In the Ghetto

Paul178 – I think you missed my point. I highlighted your quote because the only way to keep what we don’t want in check is not to vote for it or to vote for alternatives. If the majority vote for extremists we have to ask ourselves why. Clearly the other parties are not offering the people what they want. Thankfully our elections and those of other European countries are not “rigged, although far from perfect.

Thanks for the kind comments re my pictures. I want them to make a point that cannot be expressed in words.

Selective democracy?

Like German democracy in the 30’s

“When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.”

Martin Niemöller

Yes – thanks for posting those DER: being in black and white makes them more chilling – it’s like a direct link to the images taken there during the war.

Paul – Well… Germany certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on right-wing loonies: then or now….

…it just happened to be the bad luck of a lot of the poor s@ds in those Life pictures to be in the wrong country at the wrong time. Personally I can feel sorry for some of them. When I look at that picture of the Hitler Youth, it’s the words of another fervent nationalist that come to mind

“If any question why we died
Tell them, because our fathers lied”

.

Superb photography there! Immensely evocative and thought provoking. Thanks for sharing.

Regards;
Steve

Putting a link up here to my Flickr set. Hope it works. http://www.flickr.com/photos/34904785@N03/sets/72157631849635666/

I hold no ill feelings towards todays Germany or their people as long as the right wing is kept in check, unfortunately some nasty elements seem to be creeping back in such as The National Democratic Party of Germany

Selective democracy?

I never cared and still don’t about how many of the “Master Race” died.

Me a Nazi?

Not us either!

Don’t ever forget and tell those who came after you not to forget either

I hold no ill feelings towards todays Germany or their people as long as the right wing is kept in check, unfortunately some nasty elements seem to be creeping back in such as The National Democratic Party of Germany

I visited on Monday. It was as expected. Very very chilling and awful place. Yes, no birds. I did look for them. Our guide made the point at the end of our tour that atrocities still go on, citing Rwanda as a recent example.Sadly, tragically, mankind has not learned from this. Those who deny the Holocaust should really be made to visit this place.

They’re excellent images- I think there’s some of Stalingrad too, where the same thing’s been done.

Seeing those reminded me of these

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-17095519

– again, very haunting I think

Ghosts of WW11

Another set of pictures from the Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219584/Ghosts-war-Artist-superimposes-World-War-II-photographs-modern-pictures-street-scenes.html

Never forget those who died so we may live.

Visited belsen on a school trip (Father was in forces) when i was around 8-10
even then the gravity was apparent to us -none of the usual larking around.

Re the photos

What I find truly disturbing / disgusting is that on other websites the pictures of smiling jews and or non starving jews is used as evidence that the holocost never happened.

I used to believe that the laws against denying the holocost were an oppressive, uneeded and ridiculous manner of dealing with a few extreemists and or idiots.

Sadly as time came to pass i realised that unfortunatly this isnt the case.

religious and sectarian persecution goes on in parts of the world, still. With all parties killing and torturing in the name of their “almighty”. It sends a chill down my spine when I think of it.

One of the things that depressed me most about these images is that almost identical pictures could have been taken in the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut in the 80’s, in the Balkans in the 90’s, in Rwanda at the time of the genocide there… the list goes on. We never seem to learn, do we?

Auschwitz is one of the places that I’ve always been determined to take my children when they’re old enough: I don’t think there’s a more important place they could go.

I will be paying a visit to Auschwitz early next week. I will be thinking about the people in those images and the many thousands of others murdered by that brutal regime.

When you are there say Kaddish for me out of respect. I am not religious but I feel it is due to them.

Paul

Dachau for me many years ago. Frightening. We must not lose sight of the 20 million exterminated in one way or another by Stalin from the mid-30s to after the end of the war. I experienced the fear on the streets when I spent a month in Leningrad and Moscow in late-60s after Kruschev and with Brezhnev tightening his grip.

Whereas we can feel confident that nothing like the Holocaust will ever happen in Western Europe again religious and sectarian persecution goes on in parts of the world, still. With all parties killing and torturing in the name of their “almighty”. It sends a chill down my spine when I think of it.

I visited Bergen Belsen many years ago while working in Germany – the silence was deafening and the bird life avoided the place to the point they actually appeared to fly around the perimeter rather than over the site.

Yes, Ive been told about that. Cant really say I’m looking forward to it but I feel I must go there once in my life.

Der, the silence will hit you..

I will be paying a visit to Auschwitz early next week. I will be thinking about the people in those images and the many thousands of others murdered by that brutal regime.

And we call ourselves humans, I was appalled at those photos, the smile on the young ladies face, who in all probability served a fate worse than death, before being murdered.

I have a friend who is a Jew in the U.S.A. he has stated that the Jews worst enemy today are the Muslims.I cannot possibly comment on his statement, but I have often wondered why?.

Jim.
Lincoln .7