics/people of color, Muslims, gays, women and anyone else that dares to stand up to him or he deems inferior.
One of the signs prominently displayed at Auschwitz reads: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Let’s always remember and always RESIST!
