On this day...

The UN designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as an annual day of Holocaust remembrance. Never forget this tragedy in history so we never repeat it.

Yesterday's important anniversary

Yesterday in 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by the Russian army. The Nazis had abandoned the camp 10 days earlier, forcing most of the prisoners into a death march that killed thousands. Those deemed too weak for the march were left behind, including these children. 

They did not know their ordeal was over until the 322nd Rifle Division of the Soviet Red Army arrived.

Since 2005, January 27th is known as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people along with countless members of other minorities.

See the United Nations Resolution which created this Remembrance Day at http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance/international/pdf/un_decision.pdf

Still photograph of the children from the Soviet Film of the liberation of Auschwitz, taken by the film unit of the First Ukrainian Front, shot over a period of several months beginning on January 27, 1945 by Alexander Voronzow and others in his group. Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence. Among those pictured are Tomasz Szwarz; Alicja Gruenbaum; Solomon Rozalin; Gita Sztrauss; Wiera Sadler; Marta Wiess; Boro Eksztein; Josef Rozenwaser; Rafael Szlezinger; Gabriel Nejman; Gugiel Appelbaum; Mark Berkowitz (a twin); Pesa Balter; Rut Muszkies (later Webber); Miriam Friedman; and twins Miriam Mozes and Eva Mozes wearing knitted hats.

Hear that, Bill O'Reilly? Rush? Mr. Beck?

From "The Progress Report":

"Paul Krugman writes today that, 'right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment.' He argues, 'Fox News and the RNC...have gone out of their way to provide a platform for conspiracy theories and apocalyptic rhetoric, just as they did the last time a Democrat held the White House.'"

And people are dying because of it.

To wit: In November last year, a minister was shot and killed just outside his church in Kentucky; yet another pastor was killed during his Sunday service, right in his church in Illinois in early March; Dr. George Tiller was killed in his church in Wichita and just yesterday, of course, a US Park police officer, one Stephen T. Johns, was killed at, of all places, the national Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Let's hope this is the end of these killings and not just the beginning.

It's a terrific, true and poignant read.

See it here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/opinion/12krugman.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Guns don't kill people

People with guns kill people.




Links:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/when-politics-turns-from_b_214061.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/what-are-white-supremacis_b_213987.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/10/shepard-smith-says-his-em_n_214013.html