Brane Space: 80th Anniversary Of Liberation Of Auschwitz Today

Casing of DVD documentary about Russian liberation of Auschwitz

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”, George Santayana

"Evil takes place when human bonds are broken, when concrete relationships crumble for the sake of abstract identifications. When we divide the world into sheep and goats, into good and evil, the 'sheep' - the self-proclaimed good- have a tendency to subject the goats to the worst imaginable treatment. In doing so, the sheep's group identity is made stronger, something that forms the basis of new and better identification of 'goats'." - Lars Sevendsen, 'A Philosophy of Evil'

The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz today anticipates about 50 survivors of Auschwitz and other camps at the Auschwitz -Birkenau State Museum. This will be for commemoration events this afternoon. On this occasion the powerful from various nations will assemble to listen to the voices of former prisoners while there is still time to hear them. Especially with the recent rise of fascism and authoritarianism including in our own country with the misbegotten election of the wannabe Hitler Donald Trump, e.g..

So today is also a good day to remind the rest of us that the seeds that sowed the Holocaust itself are still with us but in a different American mutation: With one man who believes he can overturn laws and norms at will – as well as spit on the very rule of law.

The Nazis - using the template of the Final Solution - founded the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940, in the Polish village of Oswiecim, after their invasion of Poland in 1939. Early on, it was a camp for Polish prisoners, including Catholic priests and members of the Polish underground resistance. The Germans later established some 40 camps in the area, of which the most famous is Birkenau - a vast site used for mass killing in gas chambers. In total, the Nazis gassed more than 6 million - or two thirds of Europe's Jews.

Cramped, windowless trains, with people packed cheek to jowl, were used by the Nazis to deport Jews from their homes in other nations - such as Holland, France, Germany, Hungary to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. There they were led into what most believed were showers for "delousing" - but were actually gas chambers using Zyklon B - or hydrogen cyanide, originally used to kill rodents.

Those horrors and deranged events could never happen in the U.S.? Don’t be so naïve as to buy into that codswallop for a second, especially as we’ve already seen Trump barely a week ago pardon over 174 violent felons who committed a host of barbarous acts on Jan. 6, 2021. We’ve also seen him in the last few day commit act after act testifying to his belief he is above any law, including firing 15 independent inspectors general, including for Veterans Affairs, Social Security and EPA. Worse, his party has shown not the least inclination to rein him in, just as the Nazi party saw no reason to rein in Adolf Hitler.

What sort of repercussions then transpired in the wake of Hitler’s “Final Solution”, especially at Auschwitz? In specific Auschwitz liberation film records, for example, the liberating Russians beheld a 12 year old boy who'd been infected with Leprosy and the results after just 6 weeks. In another segment, one watches with heart break as the bandages are removed from a 10 year old girl's foot, showing blackened flesh - after she had been forced to stand ten hours in freezing temperatures. In yet another segment, a 9 year old boy is unable to exercise or move either of his arms - they had been amputated and replaced with the arms of a 9 month old infant.

Russian medical personnel also observed:

- Removed skin (treated with chemicals) from prisoners waiting to made into for chairs, and for use as art 'canvas': In this case the selected bodies of certain gassed victims had their skin later removed and used to form the fabric for chairs - generally by the particular concentration camp Kommandant - and also for "art" canvas, with the art often pornographic.

- Bodies of fetuses (expelled by their mothers in the gas chambers) designated for autopsies.

Much of this is shown in vintage films finally accessible after the fall of the Soviet Union. I watched it in the 'Liberation of Auschwitz' part of the 5-pack collection, The Holocaust Testaments. Incredibly, the O.S.S. (forerunner of the CIA) was aware of many of the films but adamantly was opposed to any release or even exposure because they believed the materials to be Soviet propaganda. (The Auschwitz films are introduced by Simon Wiesenthal, of the Holocaust Museum, and I sincerely dispute he'd be introducing "propaganda"!)

I believe every American ought to see these films and reference also some of the initial travesties registered in Ken Burns’ recent Holocaust series, to what we are seeing now in the U.S. with Trump’s lawless actions. That includes removing 20 State Dept. officials and sending home 160 National Security staff. In the words of the NY Times Peter Baker in the wake of the firings of the inspectors general of federal agencies:

He fired at least a dozen inspectors general who monitor departments for corruption and abuse in a late-night purge on Friday, ignoring a law requiring him to give Congress 30 days’ notice and provide specific reasons. In doing so, Mr. Trump in effect declared that he was willing and even eager to push the boundaries of his authority, the resilience of American institutions, the strength of the nearly two-and-a-half-century-old system and the tolerance of some of his own allies.

"Some of these efforts will be turned back by the courts, but the level of anticipatory obedience we’re seeing from business, universities and the media is unlike anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.” Said Brendan Nyhan, a government professor at Dartmouth College.

We ignore and numb ourselves to Trump's dramatic authoritarian overreach at our own peril, and our Nation's welfare- and survival as the last testing lab for democracy. As Prof. Don Ketl (Univ. of Maryland) who has studied U.S. government for 45 years noted on CBS this morning:

"It's simply stunning in its scope and in its depth and in its speed. There's never been an administration in American history that has tried to do so much so fast outside of guardrails and norms."

Adding, in response to the question, 'What can be done?' :

"They're actually challenging congress to oppose them and do something to try to stop it. There are actually things congress could do but which congress doesn't seem to have any inkling about doing."

And that's because our congress - House and Senate- are now controlled by the cowardly Reeps who have become Trump's 'yes' men and toadies. Look at the recent confirmation of the drunk, incompetent loser Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense Dept. Only 3 Reep Senators had the gumption to try to block him when one more was needed.

When cowards rule and do the bidding of autocrats, a country is in trouble, as we are now and about which today's anniversary in Poland sends multiple warnings.

See Also:

Donald Trump | Republicans

How a German Political Theorist Explains Trump Party’s ‘Terrible Political Morality’

by Maya Boddie | January 27, 2025 - 6:03am | permalink

— from Alternet

New York Times columnist and former Republican, David French, in an op-ed published Sunday points to one German political expert to make sense of President Donald Trump supporters' unwavering loyalty.

"Over the last decade, I’ve watched many of my friends and neighbors make a remarkable transformation," French writes. "They’ve gone from supporting Donald Trump in spite of his hatefulness to reveling in his aggression."

However, he notes, "This isn’t a new observation. In fact, it’s so obvious as to verge on the banal. The far more interesting question is why," arguing, "When a person believes that he or she possesses eternal truth, there’s a temptation to believe that he or she is entitled to rule."

French writes:

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