In Memory...

[caliente_uk]

Holocaust Memorial Day - Auschwitz was liberated on January 27th, 1945


In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed by the Nazis. The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews.

1.5 million children were murdered. This figure includes more than 1.2 million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy children and thousands of handicapped children.

- Louis Bülow


Holocaust
by Barbara Sonek


We played, we laughed
we were loved.
We were ripped from the arms of our
parents and thrown into the fire.
We were nothing more than children.
We had a future. We were going to be lawyers, rabbis, wives, teachers, mothers. We had dreams, then we had no hope. We were taken away in the dead of night like cattle in cars, no air to breathe smothering, crying, starving, dying. Separated from the world to be no more. From the ashes, hear our plea. This atrocity to mankind can not happen again. Remember us, for we were the children whose dreams and lives were stolen away.


Anne Frank, 1929-1945

"It's utterly impossible to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness. I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up into the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquillity will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realise them!" 15 July 1944 (three weeks before her arrest and subsequent deportation to Auschwitz)


Never forget, always remember.

Comments

[elisi]

Thank you. I don't have any words.

[raelee.livejournal.com]

When I was in Germany, my high school team once played in a golf tournament near Auschwitz. Thinking about what it might have been like to been there is nearly impossible and being around the place is even harder. The air there is heavy with the ghosts of the past.

It still makes me sick to my stomach to even think about that time in the world and what was happening. And, yet, it amazes me that people like Anne Frank managed to maintain their faith - especially having seen where she had to hide. They are all always in my thoughts and prayers.

"In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank

[caliente-uk.livejournal.com]

It's a frightening world we live in. But I do believe that the majority of people in it are good. {{{Rae}}}