Schindlers List


There's a 1990s video interview on YouTube with a lady who survived the holocaust and she worked in Amon Goeths villa with Helen Hirsch. She tells you what Goeth was really like and he was far worse than the film. She had to get his hats ready and he had one which he wore when he was going to kill someone.
There was also an excellent documentary about the meeting between a concentration camp survivor and Goth`s daughter who lived in the camp as a little girl.
 
There's a 1990s video interview on YouTube with a lady who survived the holocaust and she worked in Amon Goeths villa with Helen Hirsch. She tells you what Goeth was really like and he was far worse than the film. She had to get his hats ready and he had one which he wore when he was going to kill someone.

I remember reading somewhere that they had survivors on the set at one point one of them met Fiennes when he was in costume and she started shaking with fear because he was a dead ringer for Göth.
 
Got into bed and it was at least an hour through but couldn't bring meself to turn it over.

I still cannot get me head around how it could happen and it makes you wonder how that generation of German people could live with themselves. There must be such a deep sense of shame and guilt there - or at least you'd think there should be.
 
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Never been to Auschwitz, but really feel like I should go.
Not a place to enjoy, but so important to see what real inhumanity can lead to.

It's not an easy visit but worth it as you get a deeper understanding of what those people went through. We all know the horror that happened, but what struck me the most was the photographs of people standing in line on arrival at the camp. There was no fear on their faces or any type of fight or flight response showing. They were all standing politely in orderly lines waiting patiently for their turn in the shower block. Whole families standing together. They genuinely believed they were going for a shower.
I still cannot get me head around how it could happen and it makes you wonder how that generation of German people could live with themselves. There must be such a deep sense of shame and guilt there - or at least you'd think there should be.

Propaganda. They started off gently persuading Germans that they were the superior race and Jews were the enemy. Kind of like now when we get stupid Facebook posts about foreign men trying to abduct children or dogs. Then as wedges were driven into society, it just increased. By the time stuff like Kristallnacht was happening, the Germans thought they had to defend their country against the "enemy" and were happy to join in.

There's other tales where people didn't get sucked into it though and tried hard to save as many people as they could. Nicholas Winton is one that springs to mind. He managed to smuggle loads of Jewish children out of Czechoslovakia to Britain, where they were placed with new families.
 
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There was also an excellent documentary about the meeting between a concentration camp survivor and Goth`s daughter who lived in the camp as a little girl.

This is the clip I was referring to and apparently it was the same lady in the video you saw. She talks about Goeth and Schindler from 0.50 to 2.15.
 
It's not an easy visit but worth it as you get a deeper understanding of what those people went through. We all know the horror that happened, but what struck me the most was the photographs of people standing in line on arrival at the camp. There was no fear on their faces or any type of fight or flight response showing. They were all standing politely in orderly lines waiting patiently for their turn in the shower block. Whole families standing together. They genuinely believed they were going for a shower.


Propaganda. They started off gently persuading Germans that they were the superior race and Jews were the enemy. Kind of like now when we get stupid Facebook posts about foreign men trying to abduct children or dogs. Then as wedges were driven into society, it just increased. By the time stuff like Kristallnacht was happening, the Germans thought they had to defend their country against the "enemy" and were happy to join in.

There's other tales where people didn't get sucked into it though and tried hard to save as many people as they could. Nicholas Winton is one that springs to mind. He managed to smuggle loads of Jewish children out of Czechoslovakia to Britain, where they were placed with new families.
Yeah I get that. Maybe I didn't explain it well enough, but I find it mind boggling that there must be a lot of Germans who were complicit that have had to live with the shame. A lot of them I imagine just pretend it never happened.
 
It's not an easy visit but worth it as you get a deeper understanding of what those people went through. We all know the horror that happened, but what struck me the most was the photographs of people standing in line on arrival at the camp. There was no fear on their faces or any type of fight or flight response showing. They were all standing politely in orderly lines waiting patiently for their turn in the shower block. Whole families standing together. They genuinely believed they were going for a shower.


Propaganda. They started off gently persuading Germans that they were the superior race and Jews were the enemy. Kind of like now when we get stupid Facebook posts about foreign men trying to abduct children or dogs. Then as wedges were driven into society, it just increased. By the time stuff like Kristallnacht was happening, the Germans thought they had to defend their country against the "enemy" and were happy to join in.

There's other tales where people didn't get sucked into it though and tried hard to save as many people as they could. Nicholas Winton is one that springs to mind. He managed to smuggle loads of Jewish children out of Czechoslovakia to Britain, where they were placed with new families.
And brave people who tried to shelter the vulnerable, like the man and friends that attemted to give Anne Franks family a safe refuge.
Her diary actually made me cry.
Everyone should read it.
 
Yeah I get that. Maybe I didn't explain it well enough, but I find it mind boggling that there must be a lot of Germans who were complicit that have had to live with the shame. A lot of them I imagine just pretend it never happened.

Have you heard of the stumbling stones?


They're all over the place in Berlin and we saw them in other cities we visited. It's a little memorial on the ground outside the last know residence of someone who was taken by the Nazi's. Not just Jews, he's included other races/religions plus disabled people, homosexuals etc. It's eye opening seeing them scattered all over the streets. The idea is they are slightly raised so you feel them underfoot and think for a minute. I would like to think that they make people who turned their back on what was happening feel some sort of shame.
 
Yeah I get that. Maybe I didn't explain it well enough, but I find it mind boggling that there must be a lot of Germans who were complicit that have had to live with the shame. A lot of them I imagine just pretend it never happened.
To be fair to the majority of modern German people, they are deeply ashamed of their nations actions back then marra. They are pretty relentless in their acknowledgement of their forefathers wrongs, and offer many attempts to show their deference to people who were wronged. The Stumbling Stones mentioned is just one example.
That even filters through into modern politics and events, hence their reluctance and reticence about providing Tanks directly to The Ukraine now. They are extremely pacifistic in matters of conflict and really don't want to get involved.
I personally don't think any nation could have handled it better than they have.

Never forget what happened, but blame should be reserved for those who actioned it, not those left to apologise.
 
This applies to so many other things also.

Later generations should be able to acknowledge and learn from the past, but to force them to apologise is ridiculous.
If you force an apology, you don't get an apology. You get what you want to hear.

Modern Germans have apologised, continue to do so, and are glad to do it.
At some point we have to say to them "enough now".
 
Like Nicholas Winton who @becs mentioned earlier, they weren't German though.
True mate, but there are numerous examples of Germans who did.
Just saying that Modern German is a very different place marra, and full of regret for the past, and showing deep concern that it never gets to happen again.
 
This applies to so many other things also.

Later generations should be able to acknowledge and learn from the past, but to force them to apologise is ridiculous.
There's an alarmingly high percentage of young Germans that don't know what Auschwitz is. It's swept under the carpet.
 

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