What Is It We Are to "Never Forget?"

[Annie]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...els10.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/10/ixhome.html

I'd say genocide...

...

But there was worse to come. Further on, Randall and his driver found a pit, 50ft square, containing a mass of semi-clothed and naked dead bodies of both sexes, lying in contorted positions, one on top of another. ''The stench was horrific,'' says Randall. ''It was a mixture of rotting flesh and excrement - a smell that I couldn't get rid of for weeks. I would wake in the night with this ghastly smell in my nose.''

After 30 minutes alone in Belsen, Randall and his driver were joined by another SAS Jeep carrying the squadron commander, Major John Tonkin, and his squadron Sergeant-Major, Reg Seekings, an SAS veteran of North Africa, Sicily, Italy and France. ''Seekings was a very tough man,'' Randall says. ''He had been with the regiment almost since it was formed and had been an army boxing champion when in the Guards.''

As the four SAS men stood looking at this pitiful and horrifying sight, they were approached by Josef Kramer, the camp commandant, and a woman in a dark blue uniform. "Kramer introduced himself and the woman, Irma Grese, responsible for the female prisoners, and to our astonishment offered us a guided tour of the camp,'' says Randall. ''We followed them. We pushed open the door of one of the huts and were overpowered by the stench. Emaciated figures peered out at us, in fear and surprise, from the rows of bunks. Lying among them, on the same bunks, were dead bodies.''

As they came out of one of the huts, the four men saw a camp guard using the butt of his rifle to beat up a prisoner. "Reg Seekings turned to John Tonkin, and asked permission to intervene and teach the guard a lesson.'' This was granted without hesitation. ''So Reg went over and hit the guard in the face. He got up and was then knocked out by another punch to the head. Then Tonkin ordered Kramer and Grese into the guardroom, and said, "We are now in charge, not you, and any guard who attempts to treat a prisoner with brutality will be punished."

None of the SAS members saw Kramer or Grese again. They were later arrested, tried and executed for war crimes. As Randall continues his story, I realise that despite his self-control and professionalism, this interview is a terribly emotional experience for him. Describing the sights, noises and especially the smells brings Belsen back to him. But he keeps going. ''I believe people of my age should express their own sentiments,'' he says, ''and I can never forgive the Germans for what they did. I have met the most charming and intelligent Germans since the war, but I will not accept that they knew nothing about the concentration camp atrocities. Worse still, there were those who did know and chose not to do anything about it. I was only 24 years old when I went into Belsen. It was a tremendous shock to a young man brought up in a protected environment. I was very impressionable and, as a result, have had a lifelong hatred of brutality and injustice - all the things that the Nazi regime personified.

"The world lost some of the finest and brightest individuals on earth,'' says Randall. ''And what hurts me is the fact that they cannot be brought back. It is beyond comprehension that the Germans sought to exterminate such a wonderful race, which has contributed so much over the centuries. They will never recover from this barbarity. We must never forget what the Jews suffered.''

They certainly don't forget him. On Holocaust day this year, Randall was presented to the Queen in St James's Palace. As he stood in line waiting with other liberators and survivors of Belsen, a woman next to him turned and said: ''You saved my life. When the British arrived in Belsen I was 15. I believe I had only about two days left to live. You came just in time.''

On Wednesday he is going to the Holocaust Survivors Centre in Hendon to meet more of those who lived through Belsen. ''For me,'' says Randall, ''meeting them completes the circle. But right now,'' he looks up at me, ''I think we need a drink.''

 

[dilloduck]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...els10.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/10/ixhome.html

I'd say genocide...

I agree however the Jews seem to have hijacked this issue to mean only them. Genocide is commonly believed to the mass execution of a group of people.The holocaust is commonly believed to just the killing of Jews which is simply not true.