@pomubieng (who will probably not read this, because mastodon·social blocks me for condemning the latest genocide):
Auschwitz is in Poland, not Germany. Not just Jews, also a lot of non-Jew Polish people were murdered there.
And also a lot of Dutch Jews, including those with my last name: https://victims.auschwitz.org/victims?pattern=van+Straten.
Note: my grandfather, born in 1900, was a Jew. He survived WWII (he was sent to Nazi labour camps) but his family was murdered by the Germans.
My grandfather would probably have condemned Israel for the atrocities they commit.
And he, very likely, would loathe the dumping of pictures of WWII victims on the internet - and the subsequent "beauty contest", where Auschwitz victims are selected AGAIN - 80 years later. Young women and children depicted on pre-captivity photos get most boosts. Shame on those boosters.
So, what drives the CURRENT Auschwitz maintainers?
From https://x.com/AuschwitzMuseum/status/1496828381169692677:
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This act of barbarity will be judged by history, and its perpetrators, it is to be hoped, also by the International Court of Justice.
As we stand at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, it is impossible to remain silent while, once again, innocent people are being killed purely because of insane pseudo- imperial megalomania.
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Now that sounds hopeful!
However, that was the response of the current Auschwitz maintainers to Russia invading Ukraine (screenshot 1 below).
For •Israel• their attitude is entirely different, as can be seen in the resolution they published (at the bottom of https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/auschwitz-council/ - screenshot 2 below).
Not -emotionally- published on Oct. 7, 2023 - but after giving it careful thought, on Nov. 18, 2023.
Here's one of the sentences from that resolution - that they have not yet withdrawn or edited to condemn Israel for the current genocide:
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Threatened in its existence, the State of Israel has the right to self-defense in accordance with international law and the principles of humanitarianism.
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AFAIK this has nothing to do with Germans, but may be (heavily) influenced by donations from the "promised land" (and not wanting to lose any of them).
Said resolution may have been written by Avner Shalev (https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/auschwitz-council/iac-members/avner-shalev/), a former high-ranked IDF-officer.
In May 2008 Avner Shalev wrote an article titled "If everything is genocide" that was published in (paywall) https://www.haaretz.com/2008-05-02/ty-article/if-everything-is-genocide/0000017f-e0e7-df7c-a5ff-e2ffcedb0000) but also in (free to read) https://www.yadvashem.org/about/former-chairmen/avner-shalev/if-everything-is-genocide.html.
From that article (remember, from 2008):
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Recently, yet another Hamas spokesperson compared the situation in Gaza to events during the Holocaust. Coming from an official who represents a body that unabashedly declares its commitment to terrorism and the destruction of Israel, this is in itself not surprising.
[...]
Language has power. The words we choose to use carry weight, and are meaningful. If we elect to label every event a "genocide," or equate every event with the Holocaust, then we detract from the real meaning of those words and reduce their ability to represent true horror.
Subsequently, when faced with a real incident of genocidal murder, people will be less likely ot be moved to act. If everything is genocide, nothing is genocide.
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If Avner Shalev would NO LONGER deny that Israel is committing genocide on the Palestinians, he'd retract or edit their resolution.
P.S. I demand that Auschwitz victims are treated respectfully. Dumping photos with two lines of text (very often plain wrong, see the "linked" list of my findings: https://infosec.exchange/@ErikvanStraten/114920088962628032), covertly advertising for Israel, often without adding victims or missing details to their online database, is extremely disrespectful.
At least *I* would not want to be "Facebooked" if I'd been murdered in a concentration camp.
At any reader: would you? And if you don't mind, why don't you respect people who may have a different opinion? Why don't you go to a Holocaust museum to see evrything in context, instead of a quick and dirty boost - claiming to "remember", and to learn WHAT exactly?
Never again?
@amokura @auschwitzmuseum
