May 05, 2006
New Holocaust Discovery: Touching BBC Recording @ Death Camp Liberation
Since we recently celebrated "Yom HaShoah," or Holocaust Remembrance Day, it was moving to receive an important, recently-discovered (2002) 1945 BBC recording of reporter Patrick Gordon Walker at the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp from my cousin, Dan K.
Both sides of my family were mostly wiped out in the Holocaust, and my maternal grandparents, Holocaust survivors, were liberated from their last camp, Bergen Belsen. My mother was born at Belsen after the war (it became a Displaced Persons/Refugee camp, where my grandparents lived until they left for the States). Belsen was also the camp where Ann Frank was taken and perished at the hands of the Nazis.
The recording, now at the Smithsonian Center for American Folklife, can be heard here. Just under four minutes, the broadcast is presented as a feature on NPR (transcript here). And, for once, "National Palestinian Radio" gets it right. (A broken clock is right twice a day.)
For those who do not know Hebrew, the song that is sung mid-way through, "HaTikvah" ("The Hope"), became Israel's national anthem and is known to Jews everywhere. (There is more after the song, so please keep listening even if you don't care to hear the song.) The song was written in 1886 by Naphtali Herz Imber, from Galicia--an area of Poland, from which my family emanated.
It is especially touching to hear these Holocaust survivors sing the song, when many were close to death and had already seen their entire families murdered by the Nazis. In English, here are the lyrics:
As long as within our hearts, the Jewish soul sings; As long as forward to the East, To Zion, looks the eye; Our hope is not yet lost.It is two thousand years old; To be a free people in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
Here is a photo of my grandmother and her friends, before they were either sent to their deaths, to Bergen Belsen, or to some other horrible fate. As you can see, they were forced to wear the yellow stars and, expectedly, none of them are smiling. They were slave labor seamstresses, forced to sew and repair Nazi uniforms and clothes. Then, they were sent to the camps. (My grandmother is third from the left, middle row.)
Posted by Debbie at May 5, 2006 09:40 AM
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Comments
THIS is one of the many reasons why i'm always surprised that people who are Holocaust deniers could even remotely consider themselves "rational"
Posted by: EminemsRevenge ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.debbieschlussel.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 5, 2006 11:39 AM
People deny it either out of spite or because they have trouble believing a civilized nation like Germany can stoop that low in modern times. But the point is, it can and it did. It's a huge stain not only on Germany but all of Western Civilization.
Posted by: KnightoftheImpaler at May 5, 2006 02:05 PM
And to think...we're faced with the same evil in the 21st century that wants to replicate what happened in the 20th century, but this time on a global scale. Look at the little piss ant in Iran and the rest of the "Practitioners of the Religion of Peace" worldwide.
Posted by: Thee_Bruno at May 5, 2006 04:47 PM
I think it's even more shameful that we don't recognize the Islamist menace because it's less of a surprise for them to behave this way than it was for the Germans. I don't know anyone with any sense who'd disagree with that, especially Jews (most of whom were ironically very pro-German before Hitler came along, at least the ones on the European continent). It's not just the gut-wrenching brutality of the Nazis that still gets under so many people's skin, it was the idea of one of our own Western nations doing such things. With these Ottoman invaders it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
Posted by: KnightoftheImpaler at May 5, 2006 05:09 PM
IIRC, Eisenhower was concerned that people in future geneations might refuse to believe what happened in the camps, and went to considerable lengths to ensure that the full extent of the atrocities was witnessed and recorded.
It's interesting that he had the foresight to see that this could happen.
Posted by: photoncourier.blogspot.com at May 5, 2006 06:54 PM
Thanks you for sharing the photo of your grandmother and her friends. My grandfather was stationed in Holland during the war.
Posted by: Freudianslippers at May 5, 2006 09:18 PM
1941, April 25th. Amin Al-Husseini is made chief architect [xxvii] of Nazi offensive in Bosnia: Serbian-Cyrillic alphabet outlawed. Orthodox Serbs forced to wear Blue armband. Jewish Serbs forced to wear Yellow armband.
While in Bosnia, Amin Al-Husseini takes the title “Protector of Islam”. One hundred thousand (100,000) Bosnian Muslims join the Nazi ranks. They seek Nazi approval to establish autonomous Nazi protectorate for Bosnian Muslims.
Amin Al-Husseini approves the Pejani Plan, calling for the extermination of the Serbian population. Nazi Germany refuses to implement the Pejani plan.
Bosnian ethnic cleansing under Amin al Husseini:
. Orthodox Christian Serbs: 200,000 killed
. Jewish Bosnians: 22,000 killed
. Gypsies: over 40,000 killed
Husseini’s legacy of hatred is a major factor in today’s Bosnia/Herzegovina conflict against the Serbs and their leader Milosevic.
http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com/amin_en.html
Posted by: hutchrun at May 6, 2006 02:05 AM
And let's not forget whose side Klintoon was on in Bosnia/Serbia/Kosovo.
Posted by: Thee_Bruno at May 6, 2006 08:25 AM
Excellent historical illumination of the dark forces then, and foreshadowing of events which may come if good fails against evil. ...and to think the ADL is aligning itself with La Raza, Aztlan, and MELDEF etc. The aforementioned groups share and embrace the spirit of the Palestinians and other "Holy Warriors". As far as the "deniers" of the Holocaust, well I suppose their denial is a defacto statement saying the key punch cards used in all the IBM keypunch machines used to document, down to the minute, the Nazi collection of individuals and their subsequent transport via train (down to the minute) is a lie also. All the Allies did, once liberating the dying spirits of the extermination camps was to flip a few switches on the machines i.e. translate to English, and read it all. The Allies even used the machines in already in place, to assist with the rebuilding of post war Germany. (My children heard the report and singing, and asked what it was. I made them sit and learn a part of the history so efficiently being erased from our collective memory by purveyors of "multiculturalism and diversity". Thank you for sharing your intimate family with others still within the "family" of man.)
Posted by: SickBoy at May 6, 2006 01:41 PM
Finally-in an era of overrated yenta's/"strong-woman",etc,an increasingly rare group photo of tough chicks- who deserve the title.
Posted by: jaywilton at May 7, 2006 10:36 AM
Singer, keyboard and bassist Geddy Lee BKA Gary Lee Weinrib of the Canadian band Rush, had relatives who survived B.B. and American G.I. Japanese Americans helped liberate the Jews from Dauchau. The photos disgusts me and with the Muslims killing Jews and our government not doing anything is reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
Now we're giving aid to terrorists
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12708444/from/RSS/
Here is a little something from the Museum of Tolerance
Posted by: KOAJaps at May 10, 2006 04:00 AM
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