oyuki

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Wounds Still Open

It has been 63 years since American forces blew the Nazi eagle off Hitler's private retreat signaling the close of World War II, yet painful reminders of the evil perpetrated during those years keeps surfacing.

Holland and Germany are still arguing over jurisdiction and what is fair in regards to an SS soldier. Heinrich Boere joined the SS just months after his native country Holland fell to the German onslaught in 1940. He was part of a reprisal unit that killed Dutch citizens in retaliation for resistance attacks. He was convicted in absentia for the murder of three people. But he has remained free since that 1949 conviction and now resides in a German retirement home. Now a German prosecutor is seeking to make Boere pay for his crimes, one last attempt to see that justice is meeted out.

Belgium has also made it into the news by finally making restitution to all the Belgium Jews who were rounded up and shipped off to German concentration camps. The amount of money, $170million, can never bring back all those murdered, but it is a step forward for a country owning up to a shameful part of its recent past.

But if either of these attempts at justice are endeavours to ensure such horrible crimes against humanity will never happen again just have to look at the comments for each story. The same hatred and stupidity that allowed the Shoah to take place is still alive. The fight to prevent a future Shoah is a never ending battle against evil.

Two examples:
TKSRAY:60,000,000 people died in that WORLD HOLOCAUST. Why do we only hear the Jews constsntly whineing ?? BECAUSE IT PAYS !!!It's way past time to move on and also remember other people !!

VERES36:I WONDER IF THE PROSECUTER IS A JEW?

And there are many other such comments that make you want to weep in shame that you belong to the same species. The fight is far from over.

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