History in Photos

I noticed this post by Greg Ransom of PrestoPundit this morning.  Greg’s post alerts us to the WWII Aerial Reconnaissance Archives at Keele University, which, per Greg, were supposed to go online today, January 19th.  Here’s the link to the archive. I’ve been trying to get in off and on all day to no avail.  I’d wager that the archive is being bombarded with the same intensity of Dresden’s blacker days.  Greg also provided a link to this BBC article announcing the launch, which also has a couple of photos to view.

Click on the first link in this post though and look at the photo Greg posted.  It’s of prisoners lining up at Auschwitz for roll call.  Remind me again why no country seemed to give a shit about this then, but today they’ll raise memorials to the travesty.

Posted by on 01/19 at 03:04 PM

  1. Offhand, I’d say it’s because the Holocaust (note capitalisation) was an initially shocking blow to most civilized human beings which has been since seized on and exploited by everyone from those who might possibly have some claim to justice, vengeance, what have you to the professional pimps whose only goal is to distort history and seize or manipulate power. It’s the Biggest Boogeyman Ever, with Hitler as the supreme dancing clown o’ horror that every two-bit hustler or net.flamer gets compared to, the argument to end all argument (or at least, it seems, any legitimate debate). Much like history books in my ‘school days’ seemed to end somewhere in the mid-60’s to early 70’s, all knowledge of human atrocity appears to end (and begin) with only the grossest understanding of the man and the events, let alone the underlying infrastructure, popular support, and “consent of the governed” that helped make possible all that robbery, murder and destruction. Samizdata and others have pointed out Communism’s far greater body count and less/more favorable coverage in most history books—Claire Wolfe points out the plan to tag all cattle in the War on Mad Cow disease and notes how easily it could be adapted to humans on trains. A lot of people every day “go along to get along”—even me—and they don’t like being reminded of it.

    (Billy Beck may be right, and the “Endarkenment” unavoidable. But as long as I live, I might as well write—and do whatever else I can, in my own small way, to make things better for myself and every other honest person.)

    Posted by damaged justice  on  01/19  at  04:16 PM

  2. After 24 hours of hair-tearing my wife fixed our network problem—bless her Renaissance soul—and I realized my original comment only addresses the second part of your question. I can’t speak as well for the attitudes of those who were alive at the time. But by not so much of a coincidence, a friend passed a link along to

    ]http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/himmler-heinrich/posen/oct-04-43/ausrottung-transl-nizkor.html]

    Himmler’s “Poznan speech” of 1943. I can’t help but think this excerpt is somehow relevant, particularly the bit when he expresses how morally superior they are because all the money they stole from the Jews is going to THE STATE and NOBODY will be allowed to get away with “one Mark, one cigarette, one watch” of personal plunder.

    Posted by damaged justice  on  01/20  at  09:00 PM

  3. I had never read that speech prior to your providing the link.  A damning commentary whose currents still stir in the deluded minds of men.

    Thanks for linking it.

    Posted by  on  01/21  at  08:11 AM

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