Kudos to Dutch mentches
Last Post 10/30/2021 07:08 PM by smokey 52. 8 Replies.
Author Messages
longslowdistance

Posts:2881

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10/28/2021 09:37 PM
Google away, I just did again and was once again wowed that so many Hollanders risked their lives and the lives of their families during WW2 to save Jews from the Nazis ( as did the French and so many others). I'm not a Jew, just a human and I have no idea if these Dutch were outliers or in the mainstream. Regardless, just wow.
When one gets to the pearly gates, that would be a show stopper.

huckleberry

Posts:824

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10/29/2021 09:46 AM
When one finds that there are no pearly gates, that will be the true show stopper.

It's encouraging when human beings can treat their fellow man humanely without the imagined threat of an omnipotent being watching over them.

We still ain't there yet.
Dale

Posts:1767

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10/29/2021 10:28 AM
My sisters mother and father-in-law were in the Danish resistance in WW2. They never talked about it, never mentioned it, few in the family actually knew until someone doing research for a documentary tracked them down. The stories they told and the bravely they showed were heroic.

On the other side of the line are my oldest daughters father-in-law and his older brother. The brother was rounded up at the tail end of the war along with the old men and other young teenagers. Hans turned 15 in a British POW camp. At the end of the war when he was released some Brit had compassion on this emaciated German teenager and did not stamp his papers indicating his status as a soldier which allowed him to emigrate along with the rest of the family in the 1950's to America. He went on to be a professor in New York and authored several books. He too rarely spoke of the war. At my daughters wedding he and his wife were in our home and I asked permission to ask a question or two and he graciously answered. His wife later said that was one of the very few times he spoke of the war. Actually my questions were more societal than war... how the Nazi's came to power seemingly seamlessly.

I lived in Norway in the mid-1970's and heard stories of the Norwegian resistance. One guy told how he was conscripted to build machine-gun nests and they'd use concrete to secure the mounts. They'd secretly hide bags of cement so the concrete mix was weakened to the point that the gun mounts would pull out after heavy use. Of course getting caught meant death but that was a risk they willingly took.
Cosmic Kid

Posts:4209

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10/29/2021 11:11 AM
If anyone is on twitter, I highly recommend you follow the Auschwitz Museum. It is a really tough follow, as they daily post images of Holocaust victims on their birthdays.

I try and take the time to read the post, look at the pictures and say their names (even if just inside my head).

We all *know* the horrors and magnitude of the Holocaust....but when it is broken down to these people as individuals, it takes on a whole new impact.

(Awesome stores, Dale....thanks for sharing!)
Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
Dale

Posts:1767

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10/29/2021 03:08 PM

Posted By Cosmic Kid

We all *know* the horrors and magnitude of the Holocaust....but when it is broken down to these people as individuals, it takes on a whole new impact.


^ This. The names. The letters. The shoes. The photographs.

Ann and I went to the Auschwitz exhibit in Kansas City a month ago.
Near the end I sat down on one of the benches and just sobbed.
Orange Crush

Posts:4499

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10/29/2021 03:21 PM

Posted By christopher behrens on 10/29/2021 09:46 AM
When one finds that there are no pearly gates, that will be the true show stopper.

It's encouraging when human beings can treat their fellow man humanely without the imagined threat of an omnipotent being watching over them.

We still ain't there yet.


This
Orange Crush

Posts:4499

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10/29/2021 03:21 PM

Posted By Dale Dale on 10/29/2021 03:08 PM

Posted By Cosmic Kid

We all *know* the horrors and magnitude of the Holocaust....but when it is broken down to these people as individuals, it takes on a whole new impact.


^ This. The names. The letters. The shoes. The photographs.

Ann and I went to the Auschwitz exhibit in Kansas City a month ago.
Near the end I sat down on one of the benches and just sobbed.



And this
Orange Crush

Posts:4499

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10/29/2021 04:38 PM
Back to original subject, not sure that the Dutch were any better or prevalent than their Danish, Belgian, French etc counterparts. In fact there’s a page on Anne Frank site devoted to dissection of why Dutch Jews ended in concentration camps at a much higher percentage than neighbouring countries. If I read it correctly it had to do with how Germans implemented occupation government in each country more so than resistance forces in each country .
smokey52

Posts:492

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10/30/2021 07:08 PM
The Holocaust museum in Washington, DC is powerful. The Nazis forced the names Sara and Israel on all Jewish girls/women and boys/men. My daughter is Sara. It disturbed us to see her name throughout the museum and with the piles of shoes.
My father was Jewish. His parents left Russia/Ukraine to escape pogroms late 19th early 20th Centuries.


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