Auschwitz and the Holocaust, 80 years later

The world is about to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where 1 million people were killed. May the world never forget. 

Ignorance is definitely not bliss

A new survey by the Gandel Foundation, in partnership with Deakin University, has found that one quarter of Australians and nearly a third of Millennials had little or no knowledge of the Holocaust. 

Other key findings were that:

• Over 70% know nothing about Australia’s own connections to the Holocaust;
• However, there is overwhelming agreement among Australians (88%) that “we can learn lessons for today from what happened in the Holocaust”;
• 78% of Australians believe that Holocaust museums and memorials are valuable; and
• Two-thirds (66%) believe it should be compulsory for schools to teach about the Holocaust in schools.

To address this, the report recommended the introduction of a consistent approach to Holocaust studies in schools across Australia with proper and accredited teacher training; the need for resources that explore Australia’s Holocaust connections; the development of strategies to drive engagement with Holocaust museums; challenging antisemitic stereotypes through educational programs, enabling students to hear Holocaust survivor testimonies, ongoing research and more.

One hopes that history, and history education, is still valued in Western society. 

https://gandelfoundation.org.au/2022/01/gandel-holocaust-knowledge-and-awareness-in-australia-survey/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gandel-holocaust-knowledge-and-awareness-in-australia-survey

Time for reflection

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the Wannsee conference, the infamous meeting at which a group of high ranking Nazi officials planned the Final Solution, the systematic destruction of Europe's Jewish people. 

https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/01/19/80-years-ago-nazi-command-met-to-discuss-final-solution/

It belongs in a museum

This is a contentious issue. An auction house in Queensland, Australia, is selling Nazi memorabilia, including a signed photograph of German dictator, Adolf Hitler, a propaganda children's book, and SS artifacts. A company representative sought to justify the auction as a legitimate business activity, but there is the very real danger that these items may fall into the hands of neo-Nazis, as is the opinion of a Jewish community group spokesperson quoted in the article. 

Rather than sell them to make money, arguably these items should be donated to Holocaust museum. This will allow them to be displayed to inform and educate society about recent history, and not be used as a conversation piece for a private collector, or for more nefarious purposes. 

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-690328

History's long shadow

The other day, on a streaming platform, I was watching Tracking Down Klaus Barbie, a documentary about the notorious Nazi war criminal. During the German occupation of France, Barbie was the head of the Gestapo in Lyon, earning the nickname, the Butcher of Lyon. He caused more than 7500 Jews to be sent to death camps, and was responsible for torture and deportation of 14000 French resistance fighters. 

After the war, he was recruited by American intelligence, and this association enabled him to escape justice and migrate to Bolivia, where he worked for military dictators and associates of drug barons. It was not until 1981 that he was extradited to France, and in 1987, he was convicted of 17 counts of crimes against humanity. He died in prison in 1991. 

There was not much to fault with this documentary, aside from one factual error. It incorrectly states that Martin Bormann, Hitler's private secretary, was a defendant in the Nuremberg war crimes trials. As he was missing and presumed dead at the time, he was actually tried and convicted in absentia. He was not formally declared dead until 1973. 

Date night movie

Somehow I didn't know about this movie until today. Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley star in Operation Finale, based on the true story of the manhunt, capture, and trial of Adolf Eichmann, one of the key Nazi officials involved in the Final Solution. Eichmann will be played by Kingsley. It speaks to his acting talent and versatility that he has previously played victims of the Holocaust, such as Simon Wiesenthal (Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story), Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank (Anne Frank: The Whole Story), and Itzhak Stern (Schindler's List).

There have been other films made about Eichmann, It will be interesting to see how this film handles its subject matter.

Cold eyes, cold heart

Over the weekend I went to see The Man with the Iron Heart, a biopic of Reinhard Heydrich. The film charts his rise from a disgraced former naval officer, to joining the Nazi SS, rising through the ranks to become one of its key leaders, and one of the main architects of the Holocaust, later chairing the 1942 Wannsee Conference, which set up the Final Solution, and his assassination in 1942 by Czech agents.

Bearing in mind the limitations of a feature film, key plot points are vaguely sketched. Heydrich bluffed his way into his job in Nazi intelligence, with much of his espionage knowledge gleaned from spy novels he read as a boy. The film also fails to properly explain that the assassination didn't go to plan because the unreliable machine gun used it in jammed when the gunman tried to fire it. The characters of his assassins, Czech resistance fighters who trained in Scotland, are underdeveloped. As a result, their discovery and deaths are not as moving as they could have been. Nor is it adequately explained that Heydrich initially survived the assassination attempt, but later died in hospital from wound infections he sustained in it.

It isn't a bad movie. Jason Clarke and Rosamund Pike were effective in their roles as Reinhard and Lina Heydrich, respectively, as is Stephen Graham as Heinrich Himmler. They were evil personified. The locations were also used well, and the combat sequences were impressive for a low budget film.

History is important

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. As the generation that survived the Holocaust passes away, it is important to keep alive their memory, and the memory of all of its victims.

Serious time

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been criticised for directly implicating Amin al-Husseini, then the Mufti of Jerusalem, in the Final Solution. Whilst the Mufti shared the Nazis' antisemitism, there is no evidence to support these claims. However, it is well documented that Nazi Germany had plans to exterminate the Jewish population of what was then the British Mandate of Palestine, had its North Africa campaign succeeded.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.681935

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Historian-Netanyahu-right-on-Hitler-wrong-on-Mufti-429800

http://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/academic-publications/full-list-of-academic-publications/nazi-palestine-the-plans-for-the-extermination-of-the-jews-of-palestine