May 12, 2009
Austria's shame
The headline in The Daily Mail (U.K.) is staggering:
Neo-Nazis screaming 'Heil Hitler'
attack concentration camp survivors
during memorial service for 345,000 dead
I sat for a few moments, considering that headline, the depravity of the people who could deliberately target elderly concentration camp survivors for further abuse. It's hard to fathom, but such is the lot of Hitler's victims, forever in the crosshairs of oppressors.
Survivors of a Nazi death camp were shot at and abused as they gathered to remember their liberation.
Masked neo-Nazi thugs screamed 'Heil Hitler!' and 'This way for the gas!' at ten elderly Italian men and women, who returned to the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
The gang also fired air guns at a group of 15 French survivors, many dressed in the striped pyjama-style uniforms they wore as inmates. One suffered a head wound while another was injured by a shot in the neck. The four thugs managed to escape.
Jewish leaders in Austria were appalled by the weekend scenes that marred events marking the 64th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by American troops.
More than 320,000 inmates were killed or worked to death at the camp during the war, where they were used as slave laborers, building Messerschmitt fighter aircraft in subterranean tunnels.
It's hard to believe there could be someone worse than the Germans and Austrians who kept the camps running, but their grandchildren exceed their predecessors' capacity for cruelty. Attacking concentration camp survivors? At the very camps in which they suffered?
Welcome to enlightened Europe.
Unbelievable.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 12, 2009 07:22 AM
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attack concentration camp survivors
during memorial service for 345,000 dead
I sat for a few moments, considering that headline, the depravity of the people who could deliberately target elderly concentration camp survivors for further abuse. It's hard to fathom, but such is the lot of Hitler's victims, forever in the crosshairs of oppressors.
Survivors of a Nazi death camp were shot at and abused as they gathered to remember their liberation.
Masked neo-Nazi thugs screamed 'Heil Hitler!' and 'This way for the gas!' at ten elderly Italian men and women, who returned to the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
The gang also fired air guns at a group of 15 French survivors, many dressed in the striped pyjama-style uniforms they wore as inmates. One suffered a head wound while another was injured by a shot in the neck. The four thugs managed to escape.
Jewish leaders in Austria were appalled by the weekend scenes that marred events marking the 64th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by American troops.
More than 320,000 inmates were killed or worked to death at the camp during the war, where they were used as slave laborers, building Messerschmitt fighter aircraft in subterranean tunnels.
It's hard to believe there could be someone worse than the Germans and Austrians who kept the camps running, but their grandchildren exceed their predecessors' capacity for cruelty. Attacking concentration camp survivors? At the very camps in which they suffered?
Welcome to enlightened Europe.
Unbelievable.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 12, 2009 07:22 AM
| TrackBack
Comments
Post a comment
during memorial service for 345,000 dead
I sat for a few moments, considering that headline, the depravity of the people who could deliberately target elderly concentration camp survivors for further abuse. It's hard to fathom, but such is the lot of Hitler's victims, forever in the crosshairs of oppressors.
Survivors of a Nazi death camp were shot at and abused as they gathered to remember their liberation.
Masked neo-Nazi thugs screamed 'Heil Hitler!' and 'This way for the gas!' at ten elderly Italian men and women, who returned to the site of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
The gang also fired air guns at a group of 15 French survivors, many dressed in the striped pyjama-style uniforms they wore as inmates. One suffered a head wound while another was injured by a shot in the neck. The four thugs managed to escape.
Jewish leaders in Austria were appalled by the weekend scenes that marred events marking the 64th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by American troops.
More than 320,000 inmates were killed or worked to death at the camp during the war, where they were used as slave laborers, building Messerschmitt fighter aircraft in subterranean tunnels.
It's hard to believe there could be someone worse than the Germans and Austrians who kept the camps running, but their grandchildren exceed their predecessors' capacity for cruelty. Attacking concentration camp survivors? At the very camps in which they suffered?
Welcome to enlightened Europe.
Unbelievable.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 12, 2009 07:22 AM
| TrackBack