Tag Archives: Holocaust

The World Turned Upside Down

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Education in Massachusetts has always been interesting. My children went to public school in a small town in Massachusetts and generally speaking, I had no problems with what they were taught. Forty years ago, Massachusetts had one of the best public school systems in America. I don’t believe that is still true.

On Tuesday, The Jerusalem Post posted an article about the backlash at William Diamond Middle School because the Principal apologized for the school teaching a lesson on the Holocaust.

The article reports:

Jewish groups have condemned a Boston school principal for an email he sent apologizing to Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, and Lebanese students who were offended by a mandatory Holocaust lesson.

In the email, William Diamond Middle School Principal Johnny Cole said he was “sorry” for the impact the Holocaust lesson had on some students.

“Some of you felt unseen. Some of you felt like your own history, your identity, or your community was left out or erased. Some of you left that session feeling less safe, not more,” Cole wrote.

Those are not the students that should have felt less safe!

The article notes:

StopAntisemitism condemned the email, saying, “Since when is teaching historical fact something that requires an apology? And why is a school principal validating outrage over Holocaust education instead of defending it?”

This is not the first time the school and its principal have made headlines over the last week.

Just days ago, one school pupil, Teaghan Murtagh, wrote a letter to The Lexington Observer describing how Cole had ordered her not to remove a T-shirt with the words “Save the bees. Plant more trees. Clean the seas. Punch Nazis.”

Murtagh had been wearing this T-shirt to school regularly for nearly two years. Her great-grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, having spent the war in a concentration camp at the same age Murtagh is now.

I am not a fan of the T-shirt, but I can see why she would wear it.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. Also–I could not find an article on this in any of the American media.

This Is What Leadership Looks Like

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It is obvious to most Americans that the Biden administration has turned its back on Israel. That is a dangerous thing to do–look what happened to the British Empire after they reneged on the Balfour Declaration or Germany after they declared war on the Jews. The Bible makes it very clear that there is a price to be paid for the betrayal of God’s people. I truly fear for our nation.

On Thursday, The Jewish News Syndicate posted an article that included some of Israeli Prime Minister Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments at his May 5 speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. This is what leadership looks like.

The article reports:

“Eighty years ago, in the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against those who sought our destruction,” Netanyahu says in the speech, which was delivered on the occasion of the first Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.

“Today, we again confront enemies bent on our destruction,” the premier continues. “As the prime minister of Israel, the one and only Jewish state, I pledge here today, from Jerusalem, on this Holocaust Remembrance Day, if Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”

The article notes:

Israel’s War Cabinet, as well as the broader Security Cabinet, is set to meet on Thursday to discuss the latest developments in the relationship with the United States.

A source in Jerusalem told Israel Hayom that the Cabinet is united in its view that the IDF should expand its operation in Rafah and occupy the city.

“Israel must do this to show the Biden administration and the entire international community—and of course also Iran and Israel’s other enemies—that we are not an American protectorate, but rather an independent country,” the source said.

The article concludes:

At a Defense Ministry ceremony on Thursday ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day, which will be marked next week, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to achieve all war goals in the country’s north and south.

“I appeal to our enemies and our friends: It is impossible to subdue us,” said Gallant. “We will ensure Israel’s existence, whatever the cost may be, and keep clearly in mind the pledge we signed just a week ago at the Holocaust Day ceremony: Never again.”

Genesis 12:1-3 says:

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”[b]

I am not willing to test God in that area. Unfortunately, the Biden administration is.

 

 

Now That They Know The Truth, Will It Matter?

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One of the lessons supposedly learned from the Holocaust was that it is easier to ignore the unthinkable than to deal with it. Unfortunately, the attack on Israel and the world’s response to that attack illustrate the fact that we have not learned that lesson.

On March 5th, CBN reported the following:

For the first time in nearly five months, a United Nations mission is recognizing Israel’s claims of Hamas brutality toward Israeli women and men on October 7th. Meanwhile, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah unleashed more rockets on northern Israel from southern Lebanon.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the U.N. report issued by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, acknowledging that Hamas and other terrorist organizations committed sexual crimes in the attack last October.

Posting on X, the mission stated, “The UN also recognizes that the crimes were committed simultaneously in different locations and point to a pattern of rape, torture and sexual abuse. The report also acknowledges the existence of ongoing sexual crimes against the Israeli women and men being held hostage by Hamas and calls for the immediate release of the hostages.”

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called on the Secretary-General and Security Council to join the mission in condemning Hamas.

He had earlier challenged the international body, saying, “In the future, you won’t be able to claim that you didn’t know, just as the world claimed after the Holocaust that you were not exposed to the suffering and horrors. Those who remain indifferent are complicit in the crimes themselves.”

Erdan held up a tablet and played testimonies of women brutalized by Hamas, charging the U.N. with apathy and indifference.

A spokesperson for one freed hostage on the tablet was telling of her ordeal, saying, “And she went into the shower and while she was there one of the terrorists went inside, took his clothes off, with a gun towards her head told her to do everything he wanted.”

The IDF also declassified a call it intercepted from a Hamas terrorist, who is also a UNWRA-employee, and U.N. elementary school teacher.

The article also notes:

In the U.S., the State Department defended its meeting with war cabinet minister Benny Gantz who was invited to Washington without the authorization of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Spokesman Matthew Miller stated, “He (Gantz) has a critical voice in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. He’s an important figure in the sitting government of Israel. And so that’s why we engage with him.”

Miller added, “Our goal is clear to establish a comprehensive aid strategy that includes air, land, and sea routes to maximize the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and ensure that aid is distributed to everyone in Gaza who needs it.”

This is an effort to undermine Israel’s war effort. The world has seen the horrors of Hamas and Hezbollah and their war on innocent civilians, yet it choses to criticize Israel for wanting to live in peace and safety.

A Word From Someone Who Has Been There

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On Thursday, The New York Post posted an article quoting one of the freed Hamas hostages on what she saw while she was held hostage.

The article reports:

A 21-year-old Israeli-French tattoo artist who was abducted by Hamas has recalled the horrors that she faced in Gaza in her first interview, saying she “went through a holocaust” during her 54 days in captivity.

Mia Schem was asked in a preview clip of an interview with Channel 13 why she decided to open up about her experience at the hands of the terrorists.

“It was important to me to relay the truth about the nature of the people who live in Gaza, who they are truly are and what I experienced there,” the young woman tells journalist Lior Veroslavski in the clip released Thursday.

Veroslavski replies, “It was important to you that the world understands what?”

“That I went through a holocaust,” the former hostage says, matter-of-factly. “Everyone over there is a terrorist.”

The article notes her realization that she was held prisoner by a family:

“Suddenly I realized that I’m with a family,” she says. “Suddenly I’m asking myself questions: Why am I in some family’s home? Why are there kids here? Why is there a wife?”

Do families in peaceful countries host hostages?

 

What We Teach Our Children Matters

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Yesterday John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the draft publication of the Minnesota social studies standards. The standards are available for public comment. The article cites information found in an article at the Center of the American Experiment website.

The article at Power Line Blog reports:

WORLD/U.S. HISTORY

There are several key pieces of our world and nation’s history that are missing when compared with the 2011 social studies standards.

Missing Benchmarks

* World War I—benchmarks on the social, political and economic causes of the war; nations involved, major political and military figures, key battles; political impact (including formation of the League of Nations)

* World War II—benchmarks on the social, political and economic causes of the war, and main turning points; nations involved, major political and military figures, key battles; timeline of key events leading to WWII

* The Holocaust (including references to the Nazi regime and Jews)

* Rise and effects of communism and socialism; Communist Revolution

* American Revolution—benchmarks on timeline of the major events and turning points of the revolution, including the involvement of other nations and the reasons for American victory; identifying historically significant people during the period of the revolution (Examples: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Elizabeth Freeman)

* Civil War—benchmarks on timeline of the key events of the war; causes of the war; major political and military events; main ideas of the debate over slavery and states’ rights and how they resulted in major political compromises and ultimately war
***

I need someone to explain to me how you can teach WWII without teaching about the Holocaust, Nazis, and Jews.

These are just a few examples from the article. Please follow the link to read the entire article. It offers insight as to the reasons our children don’t understand the freedom and heritage they have in America and why many are willing to trade that freedom for the slavery of socialism.

The Canary In The Coal Mine Is Not Singing

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Jews have been called the “canary in the coal mine.” Miners used to take canaries into the mines with them. When the canary stopped singing (and died), it meant that the gas levels were too high and the gases could explode or kill the miners. Underlying the metaphor is the realization that what happens to the Jews will befall everyone. Historically it seems that when bad things happen to the Jews, bad things happening to other groups of people are not far behind. During the Holocaust roughly eleven million people were killed. It began with antisemitism, moved to killing the Jews, the disabled, the mentally handicapped, homosexuals, and Christians who opposed the policy. The figure usually quoted is that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, but what happened to the Jews also happened to other population groups in Europe.

Yesterday Yahoo News posted an article reporting the following:

Germany’s government commissioner on anti-Semitism has warned Jews about the potential dangers of wearing the traditional kippah cap in the face of rising anti-Jewish attacks.

“I cannot advise Jews to wear the Kippah everywhere all the time in Germany,” Felix Klein said in an interview published Saturday by the Funke regional press group.

In issuing the warning, he said he had “alas, changed my mind (on the subject) compared to previously.”

Klein, whose post was created last year, cited “the lifting of inhibitions and the uncouthness which is on the rise in society” as factors behind a rising incidence of anti-Semitism.

“The internet and social media have largely contributed to this — but so have constant attacks against our culture of remembrance.”

And he suggested police, teachers and lawyers should be better trained to recognise what constitutes “clearly defined” unacceptable behaviour and “what is authorised and what is not”.

His comments came just weeks after Berlin’s top legal expert on anti-semitism said the issue remains entrenched in German society.

I don’t think that the problem is that antisemitism is entrenched in German society or the rise of the political right–I think the problem is that Germany is losing its national identity to Muslim refugees who have brought antisemitism with them as part of their religion. I suspect the ‘far-right’ is rising in response to what they see happening to their country.

In 2015 the following letter was written to the City Council of Munich:

Dear City council of Munich,

I am writing this letter to bring to your attention something that I and many Muslims believe is unfair and requires attention. I would like to inform you that the Oktoberfest is an Intolerant and Anti-Islamic event.

We tried to ignore the event, but there too many Un-Islamic acts done at the Oktoberfest. Such as alcohol consumption, public nudity etc.

We understand that the Oktoberfest is a yearly German tradition, but we, Muslims, can not tolerate this Un-Islamic event, because it offends us and all Muslims on the earth. We are requesting the immediate cancellation of the upcoming Oktoberfest event.

We also believe that the Oktoberfest might also offend all the Muslim refugees coming from Syria, Iraq,

Afghanistan. The cancellation of the Oktoberfest event will help refugees not to forget their Islamic history. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Morad Almuradi

I am not necessarily a fan of Oktoberfest, but if I were a German existing in the German culture, this letter would bother me. Here is an immigrant trying to change my country into the country he just fled. That makes no sense to me.

Why Our Children Need To Learn History

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If our children are not taught history, they will believe any lie they are told about past events. Recently Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib attempted a major rewrite of the history of World War II.

Yesterday The New York Post posted her comments and the truth.

Ms. Tlaib stated:

“There’s always a kind of calming feeling when I think of the tragedy of the Holocaust, that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity . . . in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-Holocaust, post-tragedy . . . And I love that it was my ancestors that provided that in many ways.”

That sounds very nice, but history tells a different story. Haj Amin al-Husseini was the mufti of Jerusalem. He met with Hitler and visited German troops.

The article reports:

According to the German transcript of the meeting, the mufti said: “An appeal by the Mufti to the Arab countries . . . would produce a great number of volunteers eager to fight.”

To the mufti’s delight, Hitler promised that after conquering the Southern Caucasus, “Germany’s objective would then be solely the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere.”

Meanwhile, the British gave in to Arab demands, sharply limiting the number of Jews who could enter the Mandate during the Holocaust. Ships were turned around and, like in many Western countries, Jews were sent back to certain death in ­Europe.

After the United Nations voted in 1947 to partition mandatory Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state, five Arab armies invaded in an attempt to make it all Arab. Sounds like a really safe haven, Rep. Tlaib.

In 1948, the Arabs living in Israel were told to leave their homes to join with the Arab nations surrounding Israel to ‘drive the Jews into the sea.’ They were promised that after the Jews were defeated, they would get their land back. Obviously the Jews were not defeated, and they lost their land. The story that Ms. Tlaib is telling is purely fiction, although it may be what she was taught growing up. Truth is the first casualty of war, and in the Middle East the truth is easily lost or distorted.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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Kansas.com posted an article today about International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The article lists five things that we ought to know about International Holocaust Remembrance Day:

  • The United Nations set Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  • In all, about 1.3 million Nazi prisoners were shipped to the Auschwitz complex of camps, most of whom later died or were executed. Many were murdered in the camp’s infamous gas chambers under the guise of being sent to take showers, according to the museum.
  • This remembrance day also serves as a way to promote Holocaust education. In a 2018 poll conducted by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, 22 percent of millennials said they had never heard of the Holocaust or weren’t sure if they had heard of it, the Washington Post previously reported.
  • Numerous world leaders are commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day at memorials or online, including many on Twitter.
  • Around the globe, sites in almost 30 countries will simultaneously play a documentary that discusses how “journalists, scholars, and community leaders secretly documented Nazi atrocities,” according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The documentary — “Who Will Write Our History?” — will play from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern time. The event is free, but the museum is no longer taking reservations.

Never forget.

Dennis Prager On Media Hysteria

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Townhall posted an article today by Dennis Prager. The article deals with the current media hysteria over the fact that President Trump is accused of colluding with Russia.

Mr. Prager notes:

You and I are living through the greatest mass hysteria in American history. For many Americans, the McCarthy era held that dubious distinction, but what is happening now is incomparably worse.

For one thing, any hysteria that existed then was directed against the greatest evil in the world at the time: communism. Then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee notwithstanding, there really were Americans in important positions who supported communist regimes enslaving their populations and committing mass murder. McCarthy was on to something.

In contrast, the country is choking on hysteria over the extremely unlikely possibility — for which there is still no evidence — that Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russian government to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, and the absurdity that President Trump works for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Prager points out a few things the media is overlooking:

All this hysteria is built on next to nothing. At its core, it is an attempt to undo the 2016 election. The mainstream media refuse to accept that Hillary Clinton lost. They said she would win — handily. They predicted a landslide. How could they have possibly gotten it so wrong? Their answer is they didn’t; Trump and Putin stole it.

If truth mattered to the media, their ongoing narrative would be: “Democrats and the left still do not accept Trump victory.”

That is the truth in a nutshell.

The article lists some truths the media chooses to ignore:

If truth mattered to the media, every American would be reminded that Obama sent Army meals to Ukraine and Trump has sent anti-tank missiles and other arms to repel the Russians.

If truth mattered to the media, every American would be reminded that Obama watched Syria burn and Russia come to dominate that country, while Trump has bombed Syrian military installations, including one where Russians were killed.

If truth mattered to the media, every American would be reminded that it is Trump who has weakened Russia’s ally Iran, while Obama immeasurably strengthened it.

Instead the media scream “treason,” “impeachment” and the like 24/7; Hollywood stars curse the president; others curse his daughter or the first lady (one of the most regal in American history) and show President Trump in various death poses. Meanwhile, leftist mobs shout at administration officials and Republican members of Congress while they eat in restaurants, shop in stores and sleep in their homes.

The article concludes:

If you vote Democrat this November, you are voting for hysteria, lies, socialism and even the cheapening of the Holocaust.

But more than anything, a vote for Democrats in November is a vote for hysteria — the greatest and darkest in American history.

And that is where we currently are.

Finding Your Humanity

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The New York Post posted a story today about Martin Greenfield, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, owns and operates Martin Greenfield Clothiers in Brooklyn, NY.  He has written a memoir entitled “Measure of a Man,” in which he shares some of his experiences in the Holocaust.

Please follow the link above to read one excerpt from the book. The story is about his experience when he was freed from the concentration camp and had an opportunity to take revenge on someone who had treated him very badly.

Making Sure History Is Not Rewritten

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On Monday, The Blaze reported on a California school district classroom assignment in critical thinking that involved denial of the Holocaust. This is not an exercise in critical thinking–this is brainwashing. The assignment was in line with Common Core standards. Please follow the link above to get the whole story.

I am sure there is an incredible coincidence involved here, but the article at The Blaze reports:

In a statement issued Monday, the school district said Interim Superintendent Mohammad Z. Islam would meet with administrators to make sure references to the Holocaust “not occurring” are taken out of current assignments and not included in future assignments.

Now, for the truth. Yad Vashem is the Holocaust website. It is a website with stories from the survivors of the concentration camps, historical information, a database, and links to other information sites. I strongly suggest browsing there to learn the truth about the Holocaust.

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Is This The Right Time?

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I am asking the above question because I really don’t know the answer. The article that follows is for your consideration.

The U.K. Independent is reporting today that a previously unseen Alfred Hitchcock documentary about the Holocaust is about to be released.

The article reports:

In 1945, Hitchcock had been enlisted by his friend and patron Sidney Bernstein to help with a documentary on German wartime atrocities, based on the footage of the camps shot by British and Soviet film units. In the event, that documentary was never seen.

“It was suppressed because of the changing political situation, particularly for the British,” suggests Dr Toby Haggith, Senior Curator at the Department of Research, Imperial War Museum. “Once they discovered the camps, the Americans and British were keen to release a film very quickly that would show the camps and get the German people to accept their responsibility for the atrocities that were there.”

The film took far longer to make than had originally been envisaged. By late 1945, the need for it began to wane. The Allied military government decided that rubbing the Germans’ noses in their own guilt wouldn’t help with postwar reconstruction.

Five of the film’s six reels were eventually deposited in the Imperial War Museum and the project was quietly forgotten.

In the 1980’s the film was found, restored, and the missing sixth reel reconstructed. The film and a new documentary, Night Will Fall, are scheduled to be shown on British TV in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the “liberation” of Europe.

Showing the film would remind the world of what happened in Germany and it would take some of the wind out of the sails of those who deny the Holocaust. Releasing the film would illustrate how cruel man can be to his fellow men, but will it actually accomplish anything?

The thing to remember is that there are people who walk among us who still are anti-Semitic. Releasing the film (or not releasing the film) is not going to impact that fact at all.

I am in favor of releasing the film because it represents a real part of the history of the world. It shouldn’t be glossed over as if it didn’t happen. The Holocaust happened to real people with real children and real parents. In some cases entire families were wiped out. It is a shameful event in world history, and if reminding the world of that event will prevent it from happening again, we need to remind the world of that event every day.

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A Post From The Gates Of Vienna Website

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Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht. The following commentary was taken from the Gates of Vienna website. I am not going to comment on it, it speaks for itself:

What made the Nazi Holocaust possible? Gun control

The Night of the Broken Glass, the Nazi pogrom against Germany’s Jews [occurred] on Nov. 9-10, 1938. Historians have documented most everything about it except what made it so easy to attack the defenseless Jews without fear of resistance. Their guns were registered and thus easily confiscated.

To illustrate, turn the clock back further and focus on just one victim, a renowned German athlete.

Alfred Flatow won first place in gymnastics at the 1896 Olympics. In 1932, he dutifully registered three handguns, as required by a decree of the liberal Weimar Republic. The decree also provided that in times of unrest, the guns could be confiscated. The government gullibly neglected to consider that only law-abiding citizens would register, while political extremists and criminals would not. However, it did warn that the gun-registration records must be carefully stored so they would not fall into the hands of extremists.

The ultimate extremist group, led by Adolf Hitler, seized power just a year later, in 1933. The Nazis immediately used the firearms-registration records to identify, disarm and attack “enemies of the state,” a euphemism for Social Democrats and other political opponents of all types. Police conducted search-and-seizure operations for guns and “subversive” literature in Jewish communities and working-class neighborhoods.

Jews were increasingly deprived of more and more rights of citizenship in the coming years. The Gestapo cautioned the police that it would endanger public safety to issue gun permits to Jews. Hitler faked a show of tolerance for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, but Flatow refused to attend the reunion there of former champions. He was Jewish and would not endorse the farce.

By fall of 1938, the Nazis were ratcheting up measures to expropriate the assets of Jews. To ensure that they had no means of resistance, the Jews were ordered to surrender their firearms.

Flatow walked into a Berlin police station to comply with the command and was arrested on the spot, as were other Jews standing in line. The arrest report confirmed that his pistols were duly registered…

…which was obviously how the police knew he had them. While no law prohibited a Jew from owning guns, the report recited the Nazi mantra: “Jews in possession of weapons are a danger to the German people.” Despite his compliance, Flatow was turned over to the Gestapo.

This scenario took place all over Germany — firearms were confiscated from all Jews registered as gun owners. As this was occurring, a wholly irrelevant event provided just the excuse needed to launch a violent attack on the Jewish community: A Polish teenager who was Jewish shot a German diplomat in Paris. The stage was set to instigate Kristallnacht, a carefully orchestrated Nazi onslaught against the entire Jewish community in Germany that horrified the world and even the German public.

Kristallnacht has been called “the day the Holocaust began.” Flatow’s footsteps can be followed to see why. He would be required to wear the Star of David. In 1942, he was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he starved to death.

One wonders what thoughts may have occurred to Flatow in his last days. Perhaps memories of the Olympics and of a better Germany flashed before his eyes. Did he have second thoughts about whether he should have registered his guns in 1932? …

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Social Media And The Holocaust

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The Blaze posted a story today about an Israeli-based social media genealogy company that is using the Internet to help match property stolen by the Nazis to heirs of the victims. A website called My Heritage founded by Gilad Japhet lets people build their family trees on line. The names on that website are being matched up with the names of businesses and properties seized by the Nazis during the reign of Adolph Hitler so that restitution can be made to survivors and heirs.

The article reports:

“We are only just seeing the huge impact that social media will have on Holocaust history,” said Robert-Jan Smits, the director-general of the European Union’s commission for research and design. “We are moving from dusty archives to digitized databases.”

One of the driving forces behind the new push has been Gilad Japhet, CEO and founder of Israel-based MyHeritage, a social media website with about 70 million registered users worldwide that lets individuals build their own family trees online.

A few months back, Japhet read a report about the Claims Conference’s list of over 40,000 buildings, stores and factories that could not be matched with their original owners. Japhet matched some names on the list to the millions of names that users had posted on MyHeritage’s family trees online.

This is fantastic. The article explains:

Japhet put together a team of five employees and had them write a computer program that automatically matches the names on the Claims Conference’s list with those on the virtual family trees. So far, they have been able to match about 150 names on the list with names on the family trees. They expect to continue working on this project for several more months.

Nothing can make up for the suffering the Jews went through under Adolph Hitler, but it is wonderful to know that members of families who lost everything will be compensated.

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I Guess It Depends On Which Religion You Want To Be Free From

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On Friday, Breitbart.com posted an article about the proposed Ohio Holocaust Memorial. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) wants to remove the Star of David from that memorial.

The article reports:

In a June 14 letter to Richard H. Finan, chairman of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, two FFRF officials said they have no objections to a Holocaust memorial at the statehouse, but claimed that the cut-out version of the six-pointed Star of David would be a violation of the separation of church and state as provided for in the Constitution.

“Permitting one permanent sectarian and exclusionary religious symbol… would create the legal precedent, for instance, to place an equally large or larger permanent Latin cross on Capitol grounds,” wrote Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the Madison, Wisconsin group. Gaylor is the daughter of Anne Nicol Gaylor, author of Abortion Is A Blessing. Barker said that the Holocaust memorial, as currently proposed, would amount to a “constitutionally problematic endorsement of religion.”

Yes, I realize that people other than Jews were sent to Concentration Camps and executed, but we need to realize that the majority of the people killed by the Nazis were killed because they were Jewish. When the Nazis took over a country, they forced the Jews to wear the Star of David on their clothes in order to separate them from the rest of the population. The Star of David played a very important role in the Holocaust.

But let’s look at some of the past work of the FFRF. The article reports:

In March 2012, the FFRF also placed an anti-Catholic ad that was published by the New York Times. The ad, which criticized the Church’s position against ObamaCare’s HHS mandate, stated, “It’s time to quit the Roman Catholic Church. Will it be reproductive freedom, or back to the Dark Ages?”

The ad accused the Catholic Church of promoting “acute misery, poverty, needless suffering, unwanted pregnancies, overpopulation, social evils and deaths.”

In an appeal to Catholic women, the ad asked, “Apparently, you’re like the battered woman who, after being beaten down every Sunday, feels she has no place else to go.”

In response to the publication of the FFRF ad by the New York Times, Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs submitted an ad along the same lines to the Times entitled, “It’s Time To Quit Islam.” The Times, however, rejected Geller’s ad because “the fallout from running this ad now could put U.S. troops and/or civilians in the [Afghan] region in danger.”

The Catholic Church never told its female members that it was okay for their husbands to beat them. The Catholic Church never forced women to cover themselves from head to foot before they went outside. The Catholic Church has never advocated the hanging of homosexuals. Why is there a double standard here?

The Holocaust directly involved the Star of David. To exclude the Star of David from the memorial is another form of anti-Semitism.

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The Grand Jury Report In The Kermit Gosnell Case

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Kermit Gosnell is the abortionist on trial in Philadelphia for killing babies. I am not going to print the Grand Jury Report because they are so disturbing, but here is the link.

There are many aspects of this case that are very troubling. How did this man find people who were willing to work with him in this abortion center? Why haven’t the pro-abortion groups come out with a statement every day condemning what went on in this abortion center? Why did the neighbors who heard the babies cry keep silent?

I hesitate to compare abortion to the Holocaust, but there are some parallels. There were people willing to participate in murder, neighbors kept silent, and the clinic had been operating for more than ten years. The government also complied by not holding abortion clinics to the same standards as other medical facilities.

This is an excerpt from Grand Jury report:

We discovered that Pennsylvania’s Department of Health has deliberately chosen not to enforce laws that should afford patients at abortion clinics the same safeguards and assurances of quality health care as patients of other medical service providers. Even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety.The State Legislature has charged the Department of Health (DOH) with responsibility for writing and enforcing regulations to protect health and safety in abortion clinics as well as in hospitals and other health care facilities. Yet a significant difference exists between how DOH monitors abortion clinics and how it monitors facilities where other medical procedures are performed. Indeed, the department has shown an utter disregard both for the safety of women who seek treatment at abortion clinics and for the health of fetuses after they have become viable. State health officials have also shown a disregard for the laws the department is supposed to enforce. Most appalling of all, the Department of Health’s neglect of abortion patients’ safety and of Pennsylvania laws is clearly not inadvertent:

It is by design

Many organizations that perform safe abortion procedures do their own monitoring and adhere to strict, self-imposed standards of quality. But the excellent safety records and the quality of care that these independently monitored clinics deliver to patients are no thanks to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. And not all women seeking abortion find their way to these high-quality facilities; some end up in a filthy, dangerous clinic such as Gosnell’s. There the patients have to depend on DOH oversight to protect them – as do babies born alive, and helpless but viable fetuses after 24 weeks of gestation. Yet no protection is forthcoming. State health officials knew that Gosnell and his clinic were offering unacceptable medical care to women and girls, yet DOH failed to take any action to stop the atrocities documented by this Grand Jury. These officials were far more protective of themselves when they testified before the Grand Jury. Even DOH lawyers, including the chief counsel, brought private attorneys with them – presumably at government expense. Gosnell’s clinic – with its untrained staff, its unsanitary conditions and practices, its perilously lax anesthesia protocols, its willingness to perform late-term abortions for exorbitant amounts of cash, and its routine procedure of killing babies after they were delivered by their unconscious mothers – offers a telling example of how horrendous a Pennsylvania facility can be and still operate with DOH “approval.”

It is ironic to me that one of the reasons that the pro-abortion movement gave for legalizing abortion was that it would put an end to expensive, back-alley abortions and thus make women safer. This clinic was worse than any back-alley abortion and had the added ability to prescribe drugs (one patient was killed by an overdose of the drugs prescribed). I doubt that we can put the toothpaste back in the tube and put an end to the abortion business, but those who support unlimited abortion need to know that it has become a very lucrative industry and that genuine compassion for women is not part of the current picture–it’s about the money.

I need to mention at this point that I understand that there are circumstances when abortions are necessary for medical reasons. In those cases, I have no problem with a doctor performing an abortion in a hospital under ideal conditions. I would also like to mention that I am not sure that women who have abortions come through the procedure without emotional scars regardless of how ‘easy’ the procedure may seem. Many years ago I was asked to play the piano at a memorial service for an aborted baby. The mother was in counseling, and her counselor had recommended that the mother have a memorial service for the aborted child as part of her emotional healing from the abortion. I have also known a number of women who were unable to have children because of the scarring after a legal abortion. We need to think about the emotional and physical toll of this procedure.

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Never Forget

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If you read this site regularly, you know that I try to summarize articles that may not have been widely reported and that I think are important. I tend to cite a few quotes from an article and then add some comments on my reasons I think the article is important or relevant. In this case, I will make an exception. I have no comments, I just strongly suggest that you follow the link below and read the entire story. Never forget.

Posted by Jeff Jacoby on April 7, 1994, in the Boston Globe on the 50th anniversary of the events related:  The day the Nazis came for my father’s family.

It Was Worse Than We Previously Thought

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This article is based on two stories–one posted at the New York Times yesterday and one posted at the New York Daily News today.

The Holocaust is a horrible part of history. It is hard to understand how any person could let this happen to his neighbors and fellow countrymen. The picture painted has always been that the majority of Germans didn’t know what was going on–the camps were in isolated areas and the citizens thought that they were simply work camps. I am not sure if anyone actually believed that, but that is the story that I was told. My father was one of the soldiers who liberated one of the camps (I don’t know which one), and when I read somewhere that General Eisenhower made the citizens of the neighboring town walk through one of the camps to see what was going on there, my father confirmed that this was true.

Both the Times and the Daily News posted articles explaining that research done by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has found that there were many more camps than historians had previously been aware of.

The New York Times reports:

The researchers have cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during Hitler’s reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945.

The figure is so staggering that even fellow Holocaust scholars had to make sure they had heard it correctly when the lead researchers previewed their findings at an academic forum in late January at the German Historical Institute in Washington.

The Daily News cites the story in the New York Times:

The research team uncovered 30,000 slave camps, 1,150 Jewish ghettos, 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps, 980 concentration camps, 500 sex-slave brothels and thousands of other camps serving a myriad of wicked ends: forced abortions, mandatory euthanasia of the elderly and ill, “Germanisation” and transportation hubs to murder sites, according to the Times.

The New York Times article concludes:

Dr. Dean, a co-researcher, said the findings left no doubt in his mind that many German citizens, despite the frequent claims of ignorance after the war, must have known about the widespread existence of the Nazi camps at the time.

“You literally could not go anywhere in Germany without running into forced labor camps, P.O.W. camps, concentration camps,” he said. “They were everywhere.”

How could the citizens of Germany let this happen? I don’t think we will ever have the answer to that question.

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Some Notes On President Obama’s Speech To The United Nations

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Speeches like this are simply one more reason I think America should resign from the United Nations and evict them from New York City. Unfortunately, today it was our President who making the speech.

The U.K. Mail posted a few highlights from the speech. The article includes other excerpts also along these lines:

Obama said that we should ‘remember that Muslims have suffered the most at the hands of extremism’ and that ‘the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam‘.

There was near silence when he added: ‘Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied.’

What? When did Christians conduct suicide bombings to blow up Muslims? When did Christians conduct terrorists raids on school children in Beslan? When did Christians fly planes into the World Trade Center? When did Christians attack Embassies?

There is a problem is some strains of Islam with the idea of peaceful co-existence. Unfortunately, the Koran does not support peaceful co-existence. Because of the principle of abrogation, the peaceful verses of the Koran are superseded by verses that call the for killing of those who are Jewish or Gentile who refuse to convert to Islam. I am not even sure that Jews are given the option of converting. That is not a recipe for peaceful co-existence.

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Last Night In Stoughton Massachusetts

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Last night Ari Abramowitz, founder of www.LandofIsrael.org, spoke at the Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, soldier and commander in the IDF reserves, are the founders of TheLandofIsrael.com and the creators and hosts of “Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem”.

Mr. Abramowitz has a number of videos up on YouTube. This is one video that has recently gone viral:

There were a number of things Mr. Abramowitz said last night that impressed me.  He reminded us that although the Holocaust is very important to Israel‘s history, it is not Israel’s justification for being in the land of Israel. He pointed out that although Yad Vashem (the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust) is the first place visiting dignitaries are taken in Israel, it should not be the center of Israel’s claim to the land. The deed to Israel was given to the Jews by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel is the only country in the world that can make that claim.

Mr. Abramowitz also reminded us of the words of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 2:3), “For the Torah shall go forth from Zion and the word of God from Jerusalem.” Mr. Abramowitz stated that Israel needed to repent and go back to its spiritual roots. Then the Israelis will again begin to see the miracles of God that have brought their country back to life and kept it safe. He pointed out that the battle against Israel is a spiritual one and that America needs to support Israel in order to get back to her spiritual roots. (America needs repentance too, but that’s another article!)

It was an amazing, thought-provoking evening.

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Protecting America From An Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack

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Tonight I had the privilege of hearing Ken Timmerman, the President and CEO of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran.  Mr. Timmerman was speaking at the Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, Massachusetts.  He was introduced by Rabbi Jonathan Hausmann.  In his introduction, Rabbi Hausmann asked some very important questions.  Do the Jewish people have a right to a state?  Do the Jewish people have the right to exist at all?  When Iran threatens to destroy Israel and all Jews, what should our reaction be?  The Rabbi pointed out that the Holocaust did not begin with the outbreak of war in Europe—it began with Hitler’s speeches.  There are many lessons to be learned from this.

Mr. Timmerman began speaking by telling the audience about a report he did for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 1992 on programs to develop weapons of mass destruction in Iran, Syria, and Libya.   He pointed out that he evaluated these programs by looking at what equipment the countries were purchasing in the international markets.  He also reminded us that in 1986, Iran had announced the hiring of A Q Khan, the father of the Pakistani nuclear program. The Iranians stated that they were simply doing research into uranium.  Obviously, it later became clear that was not true.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became President of Iran in 2005.  President Ahmadinejad sees his role as president of the country as hastening the return of the 12th Imam (the Mahdi).  The 12th Imam was born in 869 and is believed to be living at the bottom of a well until the time that he will return with Jesus (whom the Muslims refer to as Isa) to bring peace and justice to the world.  When Ahmadinejad became president of Iran, he and his cabinet signed a contract between themselves and the Mahdi and delivered the contract to the well where the Mahdi is believed to be.  The belief in the 12th Imam and his return is something that western countries need to pay attention to.  First of all, President Ahmadinejad believes that he can hasten the return of the Mahdi by creating chaos in the world—war, famine, destruction, etc.  President Ahmadinejad also believes that when the Mahdi returns, he will wipe out all of the infidels and Israel.   At this point Mr. Timmerman pointed out that justice in Islam means that there are no more non-Muslims left.  Fitna, another Muslim concept, believes that because we are not Muslims, we are persecuting Muslims.  Justice equals dead people and Muslims.  The religious leaders in Iran believe that if Israel is destroyed, that is a victory for them.  They do not care how many Iranians or Muslims are destroyed in the process.

Mr. Timmerman pointed out that his main concern with Iran had to do with their development of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon.  The potential of an EMP was discovered in 1962 when a high-altitude nuclear test above the Pacific Ocean knocked out traffic lights in Hawaii.  William Graham was commissioned to study the phenomena and in 2001 was appointed by Congress to study the threat of an EMP attack to America.  The first report was issued in 2004; the second report was issued in 2008.

Mr. Timmerman described the aftereffects of an EMP attack on America.  All power in America will go out.  There will be no running water, no working cell phones, and no working cars.  The food supply will run out in approximately four or five days, and the government will collapse.  The Iranians are studying EMP and in 1998 conducted a test in the Caspian Sea involving the trajectory that an EMP attack would take.

During the cold war we shielded our infrastructure from the danger of a nuclear attack or an EMP attack with bubble memories.  These were phased out in the ‘peace dividend’ that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.  None of our power grid is currently protected from an EMP attack. Solar flares can also cause damage similar to that of an EMP.

On February 18, 2011, the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act was introduced in the House of Representatives.   It has been referred to various committees.  That bill, if passed without additional spending, would cost each American consumer $3.30 once and would protect our power grid from an EMP attack.  Unfortunately, the bill may never make it out of committee.

Mr. Timmerman pointed out that the hope in this situation is providing aid to the people who support democracy in Iran.  That is the purpose of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran.  The threat to America (and to the world) is the regime in Iran more than it is the nuclear weapons program in Iran.  There is widespread popular discontent in Iran due to the way the regime has mistreated its people.   We need to help the people of Iran get rid of the regime.  We also need to remember that America is the Great Satan and Israel is the Little Satan.  America is the preferred target.

The information given tonight was not comforting—but it painted a clear picture of the danger currently facing America.  If our current leaders will not take the steps needed to preserve our country, we need to elect leaders who are willing to take those steps.  The Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act needs to be passed and implemented as soon as possible.  Also, the American government needs to support democracy in Iran.  We have had a hand in installing the Muslim Brotherhood in all of the countries involved in the so-called ‘Arab Spring.’  It’s time we supported people who will actually work toward creating a democracy in Iran.

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