Liberation

~ Ellie

What do you see when you look at this image?

Photo from Facebook. Source unknown.

My first thoughts were: Bodies. Concentration camp. Little girl in red coat, doomed, from Stephen Spielberg’s black-and-white 1993 movie, “Schindler’s List.”

But it was only when I read the mundane caption of the post, that I saw I’d been mistaken. It’s merely a photo of a bird, a cardinal, perched in snow-covered bushes! Why had I been so misled?! At first I thought it was because the similarity of the image to the gruesome ones we’ve seen taken by concentration-camp liberators had spoken to me as a Jew; the subject of Holocaust is never too far from my consciousness.

But! I then showed the photo to my husband who is not Jewish – and he perceived the same thing! So I’m not sure what this tells us – it’s a tiny sample of two after all – other than the fact that well-educated people (by schools or self) are very sensitive to the inconceivably horrific scenes of the Holocaust.

Auschwitz, pictured above. This place symbolizes terror, madness and murder.
Thank your lucky stars if you were never an inmate. (Photo: Wikipedia, CC by 2.0)

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as designated by the Council of Europe. It was chosen mainly to commemorate the more than one million people murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, perhaps the most infamous concentration camp of World War II. It was one of many similar camps, thousands, research has shown. This day, by extension, honours all of the millions exterminated by the Nazis during that terrible time.

On this day 80 years ago, Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet soldiers (The USSR was allied with Western nations fighting the Nazis, at the time.) It is a day of consequence. We must never forget the atrocities of the past.

And above all, we must never forget how it started – with a power-mad little man utterly devoid of scruples – who became the fiend whose speeches and actions have been studied, admired, and embraced by certain people in power now in the USA.

Germany was a very “civilized” nation in the 1930s. Oh, let the little man have his throne… he’ll be constrained by the sane ones around him, it was thought. Sure.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. The wannabes must be stopped – before the unthinkable happens again.

17 thoughts on “Liberation”

    1. Yes – and now many people are trying to erase or change what our eyes saw, saying, “Oh, it wasn’t that, he didn’t mean blah blah blah.” There’s a good quote from Orwell’s 1984 – “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” 😢

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  4. I confess— I saw the cardinal!
    Another blogger recently posted an excellent Hannah Arendt quote about how they aren’t telling you lies trying to make you believe them. They tell them so that soon you won’t believe anything. Then they can do whatever they want. Of course she was basing this on her experience of the Nazis.
    We must not forget and this day of remembrance is important for that reason. Last year I read “ The Escape Artist” and was powerfully moved by his experience.

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    1. Re their lies – I hadn’t thought of that! Actually I think it’s more the former, at least as far as the 🍊is concerned. He wants his cult people to believe his lies, the better to support the ensuing chaos. I’ll check out “The Escape Artist,” thanks for the tip.
      You saw the cardinal? Lol that’s ok, maybe it’s 50-50 then. 😊 Thanks for this comment!

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  6. Never forget! I agree entirely. So many people tend to believe whatever they hear they do not realize what they hear is detrimental to everyone.

    (I saw the cardinal. Probably because I watch birds all the time.)

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  7. Looking at some recent emails, I came across this incomprehensible message from me to you: “your excellent blog about the actual content of your recent blog”…what on earth was I trying to say? I suspect I was interrupted in the middle of the sentence and hurried later to finish it, not attending to what I’d already written. I was referring to a long response to thAgain, it seems my written communications with you aren’t exactly working well. Maybe that’s because I’m so impressed by your being a writer – am I a little jittery? Now. If you suggested Sunday for a video chat? Yes, that would be great. Any time after 2:30? Or another time better for you?

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      1. Let’s try this Reply one more time. “Liberation”, an excellent reflection. Also enjoyed “Jello”. You have a lovely light touch. See you Sunday, on our little magical boxes. Rosie

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