One Survivor's Question

[smokey the elder]

The world will not be able to completely heal from the Holocaust until the last Nazi involved passes, IMO. But, chasing these guys down reminds people that it did occur. I was alarmed by the young person who "had never heard of it". Whatintheheck are they teaching in world history these days? My classes spent several weeks during at least two different years discussing WWII and the Holocaust.

[lizbud]

The world will not be able to completely heal from the Holocaust until the last Nazi involved passes, IMO. But, chasing these guys down reminds people that it did occur. I was alarmed by the young person who "had never heard of it". Whatintheheck are they teaching in world history these days? My classes spent several weeks during at least two different years discussing WWII and the Holocaust.

Tuesday was Holocaust Rememberance Day. I tend to believe it is worth
it to track down anyone who was involved. I think I can understand why
this woman said what she did. Punishment would never be harsh enough
to make up for what they did.

[Marigold2]

My mom who was born in 1925 went to concentration camp at 17. Had she lived (died due to a car accident she had on 9/11/94) she would be 84 now. Soon there will be no one left from that era, only the horror of what happened will remain in books, movies and in stories told to the
children such as my brother and I.
As humans we have not changed one bit. These things still happen everyday on this earth, now in the Middle East mostly. As long as mankind lives evil will as well.
I asked my mom years ago what she thought about John Demjanuik (sic) since he lives in Cleveland about a 40 minutes from us. She did not know him, did not recognize him as one of the guards she faced in the two camps she was in. But she did believe he was Ivan the Terrible why, because she never heard him say that he was sorry for what happened to all those people? Is he Ivan, only he and God knows. Is there a punishment that fits the crime? How can one 89 year old man pay for the death of 20 million? How can one man pay for all the suffering of those that lived, a lifetime of horror filled memories to awful to share. My mom and I last spoke of this way back in 94 or 93 and at that point John D was 15 years younger. My mom was such a kind person, she did not feel that sending him to prision would help. She lost her parents, her 10 brothers and sisters in the camps. At 21 she was the only one that lived. She was as I said so kind, but also so wish. How does one punish this man if we cannot be sure. My grandfather, (dad's dad) was a Nazi soldier. It was his job. One did what one had to. It was war and it was your job to kill the enemy be it man, woman or infant. I don't really have an answer to this, I just know how my mom felt. I do believe that what happened in WW11 must be taught and understood as best as can be by this generation and every that follows. I don't believe we should ever forget the horror or the kindness that can come out of the human spirit. Less we forget to be kind and forgiving, for it seems that we humans need many lessons in that area. We as a whole can be very horrible.

[lizbud]

Sorry to hear about your Mom. I'm glad she was able to talk about
her history while she was alive. My Grandparents came to America from
Ireland. My Grandpa died before I was born but my Grandmother lived
with our family when we were growing up.She had many tales to tell us
about the old country.