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Friday, June 7, 2024

Ele Ludemann: What happened to never again?


The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial has graves of more than 9,000 soldiers, most of whom were killed on D Day, the 80th anniversary of which was marked yesterday.

Scattered among the crosses which stand in memory to those who died are Stars of David.


None of the men who were buried there would have known about the holocaust. They were fighting to free Europe from the Nazis without knowing about the concentration camps and their horrors.

It was months later that Allied soldiers reached the concentration camps and the phrase never again was uttered by the people liberated from Buchenwald.

What’s happened to never again?

Populations of groups of people have been subject to atrocities in several countries, wars have been waged, atrocities are still being committed, wars are still being waged and anti-semitism is rife.

I cannot understand how people can hate a whole group of people and act to wipe them from the face of the earth.

Never again has been forgotten by some and ignored by others.

Eighty years on from the deaths of those men who were fighting to free Europe, hatred and the evil acts it fosters continue.

What will it take to change that so that never again is not a slogan but a fact?

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.

1 comment:

Kawena said...

"What's happened to Never Again?" asks Ele Ludemann. What indeed! Winston Churchill said: "If we don't learn from history, we're bound to repeat it!" Haven't the Jewish people suffered enough? Where is that august body, the United Nations, and what are they doing to restore peace? The Jewish people have suffered enough, but the Hamas exist for the sole purpose of wiping them out. Some of our politicians have marched on behalf of the Hamas. Just what the hell are they doing in the parliament of a free country? Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, said: "Let us then, fellow citizens, united with one heart and one mind!"
Kevan

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