Holocaust survivors and their liberators are marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
The Nazi death camp, near Hanover in Germany, was the first to be liberated by British troops, on 15 April 1945. An estimated 70,000 people died at Belsen.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4445529.stm
The following slideshow contains images which some viewers may find disturbing:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/4445811.stm
The fight against Holocaust denial.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4436275.stm
"It is 60 years since the full horror of the Nazi Holocaust began to emerge with the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Belsen was the first death camp entered by the Western allies and first-hand accounts of mass graves, piles of corpses and emaciated, diseased survivors spread quickly around the world."
" ........ But, in the 21st Century, as these events recede into history and the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, there are still people who deny these crimes happened - and it is a tendency that some experts say is growing."
"Holocaust revisionism is spreading, and not only among neo-Nazis," Kate Taylor, of the anti-fascist publication Searchlight, told the BBC News website.
"With the internet, you've got to be fairly well-educated to see through what revisionist websites are trying to do," she says.
"I think as soon as you look at them closely you can work it out, but part of the problem that we find is teachers will send pupils off to do internet research and not guide them to specific sites.
"So as a result kids put the Holocaust into a search engine, which comes up with all of this stuff, and at 14-years-old they are not mature enough to make that distinction between a denialist site and a more legitimate site."
What are your thoughts ?
Is Holocaust denial spreading ?
Originally posted by ivanhoeYes. But it is an act of ommission rather than the act of commission.
What are your thoughts ?
Is Holocaust denial spreading ?
As we try to heal, it is a natural thing to avoid our unpleasant past and seek better, happier pasts.
I did this personally so I think I can say that entire nations probably do as I did. It isn't a deliberate effort. It is just survival instinct taking over.
As long as we have good libraries, we are not in danger of ever taking the holocaust as fiction. As long as we have courage to go to these fine libraries and learn.
The problem then becomes one of education. A good test of a nations worth might be to score it's children on their choice of "going to the library as a family or watching WWF on tv together."
Ok. Nevermind. I just realized that we are indeed in deep doo-doo.
Sigh.
Originally posted by ivanhoeWhich is the real problem with the internet - any nutter can create a website advancing any crank theory. Distingushing between solid history and revisionism is not easy.
The fight against Holocaust denial.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4436275.stm
"It is 60 years since the full horror of the Nazi Holocaust began to emerge with the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Belsen was the first death camp entered by the Western allies and first-hand accounts of mass graves, piles of corp ...[text shortened]... re legitimate site."
What are your thoughts ?
Is Holocaust denial spreading ?
A secondary problem- the fragmentation of news means we can pick only those sources which do not challenge our world view.
Originally posted by ivanhoeThere's a lot of denial in the world. What do you think the protests in China are about this week?
The fight against Holocaust denial.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4436275.stm
"It is 60 years since the full horror of the Nazi Holocaust began to emerge with the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Belsen was the first death camp entered by the Western allies and first-hand accounts of mass graves, piles of corp ...[text shortened]... re legitimate site."
What are your thoughts ?
Is Holocaust denial spreading ?