Holocaust Remembrance Day

Holocaust Day (Yom HaShoah in Hebrew) is today Tuesday, April 25 (and began last evening). Holocaust Day commemorates the martyrs and heroes who died under the Nazis.
The State of Israel will take time out Monday evening to remember the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, marking the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The annual state ceremony will begin in Israel at 8 p.m. at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.

 

Never again.............Arab Islamic denial: Beyond the pale

The Mufti and Hitler

In 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini fled to Germany and met with Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Joachim Von Ribbentrop and other Nazi leaders. He wanted to persuade them to extend the Nazis� anti-Jewish program to the Arab world. 

Himmler: "Muslims responded to the call of Muslim leaders and joined our side because of their hatred of our joint Jewish-English-Bolshevik enemies, and because of their belief and respect for, above all -- Our Fuehrer."

Photo: Ilan Halimi

Iran Invoked at Holocaust Remembrance. Israel's consul general in New York said Sunday that the world needs to take a tougher stance with Iran and warned that a "strong" and "determined" Israel will never allow another Jewish Holocaust.

[...] pledged a commitment to keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust and has repeatedly expressed his desire for Israel’s destruction.

   “This is not an Israeli issue,” the consul general of Israel, Arye Mekel, told more than 1,000 attendees at a Holocaust Remembrance Day event at Hunter College. “This is a world problem. The world must stop Iran.”

   Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah, is observed worldwide tomorrow.    Mr. Mekel urged the U.N. to impose economic and political sanctions against Iran. “Let’s be clear,” he said. “That country cannot, cannot have nuclear weapons.”

Norbert Friedman, an 84-year-old Krakow native who survived 11 concentration and death camps, said yesterday that promises to prevent future holocausts are “only empty words unless they’re followed up with deeds.”

   Stressing the contemporary relevance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, UN ambassador Mr. Bolton said the potential for a “nuclear holocaust” looms as Iran pursues its nuclear program, despite international pressure.    “Holocaust remembrance is not simply for the past, but for the present and the future as well,” Mr. Bolton said. “I’m honored to be part of that struggle.”

   With its frequent condemnations of Israel, the U.N. has “disappointed the ideals” of those who established the transnational body after World War II, Mr. Bolton said. New York Sun here

And still Israel still helps her enemy --  those that vow here annihilation. Despite public wipe-Israel- off-the-map statements, Iran uses help of Israeli infrastructure consultants in rehabilitating earthquake-struck zones. Read it all here.

UPDATE: 'MUSHROOM CLOUD IS ON THE WAY!" "THE REAL HOLOCAUST IS ON IT'S WAY!"

Cartoon: Rooz hat tip Michael

VIDEO CLIP: Iranian President Ahmadinejad Elaborates on His Plan for the Jews to Leave Israel and Return to Germany and Austria

Iranian President Ahmadinejad: The greatest problem from which humanity suffers today, the main problem facing the countries of the Middle East, is the continuation of the process that took place during World War II[...]

Let's assume certain things did happen [in World War II]. Why should the people of the Middle East, for over 60 years, pay for it under it pretext [...]

The same people who claim to have saved humanity, and to have prevented further massacre in World War II, and who avenged the victims of that war - why have they killed over 100,000 innocent people in 60 years?[...]

Why do they grieve over some of the victims only? let's assume that the [Holocaust] was true - who should be punished for this? This is a serious question facing contemporary humanity.

Transcript here.

Words from a West Bank Mama here

UPDATE: Deans World does not like this post here, dedicated to the unmitigated horror that befell our lansmen.

STOP. Don't follow the link to Atlas Shrugs (below) unless you want to see the grisliest of Holocaust images.

Glenn Reynolds reminds us that today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and links to a rather incongruous looking link at a blog called Atlas Shrugs. The link is distressing on more than one level; it starts out with a picture of an attractive woman's face pasted on a sexy Superwoman costume ... evidently the blog's proprietress (I for one can't find her name). And right next to it is the worst of the worst of Holocaust imagery. I suppose some people have not seen this, or perhaps need a reminder that not every bit of unpleasantness on God's earth is the same as the genocide that eliminated the Jews from Eastern, and most of Western, Europe half a century ago. Maybe the fact that the pictures essentially depict my extended family as rotting flesh makes me a little touchy about them and with Ms. Atlas's rather insensitive juxtaposition of her cartoonish visage (not to mention the questionable allusion to Ayn Rand, of all people, in this context) however.

I tried to leave a comment, but it was deleted because I have not been approved for commenting ..................so I shall leave  it here (paraphrasing - I didn't save it);

If  I may.

If I have offended your sensibilities it was not my intention. The terror depicted in these few photos are a mere glimpse at the sheer horror the Jews suffered during WW II.

Today the Holocaust is spoken of casually, dismissively and leaders of  nation states deny the Holocaust ever took place . Millions of people living under those brutal dictators believe it.

Those images may sicken you but they are happening now, just yesterday in the resort town of  Dahab, Egypt and last week Tel Aviv. Hamas offends me, Hizbollah offends me, Islamic Jihad offends me,  Jew hatred offends me, blowing up babies in pizzerias offends me.

We are living in a world where proclamations are made by the President of Iran to "wipe Israel off the map" and says it repeatedly as recently as yesterday.

We are living in a world where just this past Sunday, the Islamic Thinkers Society were chanting "THE MUSHROOM CLOUD IS ON ITS WAY," AND "THE REAL HOLOCAUST IS ON ITS WAY" on the streets of this great city.

These are dangerous, grave times for Jews and freedom loving peoples.

You "suppose some people have not seen this". Ron, these images and those oft hidden images of 9/11 must be seen, must be viewed or the stories become just that -- stories. The media has abandoned its role of public servant delivering the urgent news of the day and instead is wielding its power to advance its own agenda.

Why Atlas Shrugs? Given the global chess board, Atlas cannot, must not shrug, not now (not ever). I am sure Rand would agree.

"WHEN YOU HAVE CIVILIZED MEN FIGHTING SAVAGES, YOU SUPPORT THE CIVILIZED MEN," Ayn Rand.

I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would like to throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body." Ayn Rand

As for my picture on the sidebar, that is me and was submitted by an Atlas reader roughly nine months ago. It has been on my blog ever since. If that too offends you, I am sorry.

UPDATE: Vandals Deface Jewish Cemetery

OMSK, Russia – The Jewish cemetery in Omsk was vandalized as tens of graves have been covered with Fascist swastikas taste of freedom.

UPDATE: Israel savages Iran President on Holocaust Day

Israel fell silent for victims of the Nazi Holocaust as leaders of the Jewish state accused Iran and its hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of following in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler, AFP reported.

As sirens wailed across Israel at the stroke of 10:00am (0700 GMT), the country stopped for two minutes in remembrance of the six mlnvictims of the genocide in World War II.

Cars pulled over on motorways and pedestrians were rooted to the spot as citizens paid solemn tribute to their ancestors who perished in concentration camps and gas chambers.

But the commemorations, which began on Monday evening at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, were also marked by warnings about the intentions of Ahmadinejad who has called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map."

Shimon Peres, Israel's former prime minister, drew a direct comparison between Ahmadinejad and the leader of Nazi Germany in an interview from Poland where he was to lead the March of the Living.

"This is the first man since Hitler to stand up and say that the Jewish people must be exterminated," the Nobel peace prize winner told public radio.

There is more, much more here, and here- Bruce eloquently speaks to "never again," and Judith's, never say. Please visit these sites.

UPDATE: LGF reporting Israel thwarted a suicide murderer here. Give em a state!

Palestinians were apparently planning a mass murder for Holocaust Day: Officials: Holocaust Day attack foiled.

IDF soldiers detained Monday a terrorist planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel.

The would-be bomber was nabbed near the community of Adam, north of Jerusalem, without his explosive belt, which he was supposed to receive later on. Security officials later told Ynet: “A terror attack on Holocaust Day or the next day was prevented.” Hat tip Bruce H

UPDATE: Please stop and read Dymphna's Holocaust commemoration post  at  Gates of Vienna. This intimate, diary-like entry reveals the unceremonious lifting of childhood's veil of oblivion to abruptly face evil. First from afar, the Nazis -- and then up close, personal --> the apathy of her parents to such evil, the involvement in antisemitism that involves probably every person through his/her family at one point or another.

It gives a flesh and blood look into the struggle between good and evil and how each person makes their own choice deliberately, whether conscious or not.

It is a brutally honest account and must of took an enormous amount of courage to write. It could not have been easy. Thank you Dymphna, you have a yiddisha heart. You do wonderful work for Israel and freedom loving people everywhere. G-d bless you, righteous Gentile.

I confronted her at the door, tears streaming down my face. Her instant maternal alarm quickly dissolved when she learned the source of my distress.

“Oh, that thing about the concentration camps,” she said, waving it away. “I heard they were going to show that.”

I was stunned. “You mean you knew about it?”

“Oh, vaguely. Your father and I got the last boat out of Liverpool to come to America. I remember U-boats following us all the way through international waters. Down in steerage there were crowds of people. Most of them had tattoos. I knew they’d been in some prisons Hitler set up for the Jews. They were a sad lot.”

In my whole life this was the only time I ever wanted to hit my mother. How could she?

“How could you just ignore it? Why didn’t you do something?”

Mother looked at me as though as though I were speaking Greek, as though I were the alien. I hated her callous dismissal of a part of history that was up close and unspeakably inhuman.

Eventually I quit asking her questions. Later, as an adult, I realized how anxious and scared she’d been herself through those years. With the passage of enough time I even forgave her, as children do, though my whole-hearted respect never returned.

In the days following my discovery, it was hard to think of anything else. When I lay down at night, the images of those stacked bodies and the slack-jawed living skeletons would not permit me a luxury like sleep. If I slept, then I would be equally complicit with those who had permitted these atrocities.

Slowly, I became fiercely pro-Israel. I even considered converting to Judaism as a kind of reparation. Of course, I never said this out loud. I lived in a Catholic ghetto; though I never ever heard any anti-Semitic remarks, I was on an island of Catholics in a sea of Southern Baptists. Jews — as evidenced by Israel — were admirable but exotic.

As I matured and witnessed and cheered Israel’s survival, I learned more about the rich history of Jews in America. I read with a shiver of pride George Washington’s Letter to the Jewish congregation in Rhode Island. Heartened by Israel’s “Never Again”, I knew with certainty that “Never in America” was an absolute. I read Jewish biographies like Harry Golden’s For Two Cents Plain, books about urban Jewish childhoods. I envied the survival instincts of these, my religious forebears.

Read it all.

Comments

[BENSTER]

Your post brings truth and honor in remembrance of the Holocast.
The world must never be allowed to forget.
Iran will try to "wipe Israel off the map", but they won't suceed.
As long as President Bush is President, the US will stand by Israel.
Hopefully, the next President will maintain the same alliance with Israel.

[RobertUSAF]

Honor the dead.
Fight for the living.
Never forget the evil.

[elvis]

MSM will mouth platitudes while demeaning our fight against totalitarianism emboldening Ahmandinejad. Can we question their sanity yet?

[kevin]

elvis, what sanity? Tell them to get some sanity so we can question it.

[epaminondas]

http://vwt.d2g.com:8081/2006/04/same_day_any_year_any_milleniu.html

[elvis]

kevin- LOL