The Holocaust, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Traditional Catholicism

JMJ

Nota Bene: This will be a somewhat rambling article as I only heard today about it being the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. So these are some impressions that occurred to me as I drove home from work.

So, across the world there are a variety of opinions about what Germany did in the concentration camps. The same holds true within Traditional Catholicism. There is a spectrum of beliefs, opinions and theories about the Holocaust and the factory efficient murder of Jewish people deported from occupied countries. It is not unique to Traditional Catholicism, but it is the stick that people like to use to 'beat' down the Trads.

Well ... that would be a mistake.

My father was a teenager during the Second World War and hated the comedy "Hogan's Heroes" because it portrayed the German soldiers as buffoons. When describing his impressions of the Germans he would say, they were "very, very effective."

He experienced this first hand as he was walking home from school. Two soldiers challenged two men who happened to be beside my Dad. Their order was simple, "drop your pants". This was a practically surefire way to identified Jewish men.

It also explains my Dad's reluctance when the Doctor's suggested circumcising his baby boys.

Back to the story ... according to my Dad the two men were both Jewish, members of the underground and the underground had a safe-house near the school. They grabbed my Dad and used him as a human shield, whereas my Dad said he wanted to fight with them. In spite of being used as a human shield, my Dad went home that night and the two men were dead. So my Dad witnessed two things at once. First the soldiers weren't mindless killing machines. They killed two members of the resistance who were using a young teenager as a human shield. My Dad's impression of them being 'effective' was from first hand experience.

Then comes the FUD that people spread about Auschwitz. I've heard things from Bishop Williamson and others. I never thought of them critically back them, as I would now ... actually, it was the Terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001 that were the wake up call for me. I heard him give his version of why an Airplane weighing tens of thousands of pounds flying at hundreds of miles per hour couldn't do the damage it did to the Pentagon. His reason, it has a fiberglass nose whereas a missile has a Titanium nose. Well, having worked in the Aerospace industry I knew that was Male Cow Manure (MCM). Then he went on to simply ignore eye witness testimony, more MCM.

Here's the key for me. About 15 years ago I was in Poland for work for a few weeks and one weekend I had a choice - go visit the Salt Mines or Auschwitz. I took the trip to Auschwitz I and II. It was well worth it and I find it intellectually dishonest of Bishop Williamson to refuse to go and see for himself.

From this, I know a few things about Auschwitz:

It is possible that they did kill hundreds of thousands of people in Auschwitz I, II, and III through a combination of work, starvation and executions (shooting, hanging and gas chambers). I know this sounds strange, but I've heard people say it wasn't possible. I did the math and it was possible.
The eye witness account, Polish and others, cannot be dismissed offhand as I've heard done. It is invalid to discount a person's testimony just because it doesn't jive with one's personal beliefs. There is also the fact that there is the testimony in the trials.

I've been to Auschwitz I and II. While the older site was an old military base adapted to the tasks, II was purpose built and huge. After the tour, I asked our driver to go the end of the line of fence posts and watch towers. He did better, he drove to the end of the camp, which took quite a while, and then it changed I asked was that the end, he said "no ... now we are passing the prisoner of war camp for Russian soldiers. Because of the Geneva conventions they had to be kept separate." Then he drove around to the back of the camp and showed us the spot where the farm houses used to do tests with the Zyklon gas. Camp II was enormous and pictures don't do the scale justice.

There was also a III, but it was a factory and was bombed during the war. So given the scale and the capabilities - I am convinced that it was possible. Given the witness testimony, I am convinced that it happened. As far as the numbers, I leave that to the witnesses and historians and say that from my understanding of the capacity it was possible.

It was murder on a factory scale and genocide is an apt description. Of course, I'm not saying that the Germans didn't imprison and execute others. I am saying that murder of people because of their beliefs remains murder. Period. End.Stop.

The view from outside the camp.

Anyway, today is the anniversary of the liberation of the camps and something for us to consider deeply because there is a history of rulers trying to wipe out various 'deplorables' (link). Caesar(s), Hitler, Stalin, and others have done so and I have no doubt that others will rise up and walk in their footsteps.

We just don't know who.

P^3