[steaming]
Mar. 24th, 2009 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
etumukutenyakSome effing moron on facebook (redundant, I know; I know) in reviewing a photograph claimed this: "It's a young kid, the uniform is wermacht not SS. The kid was probably a patriot, at least in his own eyes. Remember, the 'final solution' didn't start 'til 42 or 43, and while yes many things that nazi germany did were pure evil, germany did have some ligitamate greveances, too."
Oh, no he did not just say that. Naturally, I could not stop myself. This is my history, my family lived -- or died -- in this. I replied, as follows:
"Excuse me, but no. The Final Solution did not begin in "'42 or '43", it began in 1933 with the rise to power of the Nazi Party. It was initially implemented as state-enforced racism (i.e., anti-Jewish laws, pogroms, boycotts, and "Aryanization"). In 1939 the ghettos were established and Jews were deported. In 1941, the Einsatzgruppen began using mobile killing squads. After the Wannsee Conference in 1942, the death camps were established as a centralized means for efficient killing of Jews, but the Final Solution was begun long before.
Even so-called "good people" can and do commit evil. It's not restricted to Germany.
This was my family that was murdered by your Germans with "legitimate grievances". Take your cue from Germany itself and do not ever call the Nazis anything but evil. Modern Germans are still apologizing to Jews. Learn from them."
Legitimate grievances, my ass. Misspelled, too, which only increases that special flavor of rage. As if all the evil that was done could be hand-waved away by explaining how poorly the Germans had been treated post-WWI.
Normally, I'm not one for confrontation, but ever since I watched the British-made documentary that ended with the words "Never Again", I've made sure to speak up against any anti-Semitism or Nazi apologism. I will never be silent on this topic.
For my grandmother's sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephew who never made it out alive, and for the nieces who did.
For my grandmother, who found a Nazi stamp in a philatelic pile from another brother-in-law, and turned it face down, with a good thump.
For all the other relatives whose names I do not know, because they were murdered and their names erased from our families, from their towns and cities, from across all of Europe.
Oh, no he did not just say that. Naturally, I could not stop myself. This is my history, my family lived -- or died -- in this. I replied, as follows:
"Excuse me, but no. The Final Solution did not begin in "'42 or '43", it began in 1933 with the rise to power of the Nazi Party. It was initially implemented as state-enforced racism (i.e., anti-Jewish laws, pogroms, boycotts, and "Aryanization"). In 1939 the ghettos were established and Jews were deported. In 1941, the Einsatzgruppen began using mobile killing squads. After the Wannsee Conference in 1942, the death camps were established as a centralized means for efficient killing of Jews, but the Final Solution was begun long before.
Even so-called "good people" can and do commit evil. It's not restricted to Germany.
This was my family that was murdered by your Germans with "legitimate grievances". Take your cue from Germany itself and do not ever call the Nazis anything but evil. Modern Germans are still apologizing to Jews. Learn from them."
Legitimate grievances, my ass. Misspelled, too, which only increases that special flavor of rage. As if all the evil that was done could be hand-waved away by explaining how poorly the Germans had been treated post-WWI.
Normally, I'm not one for confrontation, but ever since I watched the British-made documentary that ended with the words "Never Again", I've made sure to speak up against any anti-Semitism or Nazi apologism. I will never be silent on this topic.
For my grandmother's sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephew who never made it out alive, and for the nieces who did.
For my grandmother, who found a Nazi stamp in a philatelic pile from another brother-in-law, and turned it face down, with a good thump.
For all the other relatives whose names I do not know, because they were murdered and their names erased from our families, from their towns and cities, from across all of Europe.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 11:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-26 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 01:14 pm (UTC)The shambles of the Treaty of Versailles doesn't make ANYTHING that followed it even close to, slightly or even remotely anywhere near BAD - it was too unmitigatedly horrific to be bad. Bad would have been a 10 times step up.
There can be no defence. There can be no excuse. There can be no mitigation.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-26 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 10:33 pm (UTC)*places hand on shoulder*
You did good, kiddo.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-26 12:40 pm (UTC)Thanks. There's more, of course; he attempted to rebut and only made things worse. I deleted the email notification so I wouldn't have to get distractd during the day, which means I'll have to wait until I get home to post it on LJ.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-26 02:40 pm (UTC)And the worst part? You're most likely not to sway him, no matter how pristinely airtight your arguments may be. More's the pity.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-26 03:59 pm (UTC)Because my response is essentially "1. You're wrong. 2. You're not man enough to admit it, so you're quibbling. 3. The end, Looooooooserrrrrrr", only I may drop the last bit.
You know, he's quibbling about when ghettos were invented, and that his family is German, and my "high and mighty tone" couldn't be carried off. Uh huh. On the whole, I'm inclined to never say another word to this one. He's not a worthy adversary.