amm@cbdkc1.UUCP (A. Marmorstein) (05/11/84)
xx Two topics have come up recently on the holocaust that I'll address in this one message. Regarding most of Europe being anti-semitic: I have relatives that survived the concentration camps and they spent two years *after* the war wandering the Alps trying to find a country that would let them in. They were beaten by border guards at places like France and Switzerland and only in 1947 did the Italians allow them to enter and live in DP (displaced persons) camps. In 1948, with the statehood of Israel, they immediately went there. The same day the men got off the ship they were put on buses and driven to Jerusalem to fight - no weapons, no training, no common language with the fellow sitting next to you or with the person in charge. The second topic is the jew's lack of knowledge about just how bad things were when the Nazis "resettled" you. I talked at length with some older Germans several years ago (one man had been in the lead battalion entering four countries and had been wounded four times by 1941). They told me about a jew who lived in their town who had won an important medal in WW I. All through WW II the Nazis left him alone, and the towns people saw him daily just like anyone else. As for the other jews in town, "they moved to America". I'm sure many did during the 1930s and therefore gave credence to that prevailing impression. I asked if any of these families in America ever wrote (since they had been neighbors and friends) and the people said no, but that is not unusual - how many of your ex-neighbors do you write to? My conclusion is that if you (a jew or non-jew) lived in a big city and saw people lined up and shot then it doesn't take much brains to know something bad is going on, but if you are one of the millions of germans living in ordinary towns who see some jews leaving for "america" and those that stay are left alone, then you can not be faulted for not sensing that a genocide is currently in progress.