Today is the 8th 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
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
Bertstravels
