This week, survivors of the Holocaust returned to Poland to honour the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Ten years have passed since we wrote the following editorial about the 60th anniversary, in which we wondered if the whistle could blow again. Regrettably, little has changed since that observation of the human condition. It’s heartbreaking to believe that humans, with all their wondrous creative genius, can be so destructive.
But we remain optimists, hopeful that another decade will pass and that the juggernaut of hate based on religion, gender or politics will lose its embrace on mankind.
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Will the whistle blow again?
The train’s whistle blew and one of its car doors was heard to open. For guests it was eerily similar to memories from over 60 years ago, when family, friends, members of their race and other unfortunates disembarked for internment at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Little did those poor souls know the promises of a trip and the orders to work in the fields for the betterment of Germany were just lies. This realization might have not been at first recognized but when field doctors began sorting through the inbound cargo, demonstrating less compassion than a farm manager sorting livestock for market, the victims knew something was afoot. The weak, young and unfit were separated, leaving the balance to work as slave labourers in the camp.
The expression “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“work makes you free”) adorned the wrought iron gates leading into Auschwitz. Fit prisoners, spared the gas chambers were worked to the bone, poorly maintained and many developed sicknesses only to be culled and killed later. The continuous use of deception and physical violence kept the whole apparatus running, until that glorious day 60 years ago when Russian soldiers liberated the camp.
With this perspective on the Holocaust, we were concerned to learn about surveys held around the globe, trying to determine if memories are fading. In some circles it has, partially as a result of time, limited education and a phenomenon known as Holocaust denying. Although decades and generations have passed since liberation, the international community owes it to itself to ensure events like the Nazi death camps are remembered and that denials are not embraced.
We believe, like many survivors of Auschwitz … that the whistle can and probably will blow again. It saddens us that the potential is there for such occurrences that we know to be dead wrong.
In the past 60 years the world has witnessed numerous ugly acts of hatred and violence since the death camps were liberated. Perhaps not on the same scale, but anytime tens of thousands of people are murdered the mechanics of hate are at work. Try Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Bosnia and the list goes on, of places and people not too different than us turning on themselves.
The buildup of destructive elements within a society usually starts as a minor voice and depending on the desperation of that voice or clique, ends up attracting followers by the absence of informed contrary opinion. Add intimidation of any sort and society is on the way to ugliness.
Throughout history, terrorists and rebels have fabricated falsehoods, implemented campaigns of lies with brute force to smear individuals and groups. Anytime an identifiable group can be blamed as being the cause of others misfortune is when larger evils start.
If Canadians wish to never witness evil like that again, they must insist on truth, fair play, goodness and decency in their everyday lives.
Accepting less leads to less of the character needed for a free, just society.
*Republished from The Wellington Advertiser, January 2005
