Auschwitz - we must never forget

[twotone]

Information about Auschwitz became available to the Allies as a result of reports by Captain Witold Pilecki of the Polish Home Army[233] who, as "Thomasz Serfiński" (serial number 4859),[234]allowed himself to be arrested in Warsaw and taken to Auschwitz.[233] He was imprisoned there from 22 September 1940[235] until his escape on 27 April 1943.[234] Michael Fleming writes that Pilecki was instructed to sustain morale, organize food, clothing and resistance, prepare to take over the camp if possible, and smuggle information out to the Polish military.[233] Pilecki called his resistance movement Związek Organizacji Wojskowej (ZOW, "Union of Military Organization").[235]


Captain Witold Pilecki
The resistance sent out the first oral message about Auschwitz with Dr. Aleksander Wielkopolski, a Polish engineer who was released in October 1940.[236] The following month the Polish underground in Warsaw prepared a report on the basis of that information, The camp in Auschwitz, part of which was published in London in May 1941 in a booklet, The German Occupation of Poland, by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The report said of the Jews in the camp that "scarcely any of them came out alive". According to Fleming, the booklet was "widely circulated amongst British officials". The Polish Fortnightly Review based a story on it, writing that "three crematorium furnaces were insufficient to cope with the bodies being cremated", as did The Scotsman on 8 January 1942, the only British news organization to do so.[237]

 

[twotone]

In 2017, a Körber Foundation survey found that 40 percent of 14-year-olds in Germany did not know what Auschwitz was.[312][313] The following year a survey organized by the Claims Conference, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and others found that 41 percent of 1,350 American adults surveyed, and 66 percent of millennials, did not know what Auschwitz was, while 22 percent said they had never heard of the Holocaust.[314] A CNN-ComRes poll in 2018 found a similar situation in Europe.[315]

 

[doctorf]

Thanks. But I suppose many hear would say that his name mustn't be blotted out, that remembering is essential.

It’s a suffix, suggesting that the person was fairly or very evil, not that the person should be forgotten.
The opposite would be would be ז״ל, short for zikhrono livrakha, which translates as ‘of blessed memory’ (“Z"L” is the English abbreviation)

 

[tones]

The camps became a major site of the Nazis' Final Solution to the Jewish Question.

It tends to be forgotten that Treblinka killed nearly as many people as did Auschwitz. It was purely a Vernichtungslager (extermination camp), unlike Auschwitz, which had the industrial facilities. Apparently, this helped to fool the Allies - they thought that Auschwitz and Birkenau were two entirely separate camps. Because of this, they thought, based on reconnaissance flights, that Auschwitz was a production facility. It was only sometime after D-Day that they realised that this was in fact also the biggest Vernichtungslager.

 

[Guest432]

@twotone I know damn well what Auschwitz was and the history of it, my question was not aimed at you.

 

[twotone]

@twotone I know damn well what Auschwitz was and the history of it, my question was not aimed at you.

Well you did ask rather vaguely

"Did the Polish build and run the camp?"

Why don't you put me on ignore or better still I'll put you on ignore.

 

[omers]

Would it be possible to spell out more literally what this is? I may use it in other contexts, and would hate to get it wrong somehow.

Google translate seems to think it means IMC, which I’m guessing is acronymic.

ימ"ש is acronym for YIMACH SHMO which is usually an abbreviation of YIMACH SHMO VE-ZICHRO. (CH is the "Chutzpe" or "Van Goch" 's CH).
it might come from Psalms 109, 13. "YIMACH" means will be aggressively erased, deleted. "SHMO" is his name, and "ZICHRO" is the memory of him.
It is usually said of someone evil in the "national", people, sense, and if used in the personal evil sense, then it is a bit "borrowed" from that.
Unless said within religious circle/context, it also has an old, slightly archaic, diaspora-ish, connotation.
Omer.

 

[omers]

Thanks. But I suppose many hear would say that his name mustn't be blotted out, that remembering is essential.

Note that I am not undermining his role, on the contrary. It's more in line with destroying his grave (if there ever was found one) and diminishing his personal, named "fame" as opposed to remembering the facts and history and chain of events. Hope that makes sense, it's not completely logical.

 

[Lee T]

There is a lot that is different about us now and then, and very little of it is any good.

Many who carried out the atrocities of the holocaust were well educated, intelligent & sophisticated people who, if you met them on a normal day, would never believe are capable of such evil. Many who run the camps & those who shot & gassed children were normal German folk who were fed Jewish propaganda since birth. Propaganda can be a useful tool when used without restraint & with little or no opposition. It's a thought worth considering when in today's world we mostly associate far right wing groups with low life scum bags without a brain cell to pass around, that those who murdered freely & without restraint in these death camps were quite the opposite of what we see today dwelling within these groups.

I see very little difference, good or bad about the people of the day & the people living today. Only difference i see is that information is now freely available to all & sundry whereas in the dark days of the Nazi party Hitler & those who came before him had free reign to spread propaganda unabated. It's this propaganda which led to the millions of deaths in world war 2 & thankfully, even though it is still prevalent today, I doubt any leader would be able to gather such support for a single cause which could lead to such devastation against a population of people.

 

[tones]

Many who carried out the atrocities of the holocaust were well educated, intelligent & sophisticated people who, if you met them on a normal day, would never believe are capable of such evil.

Many of the participants at the Wannsee Conference had higher degrees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference#Attendees

The conference was not convened to decide on the Final Solution (which was already in the planning stages) but to assert the dominance of the RSHA (Reich Security Organisation) and its head, Reinhard Heydrich, over it.

 

[Lee T]

Many of the participants at the Wannsee Conference had higher degrees.

We have no need to worry about the low life brain dead scum who spread far right propaganda. Very few listen. We need to be far more diligent of those who spread it with intelligence. It's this kind of information that people listen to.

 

[Barryoke]

In 2017, a Körber Foundation survey found that 40 percent of 14-year-olds in Germany did not know what Auschwitz was.[312][313] The following year a survey organized by the Claims Conference, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and others found that 41 percent of 1,350 American adults surveyed, and 66 percent of millennials, did not know what Auschwitz was, while 22 percent said they had never heard of the Holocaust.[314] A CNN-ComRes poll in 2018 found a similar situation in Europe.[315]

That is truly incredible, and scary too. The mind boggles in all honesty.

 

[roman]

Many who carried out the atrocities of the holocaust were well educated, intelligent & sophisticated people who, if you met them on a normal day, would never believe are capable of such evil. Many who run the camps & those who shot & gassed children were normal German folk who were fed Jewish propaganda since birth. Propaganda can be a useful tool when used without restraint & with little or no opposition. It's a thought worth considering when in today's world we mostly associate far right wing groups with low life scum bags without a brain cell to pass around, that those who murdered freely & without restraint in these death camps were quite the opposite of what we see today dwelling within these groups.

I see very little difference, good or bad about the people of the day & the people living today. Only difference i see is that information is now freely available to all & sundry whereas in the dark days of the Nazi party Hitler & those who came before him had free reign to spread propaganda unabated. It's this propaganda which led to the millions of deaths in world war 2 & thankfully, even though it is still prevalent today, I doubt any leader would be able to gather such support for a single cause which could lead to such devastation against a population of people.

I'd like to clarify what I wrote as I can see it can be misunderstood. I sought to contrast what I saw as greater compassion in more troubled times back then against our shameful current stance in the face of desperate people seeking better lives.

I can't be scientific about it but I detect it in our 'national character' (to put it crudely) and certainly in our government.

Before some posters get too excited about my politics I'd add that Blair's government was pretty dreadful in this regard as well.

As for your explanation of who did what and in what conditions, I know most of this and agree with you.

 

[Wilson]

I'd like to clarify what I wrote as I can see it can be misunderstood. I sought to contrast what I saw as greater compassion in more troubled times back then against our shameful current stance in the face of desperate people seeking better lives.

I can't be scientific about it but I detect it in our 'national character' (to put it crudely) and certainly in our government.

Before some posters get too excited about my politics I'd add that Blair's government was pretty dreadful in this regard as well.

As for your explanation of who did what and in what conditions, I know most of this and agree with you.

I've no idea what you're on about.

 

[thebigfredc]

We watched Belsen: Our Story on BBC 2 last night.

Despite not being an extermination camp and also much smaller than Aushwitz, the testimonies from the survivors were heart-breaking really. We can only glimpse at what they endured. They are old now having lived good lives and looked back at that time with the benefit of experience, wisdom and with great dignity.

I think Nazi Germany is a warning of what can happen when good people sit on their hands. There were many opportunities to intervene in the early years of the Third Reich but the West chose to look away until it was too late.

There will always be evil people in the world - its how the rest of us respond to it that determines the outcome.

 

[twotone]

We watched Belsen: Our Story on BBC 2 last night.

Despite not being an extermination camp and also much smaller than Aushwitz, the testimonies from the survivors were heart-breaking really. We can only glimpse at what they endured. They are old now having lived good lives and looked back at that time with the benefit of experience, wisdom and with great dignity.

I think Nazi Germany is a warning of what can happen when good people sit on their hands. There were many opportunities to intervene in the early years of the Third Reich but the West chose to look away until it was too late.

There will always be evil people in the world - its how the rest of us respond to it that determines the outcome.

I've recorded it, thanks.

There's a programme about Auschwitz survivors on Ch 4 at 10.30pm tonight: Auschwtiz Untold: In Colour.

 

[NeilR]

We watched Belsen: Our Story on BBC 2 last night.

Despite not being an extermination camp and also much smaller than Aushwitz, the testimonies from the survivors were heart-breaking really. We can only glimpse at what they endured. They are old now having lived good lives and looked back at that time with the benefit of experience, wisdom and with great dignity.

I think Nazi Germany is a warning of what can happen when good people sit on their hands. There were many opportunities to intervene in the early years of the Third Reich but the West chose to look away until it was too late.

There will always be evil people in the world - its how the rest of us respond to it that determines the outcome.

I have not yet watched this program, but did you see the video i posted upthread of belsen? horrifying scenes.

 

[jackbarron]

The Volunteer is a biography of the Polish resistance fighter Witold Pilecki, who infiltrated Auschwitz. It has just won its author, the former war reporter Jack Fairweather, the Costa book of the year award. https://www.theguardian.com

Pilecki was a member of the Warsaw resistance. He voluntarily got into the camp to let the world know what was going on and to stoke up resistance.

Fairweather was interviewed today by the BBC. Although Pilecki spread news about the Holocaust to the Allies, they did nothing about it for quite a long time.

Pilecki's story has remained buried in part because he was executed by the Polish communists in 1948 as an enemy of the state.

His two children, Andrzej and Zofia, learned about his death when it was announced over their school's tannoy system and he was described as a traitor. For 50 years the pair had no idea what their father had done in Auschwitz.

The Volunteer sounds like a pretty remarkable book.

Jack

 

[Nick_G]

The Volunteer is a biography of the Polish resistance fighter Witold Pilecki, who infiltrated Auschwitz. It has just won its author, the former war reporter Jack Fairweather, the Costa book of the year award. https://www.theguardian.com

Pilecki was a member of the Warsaw resistance. He voluntarily got into the camp to let the world know what was going on and to stoke up resistance.

Fairweather was interviewed today by the BBC. Although Pilecki spread news about the Holocaust to the Allies, they did nothing about it for quite a long time.

Pilecki's story has remained buried in part because he was executed by the Polish communists in 1948 as an enemy of the state.

His two children, Andrzej and Zofia, learned about his death when it was announced over their school's tannoy system and he was described as a traitor. For 50 years the pair had no idea what their father had done in Auschwitz.

The Volunteer sounds like a pretty remarkable book.

Jack

Thanks Jack. I've just used my Amazon gift card to buy that. It sounds like essential reading material.

 

[Tony L]

The BBC’s Windermere Children is well worth a watch if missed. It tells the story of children liberated from the Nazi death camps in 1945 who ended up being cared for in the UK, some surviving to this day after building new lives here. There was a follow-up on BBC4 too.