The Holocaust.... problematic?

     It might have escaped most people’s attention but today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. A day when it is remembered six million Jewish faith people died and an untold number of soldiers during the last World War. It takes some soul searching why it was possible to carry out the atrocities as described in many films recovered from that time. Who can forget the visions of emaciated corpses heaped up in hills of rotting flesh. Of walking skeletons? It is hard to believe there are people today who glorify this, who believe it is the Jews responsibility. Ask yourself why? Do we in the UK think like that? Do we in Wales? There are people who believe it never happened. It is all something drummed up by politicians or nefarious organisations. God knows for what purpose that would be.

    The question though is this – how do rational beings with a thinking forward capability believe that a subsection of humanity is subhuman and needs to be exterminated? Are the German people on their own in this? Indeed are they today? I doubt that, in fact I believe when you look at what is happening in Russia, China and other autocratic countries it is a result of suppression by the state. In all cases I seem to see a beginning of that process, yes even here in the UK. It begins with the suppression of free speech. One has to conform to ideals projected by the state. This is because of pressures brought on by small but very active minorities. These minorities tend to grow if not checked and curtailed. See Germany in the 1920, after the debacle of the first world war, starting with the economic collapse when a loaf of bread cost one billion marks. Crazy? Of course, but it happened. 

    I remember collecting that German paper money, wondering what those denominations meant. But it is not just Germany, today you can see the same process in the United States. In the UK also we see cancellations of elections for spurious reasons. More and more there are decisions made to curtail what the state believes are actions or happenings detrimental to public but at the same time allowing contradictory demonstrations such as those recently seen in London. How would anyone one view the US action in Venezuela? When an overbearing nation just invades and jails a sitting president. One could argue the president was a rabid lefty sympathiser with autocratic tendencies but isn’t that the same country’s problem? In that case why doesn’t the US invade Russia to take Putin prisoner or Iran and jails all the ayatollahs? Or even if Starmer in the UK gets more autocratic take him back to Riker’s Island Jail in New York?

    So, yes the question remains – what makes people go to these lengths. When a complete nation start claiming one section of humanity should not be on the planet. Is it perhaps some innate human characteristic? This behaviour we see today about Israel is quite obviously very one-sided. Yes, of course the destruction of Gaza is terrible, like always it is ordinary people that suffer but we should also be reminded as to why this started. There is no space here to outline this historical problem but at least with our improved and increased knowledge about what makes humanity tick we should be able to solve these kind of problems.