UN commemorates Auschwitz liberation in special session

[drdon326]

Nobel laureate Elie Weisel joined world leaders Monday in asking whether the United Nations is ready to stop a future genocide, as the UN General Assembly convened a first-of-its-kind session to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.

"We know that for the dead it is too late," Weisel said of the Holocaust's victims. "But it is not too late for today's children, ours and yours. It is for their sake alone that we bear witness. The Jewish witness that I am speaks of my people's suffering as a warning," Weisel said.
"He sounds the alarm to prevent these tragedies from being done to others. And yes, I am convinced if the world had listened to those of us who tried to speak we may have prevented Darfur, Cambodia, Bosnia, and naturally Rwanda," Weisel added.

For several hours, representatives of the UN's member states, including many Arab countries, sat and listened as speaker after speaker ascended to the podium to talk about the horrors of the camps, the Allied victory over Nazi fascism and the need to never again let genocidal campaigns go unanswered.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1106537797423

............................................................

NEVER AGAIN.

[gottaB]

1. other stories

• Annan tells historic session: Act against new anti-Semitism
  
  
• World "must learn from holocaust"
  
  
• U.N. Marks WWII Death Camp Liberations
  
  
• Statement by Annan to the Special Session
  

[IndianaGreen]

2. The Holocaust has nothing to do with Israeli/Palestinian Affairs

This story should have been posted upstairs where there is a larger readership audience than in the basement.

Shameful that the UN waited these many years to commemorate the Holocaust.

[Lithos]

3. I posted a copy upstairs in LBN

And will try and get Skinner to put it on the front page.

L-

[IndianaGreen]

4. I posted the Ha'aretz version in GD

because I was afraid it was past the 24-hour limit of LBN.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3002847

[Lithos]

5. Excellent

Thanks.

I do not think many realize how significant this is.

L-

[Lithos]

6. Lest I forget

NEVER AGAIN.

The world cannot and should not tolerate another Holocaust or genocide.



Also:

http://free.ngo.pl/nw/english/index.html

L-

[drdon326]

7. Darfur, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda

60 years and the world has learned nothing.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. Who is going to liberate Gitmo?

Will we be able to celebrate that in sixty years?

[Lithos]

9. It isn't genocide

But it is definitely chock full of cases where people were rounded up for nothing more than being Muslim. Not apologizing for it as it is wrong as can be, but there is a scaling difference.



L-

[Jack Rabbit]

10. I would never say it is genocide

However, it is a difference in scale, nothing more.

One could argue that the neoconservatives are not as bad as the Nazis. That is true. In my moral universe, a thief is better than a murderer. However, both murderers and thieves belong in the same place: somewhere where they can do honest people no further harm.

In addition, Nazis then showed and neoconservatives now show a disturbing willingness to use sadistic methods to intimidate those who would stand against them.

Perhaps neoconservatives are not a brutal as Nazis. Nevertheless, the occupy the same niche in the world today that the Nazis occupied two-thirds of a century ago. Both Nazism and neoconservatism are odious movements based on the false premise that some people are simply superior to others and have a natural right to rule over them. Like Nazism, neoconservatism must be defeated in a way that buries the movement with a stake through its heart.

[Lithos]

11. I agree

Neo-Conservatism is a destructive and sadistic movement whose demise is already too late.

L-

[IndianaGreen]

12. The Holocaust did not begin until 1938, Jack!

The systemic murder of Jews did not begin until after Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, on November 9, 1938. Prior to that, the Nazis had built concentration camps and had murdered quite a few people, but nowhere near the rate and levels they were to achieve after the war began.

So Gitmo is a concentration camp, as are others we have yet to become aware of. We also know that the US has been involved in the killing of prisoners, directly and indirectly, in Afghanistan. It seems to me Jack, that unless we stop Bush, we are following the footsteps of the Nazis. We are not going to see the rounding up of Jews in the US, only liberals and progressives, but if one reads what is happening in Russia today, the Duma is about to pass their version of the Enabling Act.

This century may well outpace the last one in bloodshed.

[Jack Rabbit]

13. We should not assume facts not in evidence

That includes facts that are yet to take place.

Even if Bush gets no worse than he already is, he must be stopped. Gitmo is a war crime; Iraq is a war crime. If the international community (read: UN) had any cajones, it would convene a tribunal to try war crimes in Iraq and other crimes arising out of the WoT.

Five years into the 21st Century is a bit soon to make such a pessimistic judgment as you make; but Osama, Bush and Putin (among others) have it off in the direction you indicate. All three of them must be stopped.