Quote:
Originally Posted by habernac
The holocaust is a difficult thing to delve into. I still haven't watched Schindler's List (I did PVR it the other day, just need to get my courage up to watch it ). I know it will upset me to the point of tears, even though I have no Jewish background at all. Just unfathomable to me that this could happen.
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I find it incredibly interesting and important.
In the BBC documentary I posted there is an interview with an Auschwitz survivor and he describes an incident that happened to him while on a train after his time there.
He was a Jew and I'm going to call him 'The Jew' for these purposes because I dont remember his name.
He remarks about how in this cattle car this German comes up to him, this German was just another prisoner, perhaps a convict, the Jew doesnt know, and begs him to move so he can sit down on the train (cattle cars) because he cant stand anymore.
The Jew says 'give me something and I'll move so you can sit' so the German gives him 3 cigarettes.
The Jew takes the cigarettes, moves and allows the German to sit and the Jew stands and smokes. Once the cigarettes have been smoked he tells the German to stand so that he can sit but the German refuses at which point the Jew sits on him to the point where the German suffocates and dies.
This is a straightforward interview but the woman doing it loses it a bit at this point and the Jew just doesnt care. No remorse.
His exact words were: "Why should he sit and live while I stand and die just because he gave me 3 cigarettes?"
It was incredible. Its one of those jaw-dropping moments that then snaps you back into trying to imagine the horrors that man has gone through and it reinforces what many survivors of the Holocaust said.
I was floored. And there were more stories of a similar nature told through interviews and it always reminds me of this:
Powerful stuff.