NEVER FORGET

I was in 8th grade when my love of history really took off. My interest in World War II was especially sparked when one of my teachers brought in a survivor who escaped from the death camp of Sobibor. I was enthralled, fascinated, horrified, and hooked on the history of how something like the Holocaust could take place.

Fast forward to my high school years and my family made a trip to Washington DC where we visited the Holocaust Museum. My cousins were bored to tears but I couldn't stop looking around at everything and marveling at the horror of it all. We all received "passports" of a real human being who was alive at the beginning of the Nazi reign of Germany. We were to turn a page of the passport on certain floors and "our" story would unfold. Of the 8 people in my family, none of us survived. All eight of our people were killed by the Nazis. I still have my passport all these years later.

I am shocked and slightly disgusted that nowhere did I hear that April 25 was Holocaust Remembrance day. [Of course, I have been so busy and I forgot.] Not on the radio (which I listen to all day). Not on the TV news. Nowhere. Have we forgotten? We cannot forget the horror which was implemented against people simply because they were Jews, mentally or physically disabled, Gypsies, or otherwise not good enough to deserve life.

I just recently learned that in my family history are Jews from what was once known as Prussia. I am a Christian, but for most of my adult life I have felt a deep need to learn and feel the pain that so many millions of people were forced to endure. I don't know why this issue touches me so...but it does.

Let us never forget. And let us remember this poem, which touched my heart when I first read it while visiting the Holocaust Museum...

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Written by Pastor Martin Niemoller

Please take time to remember those who were murdered in cold blood for being less than human in the eyes of the Nazis. And remember those who currently threaten the state of Israel for the "sin" of being Jewish. And those who threaten our own way of life and who deny that the Holocaust ever occurred.

Visit Atlas Shrugs for a fabulous memorial post and current information on those who deny what happened.

And at Gates of Vienna they have a moving tribute.

NEVER AGAIN!