Comments on: Revisiting The Horrors Of The Holocaust
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- My father was a Holocaust survivor. It is a very long story of what happened to him and his family. The horrors that he did inform us are so unbelievable it is still hard to believe any human being can do that to another human being. Whole families destroyed because of one monster who wanted to create a perfect world. A perfect world of what people like him? Sometimes I wonder what it would be like today if that monster had lived. I am still looking for some of my family and I hope that one day I will find whatever is left of us. Thank you for airing this piece because I am so worried that the day the last survivor is gone people will forget about the greatest horror I have seen and been a part of.
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- Thank you for airing the piece about "Revisiting the Horrors Of The Holocaust". With out the reminders of the terrible acts that have been committed in the past we, of course, will be doomed to have them be repeated. Shame on those who would doubt that the Holocaust ever happened. I thank all of those at 60 Minutes for your hard work and I thank God for having been born in a country like the United States that not only allows the freedom to report stories like this but expects it.
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- Thank you for airing the piece about "Revisiting the Horrors Of The Holocaust". With out the reminders of the terrible acts that have been committed in the past we, of course, will be doomed to have them be repeated. Shame on those who would doubt that the Holocaust ever happened. I thank all of those at 60 Minutes for your hard work and I thank God for having been born in a country like the United States that not only allows the freedom to report stories like this but expects it.
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- Thank God for the Darby's of the world.
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- Disconcerting to read comments and realize persons see the world from a fictitious perspective. Nobody seems to understand what I wrote earlier: the Red Cross files are not directly related to the Holocaust or even concentration camps. Many statements said on the program were misleading, especially the program title. Although the files have always been open to those who are looking for missing persons, I read comments, such as "Now, I can trace my "lost ones."
(1)The archives are not directly related to the Holocaust. They are documents on 17 million persons missing after World War II.
(2)The documents are not Nazi archives, but documents located by the Red Cross from various sources, including German archives, and filed at a central location.
(3)The documents were always available to the public, to researchers and those who had need. Their contents were well known.
(4)There was no sinister motive in containing access to the documents. Their confidential nature was forced by treaties, and could not be changed without abrogating the treaties. The confidence protected people against careless use of confidential information.
(4) Instead of complimenting the Red Cross for courageous efforts in helping persons recover missing loved ones, the Red Cross was portrayed as a sinsister force.
(5) The horrors faced by a 17 millions were demeaned by a presentation that used three persons to misrepresent the nature of the documents. The documents are not directly related to the Holocaust. - Reply to this comment
- Finally, a place to find out what happened to my family. Going to the US Holocaust Museum finds me scratching my head with the lack of information regarding family members as there is no record unless you yourself input the information. Now I can find out what actually happened to my grandmothers cousin Gustel, pregnant with twins, one of Dr. Mengele's experiments. Now maybe I can find out what happened to my Grandfather and even track where and when my grandmother was in different camps. That is what this story was about - finally knowing what really happened. When I read what some people are posting it really disturbs me. Yes - my children and I have gone to rally's, written my congressmen and the president, donated money, tried to get the word out about the atrocities in Darfur. Why is the president ignoring our plea for help! Yes, I know there has been other genocides and atrocities to many other ethnic groups. But the fact remains, this 60 Minutes segment was about finally knowing what happened to each and every personal individual. My 95 year old grandmother may finally find out what happened to her beloved cousin Gustel - and maybe even my grandfather. The only question that remains is when will the public have access - and will it be before it's too late for survivors to have some more closure.
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- The three survivors on the 60 Minutes segment -- Scwarz, Feiden, and Rosenthal -- were all youths at Buchenwald. The Communist-led clandestine resistance in the camp sought actively to shelter and protect youth. Members of the resistance in the Arbeitstatisk (the Labor Records Office) withdrew youths from transports to the outlying work commandos, which were killing. That is what explains Szwarcz' removal from the transport to Dora. Members of the resistance later sheltered many hundreds of youths (600-900) in barrack 66 deep in the little camp. Block elder Antonin Kalina (Czech from Prague), and deputy block elder Gustav Schiller (Polish Jew from Lvov) presided over the block and looked after the welfare of the youths. Feiden for sure was in block 66 and probably Rosenthal too, arriving at Buchenwald in late January 1945. Eli Wiesel was another inhabitant of block 66.
Our ability to research and document stories inside the camps is aided by the opening of the archives at Bad Arolsen.
Kenneth Waltzer
Professor of History, Director-Jewish Studies
Michigan State University - Reply to this comment
- In today's so-called educated society, it is hard to fathom anything even similiar to the Holocaust occuring, and the Iraq war with its atrocities doesn't even come close. I was born almost 10 years after World War II ended but know of the Holocaust because I am a student of history. Almighty God will take care of the survivors, they have earned a trip to Heaven, the aggressors, we know where they went. We were all given a free will, and retribution does occur.
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- foxwgcr, what I find interesting in posters like yourself, you speak adamantly against fostering hatred, however, the contradiction in your message lies with your conclusion. Although, I'm no fan of Islamic extremist, why start a sentence condemning those who sponsor hate, while spewing it yourself. Almost every poster that vehemently blasted posters for being insensitive to the, Holocaust, have themselves, been guilty of the exact same degradation, when you constantly vilify Arabs. Posters like yourself posit many individuals commenting in contrast to the majority have very little knowledge of "Middle-Eastern" relations between Arabs and Jews; however, there are always two sides to every story.
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- Certainly, I'm not negating the fact that the "Holocaust" existed or these casualties occurred, but there has been a bias in media coverage of the Jewish Holocaust, in comparison to the annihilation of 80+million Native Americans, which has been hardly mentioned in history books, let along the media, in the same magnitude. So, although, yourself and others want to jump on your "soapbox", and protest against some of the posters, in which maybe some of them have been a bit harsh, maybe you and others need to get out of the victim mode and consider there is a "huge historical past" that has been marred by gratuitous acts of violence besides Jews. And just because a person exposes these disparities doesn%u2019t mean he/she is anti-Semitic, this has become just as redundant as blacks jumping on the racism bandwagon every time they are brought to the %u201Ccarpet%u201D.
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