Simon Wiesenthal zt"l
News has just come through that he passed away. I hope this doesn't mean that the few remaining free muderers breathe a sigh of relief. May they be hunted down and tortured slowly, wherever they live, in the name of SW and everyone else. I hope they die slow, painful, excruciating deaths. They should never merit to see children or grandchildren. The fires of hell await them, purgatory of the worst kind. Special roped off extra-hot sections for all the regular killers, rapists and molestors to gawk at the Nazis, and consider themselves lucky they were not part of it.
And may we know no more suffering, amen.
TRK
posted by TRK @ 2:00 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Baruch Dayan Haemes.
The survivors of the holocaust were/are an incredibly resilient group who by and large managed to overcome a horrific, monstrous experience and were able to build new lives and families. An awe inspiring, magnificent feat. But there were some...like Simon Wiesenthal, who couldn’t put the experience behind them. He devoted his life to capturing the evildoers and bringing them to justice. They’re all heroes in my eyes....but I feel a fierce pride and admiration for the person who took action...who couldn’t forget....who couldn’t get on with his life. Most of us want to leave an indelible mark and accomplish something great with our lives. He did.
my "fantasy" punishment for them - hitler, mengele, et al - is that in some alternate universe, they get to experience exactly what they did to the jews. the humiliation, starvation, constant fear, concentration camps, medical experiments, torture, gas chambers - all of it.
They say that the biggest "torture" for all those demons is the fact that Jewish communities exist and thrive all over the civilized world.
As the remaining members of the holocaust generation die out (especially the outspoken ones like SW), what will become of the memory of the holocaust? In 50 years, will people even care? Do they even care now? Even among jews, where is the intense sadness? As each generation passes, the bright light of sadness becomes a little dimmer until the flame itself will be extingushed forever. We can say we shall never forget from now until the cows come home but as the living breathing ;egacies die, what will be then?
it's ever been thus in our history since churban bayis - crusades, pogroms, inquisition, etc.
do we keep crying for all of them?
A harsh way to eulogize him, but I agree with the sentiment.
all valid points people, though I fear the work that SW did is pretty much nearly over, and our job is to remember but also to carry vibrant Jewish life forward, onwards and upwards.
b2 - why harsh?
mh:
Tis was no simple chrban or pogrom. 6 million people killed. 6 million. it is a number that is so staggering that it makes no sense. The only comparison I can even think of would be the destruction of the 2 batei mikdash (temples). And yes, we remember those events to this very day.
a question for you lot (we had some heated discussion about this during yom hashoah, you can go back and read what I wrote and Olah Chadasha and others responded):
Let's presume that SW did his job, and most of the perpetrators of the genocide were caught or are dead, maybe we should move on and focus on living Jewishly?
huh? what else have we been doing? right after the war - the jews in munich didn't concentrate on killing people and taking revenge - they mostly got married to the first person they could find and started families and figured out how to earn a living
elster - of course i'm not minimizing the holocaust. i've read so much on the subject...and personally know holocaust survivors and lost extended family. and the magnitude was breathtakingly horrible. but what i'm saying is, that all the other jewish tragedies and blood shed (and these were precursors to the holocaust as hitler adopted so many of the measures used in the past) were awful in their times, and people stopped crying. what's your suggestion? spielberg started his foundation. at least that's something proactive.
mh - there is truth to the words that those who forget history ae doomed to repeat it. When we don't see the signs, and the next thing you know, they've turned New Jersey into an oven (though you couild argue they arlready have), because we forgot that it could NEVER happen in an enlightened society like Germany.
I don't say we must mourn for it all the time, but we must never forget or let the future generations forget...
TRK, remembering the past is the way to live Jewishly. If we forget where we're coming from, and what our people have fought for in order for us to get to where we are today, then what is left for us to fight for?
elster - we're both on the same side so there's no debate. i agree with you. just asking what we can do to ensure that future generations do remember?
chai et al,
there is importance in remembering the past, but our focus must be on living the preent for the future - that is what makes the difference
I don't know MH, I don't know
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