Sunday, April 15, 2007

Remembrance of Things Past (We Hope)

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day set aside to commemorate the millions of Jews who were murdered by the Germans and their allies in World War Two.

You may notice that I say "murdered by the Germans and their allies" and not "murdered by the Nazis". Sure, Nazi politicians and bureaucrats were behind the planning of the Holocaust, but they required the complicity of the entire nation -- and their anti-Semitic allies -- to complete the evil that they desired to do. Ordinary people may not have known all the details, but they benefited from these crimes, and to deny it would be a disservice to the victims.

I think we must never forget the horror of the Holocaust and I think it is every decent person's obligation to ensure that such heinous crimes are never committed again. But we can't guard against future Holocausts until we acknowledge the true nature of the one that already occurred.

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