People did know about the genocide in WWII. They were flying planes over the camps. But when the soldiers arrived and took pictures the world learned the horrifying details.
It’s important to remember that the pictures shouldn’t matter, and that everyone, everywhere, was responsible for letting the Holocaust happen. Those that didn’t fight tooth and nail, of course.
The world knew it was bad. They didn’t need pictures. They didn’t need Auschwitz. The information they had was bad enough. They had the proof in front of their eyes. They knew the fear. The St. Louis sailed in 1939 to the US coast with almost a thousand refugees with stories to tell. They were terrified, abused, and oppressed in Europe. But they were refused, and forced to sail home. 250 of them would die in the Holocaust.
Jewish properties had been confiscated, synagogues and businesses burned down. After Feldman’s Polish father was arrested and deported to Poland her mother decided it was time to leave.
Feldman remembers her father pleading with her mother to wait for him to return but her mother was adamant and always replied: “I have to take the girls away to safety.”
[…] Tearful relatives waved them off at the station in Berlin. “They knew we would never see each other again,” she says softly. “We were the lucky ones - we managed to get out.” She would never see her father or more than 30 other close family members again.
By early 1939, the Nazis had closed most of Germany’s borders and many countries had imposed quotas limiting the number of Jewish refugees they would allow in.
By early June, Captain Schroder had no option but to turn the giant liner back towards Europe. “The joy had gone out of everything,” Feldman recalls. “No-one was talking about what would happen now.”
As the ship headed back across the Atlantic, six-year-old Granston kept asking his father whether they were going back to see their grandparents. His father just shook his head in silent despair.
By then, people were openly crying as they wandered the ship - one passenger even slit his wrists and threw himself overboard out of sheer desperation. “If I close my eyes, I can still hear his shrieks and see the blood,” Granston says quietly.
They shouldn’t have needed pictures. They shouldn’t have needed the horrible little details. They knew that people were suffering and dying. Earlier that same year - February, 1939 - the Nazis sold out Madison Square Garden. Over 20,000 people rallied in support.
The world watched, as evil openly celebrated. The world watched, as hatred and fear were used as weapons against the innocent, and entire peoples were rounded up, forced from their homes, starved, and slowly but surely killed. Just because the information stopped at the gates of Auschwitz doesn’t mean they were blind to the horrors outside the camps.
Yes. From my understanding, and sadly very close to what seems to happen today, most people chose to either ignore, downplay or justify those horrific events.
Why are you saying that is if it’s contradictory? I know that Russia invaded Ukraine. I can see the horrifying details by watching drone videos. I can know something generally without knowing the details
People did know about the genocide in WWII. They were flying planes over the camps. But when the soldiers arrived and took pictures the world learned the horrifying details.
The difference is, we have the pictures now.
It’s important to remember that the pictures shouldn’t matter, and that everyone, everywhere, was responsible for letting the Holocaust happen. Those that didn’t fight tooth and nail, of course.
The world knew it was bad. They didn’t need pictures. They didn’t need Auschwitz. The information they had was bad enough. They had the proof in front of their eyes. They knew the fear. The St. Louis sailed in 1939 to the US coast with almost a thousand refugees with stories to tell. They were terrified, abused, and oppressed in Europe. But they were refused, and forced to sail home. 250 of them would die in the Holocaust.
They shouldn’t have needed pictures. They shouldn’t have needed the horrible little details. They knew that people were suffering and dying. Earlier that same year - February, 1939 - the Nazis sold out Madison Square Garden. Over 20,000 people rallied in support.
The world watched, as evil openly celebrated. The world watched, as hatred and fear were used as weapons against the innocent, and entire peoples were rounded up, forced from their homes, starved, and slowly but surely killed. Just because the information stopped at the gates of Auschwitz doesn’t mean they were blind to the horrors outside the camps.
All that matters is that good men did nothing.
Yes. From my understanding, and sadly very close to what seems to happen today, most people chose to either ignore, downplay or justify those horrific events.
“People did know”
“But then people knew more than that”.
You just now.
Why are you saying that is if it’s contradictory? I know that Russia invaded Ukraine. I can see the horrifying details by watching drone videos. I can know something generally without knowing the details