The 8th day of May

Today is the 8^th day of May 2016 and it so happens that it is also Mother's day.

On this day in 1945 the European theatre of World War II ended officially with the unconditional surrender of the German Army.

Many a mother cried bitter tears of sorrow, because their sons would not come home. Never again..

Others cried tears of joy since now they knew that their sons were safe, that the killing on the battle field had stopped.

Today, 71 years later, we celebrate the day, dedicated to all mothers, but give nary a thought to the more important anniversary of the end to the slaughter of men, women and children who, judged by the regime, did not fit into the ideas of the National Socialist movement.

Yes, I said “slaughter” !

These are the cold numbers of civilians and disarmed soldiers murdered during the approximately 12 years of Nazi rule, first in Germany and then throughout Europe:

Gypsies:                                                      20,000

Jehovah's Witnesses                                      2,000

Institutionalized disabled                          250,000

Serbian Civilians                                       312,000

Polish Civilians (non-Jewish)                1,800,000

Soviet Prisoners of War                         3,000,000

Soviet Civilians ( non-Jewish )             5,700,000 
Jews                                                       5,900,000
Total:                                                   17,184,000

I am sitting here, staring at these numbers and wondering how this was possible.

Quite aside from the huge numbers of soldiers killed in combat, these were the civilian victims which the Nazi killing machine murdered.

Yes, by all means, let us celebrate our mothers, but, on this day, let us not forget those, whose lives were cut short by an organization of criminals, aided and abetted by large numbers of henchmen.

(numbers published by:

Simon Wiesenthal Centre, US Holocaust Memorial Museum,

Anti Defamation League. a.o.)

Bertstravels