SField
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2008
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- 6,139
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I have very mixed feelings about the holocaust and how it has been turned into a book and film industry, not to mention the countless monuments and museums. We are in absolutely no danger of running out of any of them. If any of you had any concept of how many books and films about the holocaust there are in various stages of production, you might vomit.
Despite this massive amount of attention, given that it is probably the single most well documented human tragedy in history, and despite all the lamenting and sappy gestures that people make to appear sympathetic, we still see instances of genocide in the world occurring, and often at the hands of regimes far less powerful than the Nazis. Everyone in this thread and obviously every other person who has just read a book about, or seen a film, or been to a museum, or been to Auschwitz or Buchenwald etc... goes on and on about the horror and how deeply affected they are... and yet Rawanda happened with spectacular speed and efficiency. There has been more since.
Threads like this and other examples of people's attention for this subject are on one hand very important, but it also leads me to question our collective sincerity for human suffering. At the end of the day, we don't have to do **** about the holocaust. You can sit there and cry in some museum and feel good about yourself for thinking that it's really awful. However when there are current offenses against mankind, we tend to not get nearly as worked up about it, nor do we take the kind of action we say we would in the case of the holocaust. I think most of us are guilty of this at some point and it's an important question to consider. Ultimately Auschwitz isn't useful at all if it doesn't succeed in inspiring people to defy those who would like to bring about similar circumstances. So far, I don't really think it does.
I have actually visited Auschwitz and Buchenwald. I've also been to Cambodia at Tuol Sleng and Cheong Ek, and was in Rwanda with my father not too long after the atrocities there. I certainly was affected like everyone else, it's a very eerie experience and the Nazi death camps, due to their state of preservation, makes them especially grotesque to visit.
Despite this massive amount of attention, given that it is probably the single most well documented human tragedy in history, and despite all the lamenting and sappy gestures that people make to appear sympathetic, we still see instances of genocide in the world occurring, and often at the hands of regimes far less powerful than the Nazis. Everyone in this thread and obviously every other person who has just read a book about, or seen a film, or been to a museum, or been to Auschwitz or Buchenwald etc... goes on and on about the horror and how deeply affected they are... and yet Rawanda happened with spectacular speed and efficiency. There has been more since.
Threads like this and other examples of people's attention for this subject are on one hand very important, but it also leads me to question our collective sincerity for human suffering. At the end of the day, we don't have to do **** about the holocaust. You can sit there and cry in some museum and feel good about yourself for thinking that it's really awful. However when there are current offenses against mankind, we tend to not get nearly as worked up about it, nor do we take the kind of action we say we would in the case of the holocaust. I think most of us are guilty of this at some point and it's an important question to consider. Ultimately Auschwitz isn't useful at all if it doesn't succeed in inspiring people to defy those who would like to bring about similar circumstances. So far, I don't really think it does.
I have actually visited Auschwitz and Buchenwald. I've also been to Cambodia at Tuol Sleng and Cheong Ek, and was in Rwanda with my father not too long after the atrocities there. I certainly was affected like everyone else, it's a very eerie experience and the Nazi death camps, due to their state of preservation, makes them especially grotesque to visit.