In Memoriam...

I mentioned this a few days ago, but 60 years ago today, Soviet troups liberated the largest of the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau. In response to a comment on my original post, I wanted to post a clarification today, and i hope you will excuse my double-posting in the comments and here.

Hi Julie, Keep in mind that we Europeans let the Shoah happen, and in our case (the French) actively participated by supplying the Nazis with victims who thought they were safe on French soil. Our own police arrested and deported jews, including in the part of the country that wasn't under direct occupation. Plus we still have a problem with century-old antisemitic actions, and decades-old revisionist thought, coupled with resentment from our population of arabic origin for Israel and the plight of the Palestinians, and a general lack of knowledge/interest of our history amongst our youth. We can't let that stand, and our media, and our politicians and intellectuals, have been busy for a week reminding us of this. We are fortunate in that we still have some survivors who can bear witness, but soon, that will no longer be the case. In other words, there is definitely something in this for us, and we're doing this for very selfish reasons. As for the US, I watched another show on how the perception and knowledge of the Shoah in America evolved over time, particularly with Hollywood's take on it, up to Schindler's List. It was quite interesting, and showed that your country is far from ignorant or disinterested. Have any of you seen any coverage of this anniversary on American media recently?

In memory of the victims, and of our lost innocence. Location : Beauvais, France