I am sitting there watching the BBC report on today’s news. First, they are reporting on the grand celebration of the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. For those of you too young to understand, Auschwitz was but one of many Nazi Death Camps during World War II. In apparently, January 1945, the Allied troops opened and thereby liberated that Death Camp. And what is a Death Camp you might ask if you are very young?
Well, World War II was heavily about Germans capturing Jews
in Germany and moving them out of their homes and into camps. And why did they move them? Well,
because, once they were in the camps, their Nazi rulers began murdering them by
placing them in gas chambers, after which they burned their bodies. Why did they do that? Well, Hitler and his Nazi
followers thought that Jews were evil people and had to be eliminated from
Germany, and maybe even the World. Why did they think that? Well. Apparently
Jews were too successful and the less successful Germans thought that Jews had
some evil powers ( I think it is now called brainpower). So, to preserve the
German core of mediocrity, they began that war on Jews. Eliminate All Jews, and
only then would Germany be successful.
And then, in addition to their War on Jews, the German Nazi’s
decided they should also rule the World at large. And so Nazi Germany began
invading and killing folks from other neighboring countries. And that’s what triggered
World War II.
And so, all the non-Nazi’s of the world gathered together
and decided that Germany and its allies (Mussolini down in Italy had taken a
liking to Adolph and so joined forces with the Germans. ) should try to occupy
and thereby control territories beyond Germany—like France maybe?? And then, of
course, for odd reasons, Japan joined forces with Germany and began bombing places like Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii and then by invading China.
And so it went on.
Until they exceeded their ability to control and also because they
annoyed too many people—like Russia and England and finally America. Those folks got together and finally beat the
crap out of the Germans to the point that Hitler and his BFFs had to say, OK,
we give up, Now by then, the Germans and
Japanese had killed somewhere close to 85
million folks. Here from Wikipedia:
“World War II was the deadliest
military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million deaths were
caused by the conflict, representing about 3% of the estimated global
population of 2.3 billion in 1940.[1] Deaths directly caused by the war (including military
and civilian fatalities) are estimated at 50–56 million, with an
additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and
famine. Civilian deaths totaled 50–55 million. Military deaths from all causes totaled 21–25 million, including
deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war. More than half of the total number of casualties are
accounted for by the dead of the Republic
of China and of the Soviet Union.”.
And then, of course, there were something close to six
million Jews killed in the Nazi Death Camps, just cuz they happened to be Jews.
Now what was that all about again? Here again, is the Wiki take on The Holocaust:
“The Holocaust (/ˈhɒləkɔːst/ ⓘ),[1] known in Hebrew as
the Shoah (שואה), was the genocide of European Jews during World
War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi
Germany and its collaborators systematically
murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe,
around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out
primarily through mass
shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland. Separate
Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and
prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to
encompass also the persecution of these other
groups.
The
Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit
of "living space", and seized power in early
1933. Meant to force
all German Jews to emigrate, regardless of means, the regime passed
anti-Jewish laws, encouraged harassment, and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938.
After Germany invaded Poland in
September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to
segregate Jews. Following the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union,
1.5 to 2 million Jews were
shot by German forces and local collaborators. By early 1942, the
Nazis decided to murder all Jews in Europe. Victims were deported
to extermination camps where they were killed with poisonous gas if survived,
while others were sent to forced labor camps where
many died from starvation, abuse, exhaustion, or being used as test subjects in experiments. Property
belonging to murdered Jews were redistributed to the German occupiers and other
non-Jews. Although the majority of Holocaust victims died in 1942, the killing
continued until the end of the war in May
1945..
But then it all
ended. Maybe God had decided that enough was enough??
And then, as I
continued to watch the BBC news reports, they turned away from their coverage of
the Holocaust, and moved onto that little war thing in the Republic of Congo.
Yeah, apparently the folks who live in the African state of the Congo, What’s
that you ask?
Here,
“For decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been the
scene of one of the world’s longest-running conflicts. In the latest iteration
which began in May, its army has been fighting the M23 rebel group, which is
waging its most sustained offensive since a 2012-2013 insurrection when it
seized vast swathes of territory.By area, the vast Central African state is the
second-largest country on the continent and the 11th-largest in the world.That
space, especially its mineral-rich eastern region, has been the battleground
for more than a hundred armed groups fighting for control of territory there or
using it as a base to launch attacks into some of its immediate neighbours –
Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Rwanda and Uganda.Consequently, that
has led to the death and displacement of many Congolese citizens.This month,
the Norwegian Refugee Council declared the situation in the DRC as the world’s most
neglected refugee crisis – for a second year running. At least
five million people are internally displaced and one million more fleeing
abroad, the aid group said.”
And then their report ended. But did they switch to news of a
peaceful rally of folks somewhere celebrating something happy? Ummm, not yet.
Nope, their coverage moved onto Gaza where Netanyahu is trying to bring calm to
the storm that is Israel. Well, some understandably think that Bibi is
beginning to emulate the Nazi’s, but that is but one opinion. At any rate,
the BBC report was on the folks moving, walking mainly, north to get out of
Gaza without being killed there.
And then I began thinking about God. So, God invented humans?? And
you folks seriously worship that God?
Seriously??? Have you never any doubts about your belief system and your
following of a God that allowed such awful things to happen? And then, I think
about little kids, our Great Grandkids for example, running around giggling and
bringing joy to their family. Yeah, those kids. How wonderful are they? Well,
maybe God has nothing to do with any of this stuff, wonderful or awful. Maybe,
we need to pay attention to what is in front of us. Give Love. Be helpful
whenever help is needed. Try to spread love instead of Hate. If our leader of
the moment (Trumpie) is always spreading Hate, then maybe we who don’t follow
him should spend our time countering with Love and helpfulness.
So that is my take-away message from watching all that awful
stuff. Don’t blame God. Look to Humans. And, instead of following awful
creatures like Trump, try to follow those who spread Love and Help. Be kind. It
works people. Spread Love. Be kind.
No comments:
Post a Comment