HISTORY GRUESOME AND GRIM
Periods 7/8 were traumatic and heartbreaking today although I much prefer learning about the social aspects of history rather than political/economic. We watched a Holocaust documentary
in black and white, which made me tremour and tense my face.
The paper skin on walking skeletons. The limp bodies of fallen skeletons, being swung onto a pile to join the others. You could see the odd ways their bodies moved as they were picked up, lie submissively, be tossed and crumpled by careless men. It was unhuman, and surreal.
It seems a distant, unreal event because of the unimaginable extent of cruelty, yet this happened only 70-some years ago. The malevolent potential of man scares me, and to have a living example and know it is all truth... fills me with complete terror. What hope is there for us?
Anti-Semitic laws passed illegalised Jew-Aryan marriages, called the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour.
They were not allowed in public parks
Signs were put up sayng "JEWS NOT WELCOME"
In the ghettos were they were made to live, segregated from society, they recieved 300calories of food per day - 2 slices of bread
At concentration camps, the children, mothers, elders and sick ones were killed first. The healthy men were made labourers, to carry heavy blocks of concrete from the quarry up 180-some narrow, steep stairs. The ones that fell were shot if not already killed by the fall.
The rings, false teeth, women's hair, clothes and shoes(below) of those killed were systematically organized and made into piles. At one concentration camp, there was 7 tonnes of women's hair by the time the Allies arrived.
These words have little impact, they could tell a story, with meaningless figures. You read incredible things, and never truly know its significance until you have visual evidence
I know I've been ignorant and denied these facts legitimate acknowledgement because I've been too afraid, too horrified.
"Seeing is believing"
Children
subject to medical experiements @Auschwitz by Josef Mengele, the largest concentration camp. He would inject chemicals into their eyes in attempt to change their eye colour, and supervised an operation that sewed two children to make Siamese twins among other surgeries done without anesthesia.
This really puts things into perspective. All of my petty problems are miniscule in comparison. It is sad to know that the "shock-factor" is often required to induce realisation.